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.
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.
posted by L Lazarow | 5:25 PM
2 Comments:
I found your post very interesting Danielle and it got me thinking about the film we watched today in class.
Words are powerful and dangerous things seeing as how we communicated with them. Words can form alliances between countries, or if misinterpreted can burn bridges long in construction.
However, the point I would like to make is that, when Joseph was giving his speeches he did a few key things I feel get the attention (and obedience) of his audience.
Firstly his tone of voice. He is stern, yet he has subtle reassurance in his voice.
Secondly, his choice of words/speech (of the written variety)
His structure of the paragraph we heard was very interesting to me. He brings a subject. "One Communist" he then proceeds to elaborate more and more with each new sentence. For example, he would say One Communist in........is one communist too many. Then, with each sentence the........would increase in intensity of value. This gradually brings the audience to a frenzy. This is due in part to the third factor.
Inclination of Voice. If I were to say, "Run faster, faster, faster" and with each faster raised the intensity in my voice chances are, you'd run faster, and that’s precisely what Joe McCarthy did.
Yo I'm blogging now!
Anyway, I think in a book dealing mostly with an "invisible crime," words are definitely of significant importance. With God's powers apparently vested in them, Abigail and her friends can name anyone they want to and have them charged as witches. Words become their sole weapon. The end of act one, with the girls desperately naming anyone that comes to mind as a witch, is a sensational and really powerful scene in the play. Words are also the only tool those accused have to help save their lives--Rebecca Nurse isn't a witch one way or the other, but by saying she's a witch, she could be spared her life.
As an aside, I think the term used to describe McCarthy's repetition of the phrase "one communist too many" is anaphora (I'm not that nerdy...it's called Google.). Winston Churchill also used it in his "We Shall Fight on the Beaches" speech during WWII, so it's interesting to note that effective and powerful rhetoric isn't just needed for witch hunts and things we deem as bad-intentioned.
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