Monday, November 20, 2006

The Crucible: Act One

I'm afraid I have not pre-thought my discussion of the first act, so there will be no primo, secundo, tertio, etc. (Matt and his high standards) My ideas are more of a hit-or-miss thing, with me missing a lot. So let's get this started. The first thing I liked about the book thus far is the little tidbits by the author aside from the play placed sporadically, but intelligently, throughout the dialogues. And here my first analysis lies. Though we talked about the Salem witch trials, I think, Miller talks about how it was not a mere repression, it was also a time where people could express publicly his/her guilts and sins by blaming them on someone else. This leads to the scene where HALE comes in and gets ABIGAIL to confess, but she in turn blames TUTUBA for making her do it, then TIBUBA and BETTY blame a string of people. Whether these accusations are true, I do not know; what I do know is that this relates to what Miller said about how it was relieving to confess, in the event that no severe punishment will be put forth. I also see this sort of domino effect of confessing and blaming, which will no doubt continue until someone gets burned at the stakes if I remember correctly.

The only really confusing part to me was the part from pages 33-36. Even though my U.S. History is a little rusty, considering the time period this book was written in, I would have to say that Miller is making some allusions to the persecution of communist (like the witches in Salem) and how they were forced to confess and blamed someone else (as TITUBA, ABIGAIL, and BETTY did) I don't want to stretch Miller's words too far, so I'll stop here to prevent myself from looking more stupid if I'm wrong.

Other than that, this Puritan based play is rather straightforward, if anything Puritan can be thus so.
Sorry no cheap thrills (inside Latin joke); just read the play, it actually pretty good :)


--Dan

12 Comments:

Blogger d said...

I just wanted to add my favorite part of the first act.

"PROCTOR: Sixty, plus six for firewood—
PARRIS: The salary is sixty-six pound, Mr. Proctor! I am not some preaching farmer with a book under my arm; I am a graduate of Harvard College.
GILES: Aye, and well instructed in arithmetic!" Just thought that was a knee-slapper.

Anyway, I hope yee people of Honors English III make more intelligent and productive comments.

--Dan

12:53 AM  
Blogger rachel said...

Dan: In pages 33-36, Miller is directly making comparison to the Communists and persecution. He seems to be trying to show that the events that occurred in Salem were not an isolated event, but in fact a result of a common oppressive attitude of the government. The Soviet Union stripped the people of all of their rights and in Massachusetts (and elsewhere) the theocracy in power imposed certain obligations of citizens. In Act II, Procter is questioned about going to church only 26 times in 17 months (that is about once or twice during the month.) He was expected to go to church even though Elizabeth, Procter’s wife, was ill. These demands, among others would create stress and eventually, the people would act in an unlawful way (according to the government) and when caught, they may blame outside forces. This is an easy way to remove the blame and appear as a victim.

I found it interesting that Betty was coherent enough to know that all of the adults had left the room and was able to get up with such speed. Amazing that no one even noticed her swinging a leg out of the upstairs window when the parishioners were gathering at the nearby church for prayer. What a miracle!

-Rachel

8:20 PM  
Blogger d said...

Though this is the act one post, I'll talk about the thing about Procter only going to church "26 times in 17 months" now since it was brought up. I think that Hale's indirect accusations show the uptight atmosphere of the town. I also feel that Procter's excuses for not going to church are not valid ones. He says that his wife is sick and that he dislikes Parris, but I mean come on, how long is a weekly service anyway. What you can't stay away from a wife (that he doesn't particularly like I might add) for an hour or two when you have a servant to take care of her? (if that's what his real reason for not going to church) I'm not going to lie; I don't particularly like this Procter guy. He is so ignorant about other person's feelings. For example, he is the one that committed ‘adultery’/‘thoughts about it’ and he is all like 'no I wasn't' and 'why aren't you forgiving me?' I mean give me a break; this guy is ridiculous. Cheating on someone is not something you forget, especially when it is with an eighteen-old. Ok… I’m taking this too far, but I still detest him. ARGGH.

8:52 PM  
Blogger d said...

I may have been too quick to judge. As I continue to read, it seems that Proctor(I know how to spell, it's rachel's fault) seems, as I can see, genuinely when he says that he does not have feelings for Abigail anymore and it was a thing of the past. Though I don't hate him as much now, I'm still unsure if he totally understands his mistakes, or now remembers the commandment he forgot.

9:19 PM  
Blogger rachel said...

Dan: I agree that Proctor (I have never been able to spell, but how is it that you were able to spell the name before I blogged and then could not after I blogged?) is a horrible and disgusting man, I do not think that the servant girl (I think it is Mary? I do not have the book in front of me...) is not at all reliable. She gave Elizabeth a doll knowing that there was a needle in it and most likely made the doll for the purpose of accusing Elizabeth. There is the off chance that she may not have done it deliberately, but she did disobey her master (Proctor) and went into town to be involved in the trials. Elizabeth also makes a point of saying that she felt too weak to order the girl around.

In addition, the services may have been only one or two hours, but it was mentioned that he lived five miles away from the town. Most of the day would be lost due to travel. I agree with that he does not seem to like his wife at all though. It does say at the end that it is believed that Abigail became a prostitute in Boston, so I do not think she particularly liked Proctor but instead was manipulating him so that she could feel as if the Puritan church and government did not have control of her life.

