the crucible!?!?

Question

what were putnams motives for asking tituba whether she saw sarah good or osborn in the woods?

Answer 1

he wanted to prove the practice of witchcraft in those particular people.

Answer 2

Read The Whole Trial:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17845/17845-h/salem2-htm.html
Mr. Parris in the early part of November 1691, was at the crisis of his controversy with the inhabitants of Salem Village. The opposition to him had assumed a form which made it quite probable that it would succeed in dislodging him from his position. Events were ripening that were to give him a new & fearful strength, and open a scene in which he was to act a part destined to attract the notice of the world, and become a permanent portion of human history.

The doctrines of "Demonology" had produced their full effect upon the minds of men. The story of the Goodwin children, was known and read in all the dwellings of the land, and filled the imaginations of a credulous age. Deputy-governor Danforth had begun the work of arrests; and persons charged with witchcraft, belonging to neighboring towns, were already in prison.

Mr. Parris appears to have had, in his family, several slaves, probably brought by him from the West Indies. One of these slaves, he calls, in his church-record book, "my ***** lad," had died, a year or two before, at the age of nineteen. Two of them were man and wife. The former was always known by the name of "John Indian; "the latter was called "Tituba."

These two persons may have originated the "Salem witchcraft." They are spoken of as having come from New Spain, as it was then called, The Spanish West Indies, and the adjacent mainlands of Central and South America, and, in all probability, contributed, from the wild and strange superstitions prevalent among their native tribes, materials which, added to the commonly received notions on such subjects, heightened the infatuation of the times, and inflamed still more the imaginations of the credulous.

Judgment of the ministers was quickly made known everywhere. If doubt remained in any mind, it was suppressed by the irresistible power of an overwhelming public conviction. Individuals were lost in the universal fanaticism. Society was dissolved into a wild and excited crowd. Men and women left their fields, their houses, their labors and employments, to witness the awful unveiling of the demoniac power, and to behold the workings of Satan himself upon the victims of his wrath.

Continued pressure upon the "afflicted children,"Who is it that bewitches you?" One after another, they cried out, "Good," "Osburn," "Tituba." On the 29th of February, 1692, warrants were duly issued against those persons.
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YOUR ANSWERS:
Q) Crucible = Vessel, and Credulous = To believe on little evidence, Showing a lack of judgment or experience.
A) The doctrines of "Demonology"

Q) What was Putnams motives for asking tituba whether she saw sarah good or osborn in the woods?
A) Mrs Joseph Hutcheson, Thomas putnam, Edward putnam, and Thomas preston, men of Salem Village, in the County of Essex personally appeared before us, and made Complaint on Behalf of theire Majests against Sarah Good the wife of William Good of Salem Village, "FOR SUSPITION OF WITCHCRAFT"
See Short Trial:
http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/244good.html

THE VERDICT:
Death Warrant for Execution of: Sarah Good, Rebecka Nurse, Elizabeth How, on Tuesday 19'th July 1692.
Location: Essex County Archives, Salem Witchcraft Vol. 2 Page 89
http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=BoySal3.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/oldsalem&tag=public&part=166&division=div2