Film vs Play

Probably the most obvious difference between the play and the movie is that the movie has a greater ability to show what's going on. It's an inherent limitation of a stage play, but one of the great strengths of film: you can jump all over the place. Scenes which played out with lots of dialog in static locations, now take place in varied circumstances. Events merely explained or hinted to, are now shown in full. The dramatic possibilities are infinitely greater.

That said, the play does have some strengths. Now, I've never seen the play performed myself, so I can't comment on how it holds up there, but the film version suffers from what I guess you'd call "overdrama." Every three seconds people are screaming and screaming and running around like the world's about the end. The play, to me, was most impressive because the plot kept moving forward almost without you thinking about it. It was a silent evil. The movie version seems to stutter along from crisis to crisis, to the point of stretching believability. Even the editing seems to suffer from the same problem. The movie has excellent cinematography and a great cast of actors, but the editing doesn't bring it out. The job of an editor is to bring out the best of what's given to you. The movie, essentially, cuts too much, it never let's up for a moment and that adds to the jarring nature of it.

Maybe that's what they were going for.

-- Matthew

Power of the Spoken/Written Word -- Danielle

I finally mustered up the energy to make a post about The Crucible... the night before a vocab test.

Anyway, I wanted to comment on a common theme in The Crucible: the power of words. Because we're an Honors English class, I think it's fair to assume that all would agree that words, both written and spoken, possess great power.

Abigail and the other "bewitched" girls' accusations of witchcraft are a prime example of the power words possess; accusations against women formerly considered "covenanted Christians" are accepted with little debate. This is probably the most obvious example of the power of words.

A more subtle example is seen on pages 46-48. When questioning Tituba about witchcraft, Hale, Putnam, and Parris used the power of suggestion to obtain her confession of witchcraft as well as her condemnation of various women as witches. It reminds me of a rule in trials: a witness's lawyer is not allowed to ask them "leading questions" -- questions that contain suggestions of a desired answer. It's no mistake that the first two women that Tituba and Abigail accuse of witchcraft are the first two women named by Putnam.

"HALE: When the Devil comes to you does he ever come--with another person? [...] Perhaps another person in the village? Someone you know?
PARRIS: Who came with him?
PUTNAM: Sarah Good? Did you ever see Sarah Good with him? Or Osburn?

[...]

TITUBA: And I look--and there was Goody Good [with the Devil].
PARRIS: Sarah Good!
TITUBA, rocking and weeping: Aye, sir, and Goody Osburn.

(After a few more lines, Abigail decides to join in on the fun)


ABIGAIL: I want to open myself! [...] I want the sweet love of Jesus! I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the devil!"


These are the only examples I have right now, but I was wondering if anyone else thought the power of words could be a theme of The Crucible.

the crucible = ?

According to Merriam-Webster Online, crucible means:
1 : a vessel of a very refractory material (as porcelain) used for melting and calcining a substance that requires a high degree of heat
2 : a severe test
3 : a place or situation in which concentrated forces interact to cause or influence change or development

#1... we'll just ignore that one for now...
#2. I think the play is portraying a test for the village of Salem. There are two aspects to this test:
a. Spiritual
b. Social
It's pretty obvious how the spiritual aspect plays in; it's basically the village against the devil (runnin with the devilllll.... sorry). So, we can say the puritans of Salem are being tested by God to withstand the forces of evil.
Part b is a little more subtle. I believe that the witch trials will test the endurance if you will of the village. As you may have noticed, the witch trials put a lot of strain on relationships and friendships. This is evidenced by Proctor's argument with Elizabeth and the disputes between Giles and Parris and Proctor and Putnam over payment and land ownership.
So as you can see, this is a very crucial time for Salem to see if the villagers/townspeople are willing to endure the trials while still maintaining a semblance of friendship.

#3. This definition is especially true because a small group of people (Hale and the girls) influenced greatly the mindset of Salem. They ripped the town up into a religious bloodthirsty fervor that sought for any shadow of a shred of evidence of witchcraft. This is evidenced by how Abigail, Betty, and the other girls blindly throw out names and those names were immediately brought under question.

Alright, I've given dictionary definitions... does anyone have any other definitions or any other instances where these are true?