-Rachel

10:25 PM  
Blogger SPal1989 said...

I do believe i despise everything Puritan! What is the point of putting Goody in front of every womans name!? I think some womans name actually turns out to be Goody Good. But who cares cause im sure her soul is cleansed and free of evil and sin.

Now along with everyone else, the accusations the girls made at the end of course all lies. Anyone remembers doing this when they were a kid, you got caught doing something that was frowned upon and than to get out of trouble you blamed it on someone else. Tituba, Abby, and Betty get and A for doing such a fantastic job. They just start throwing names out there and of course to all these dumb Puritans they think the children must have been freed.
Rev Hale says "Glory to God! It is broken, they are free!"

Now i have only read the first act at this point and i guarantee you that Abby and Betty will not be persecuted and neither will Tituba (i think trying to conjure spirits and being a black slave might hurt her though)

All these other women and one man i believe will probably be questioned and more and more finger pointing and lying until as one of the bloggers above put it "are burned at the stake!"

Oh golly this is an exciting book already.

And for the record Dan, Proctor is my boy, so who cares if he committed adultery and doesnt go to church, you should definitely be on his side like me.
What about Parris? This guy is such a cry baby! "Oh dont speak of witchcraft yet" He has to learn how to suck it up and realize that his precious Betty is a witch that knows how to play the game right, just point at other people and look like the victim.

Love,
Scott

7:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow. There are a whole lot of accusations going on in the first act. I found it interesting that the elders were openly accusing the children of which craft while the children were trying their best to cover it up by blaming everyone but themselves.

It is amazing to me that Puritinism lasted as long as it did because everyone was accusing blaming each other in addition to making remarks about spirits and going to hell. I'm not sure if this is because this time period is toward the end of Puritanism or if this was the way all Puritans acted.

5:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow. There are a whole lot of accusations going on in the first act. I found it interesting that the elders were openly accusing the children of which craft while the children were trying their best to cover it up by blaming everyone but themselves.

It is amazing to me that Puritinism lasted as long as it did because everyone was accusing blaming each other in addition to making remarks about spirits and going to hell. I'm not sure if this is because this time period is toward the end of Puritanism or if this was the way all Puritans acted.

5:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There are sure a lot of accusations in the Crucible. The men especially were extremely quick to accuse different families of whichcraft. The children who went out into the woods to perform whichcraft, are also quick to blame anyone but themselves.

I do not know how Puritanism was able to last for the period of time that it did due to the way the townsfolk acted. I'm not sure if this was because the which trials were toward the very end anyway, or if this happened the whole time.

5:51 PM  
Blogger Winnie said...

Wondering if anyone had any thoughts on John Proctor and his committment to the Puritan ideals. Committing adultery is clearly a sign that he was not focused on the puritan way. He also fails to go to Church on sundays because he is apparently caught up in work and other less important endeavors. His pride and reputation become more important than helping the court "rid Salem of the devil" and prevent him from accusing Abigail because she would then make their affair a public matter.
All the while ,I can't help but sympathize with Proctor and think of him as a guy who is truly trying to do the right thing morally and religiously. In the end, proctor admits to witchcraft to save his life but then rips up the written statement. He rips it up because of his personal integrity not because of his public reputation. In this way, it seems that Proctor has grown from the experience. But I am still unsure about how his actions were percieved from the Puritan perspective.

4:12 PM  
Blogger Winnie said...

Miller seems to have given the book the title of "The Crucible" for many reasons. A crucible is a melting pot in which metals are heated to separate out the base metals from the valuable ones. This could represent how the witch trials were supposed to cleanse the town of Salem and help the community rid itself of the "undesirables."
A crucible can also be a witch's cauldron where ingredients are brewed together to create black magic.
The fact that a crucible can be viewed as both an aid in creating something that is pure and valuable (the metals) but also an aid in creating evil can represent the actual witch trials. SOme thought that the trials extracted pureness from a community consumed by the devil while others viewed it as a way of spreading evil.
any other thoughts???

9:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i couldn't keep track of the things I meant to say to the posts at the top of the page, so I'm just going to comment on winnie's because I can't make myself read it all again...

In essence you were talking about the couple of ways people viewed the witch trials, extracting the pure people while the the others/town went up in flames up(no pun intended) and on the other hand that the trials spread evil. I think the trials spread evil within the town, and quite honestly still don't even understand how the trials went on in the first place, if you consider the supposed values of the christian religon, and how most everything the people who were in authority did was extreme and in simpler terms, not very nice. As to extracting the pure ones, I don't know if that would be the best phrase for what went on...I think that the trials brought out the evil in everyone, and although there were those who confessed and became "pure in the eyes of God" most of them just created false testimony to get out of jail, and hadn't done anything in the first place. That in turn, from a moral aspect, would seem to create more evil in the town, being that the court was turning out a new batch of liars everyday..even though in the situation they were the only moral ones, the ones who had truly done nothing. Now obviously, I'm talking aobut those who were truly not guilty, not the ones in which the book gave somewhat incriminating evidence against...

6:17 PM  

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