The Crucible (4 of 4)

Quote 1
“Elizabeth: Great stones they lay upon his chest until he plead aye or nay. With a tender smile for the old man: They say he give them but two words. “More weight,” he says. And died.”
I like this quote because it shows how we think of others in comparison to ourselves. As human beings we tend to look at how others are either better or worse than us. With this, Proctor determines those who don’t speak are better than he, and from that he is willing to confess. While this is true, we see at the end of the book that he is in fact just as good as those around him.

Quote 2:
“... say what you will, but my name cannot—

Danforth, with suspicion: It is the same is it not? If I report it or you sign it?

Proctor—he knows it is insane: No, it is not the same! What others say and what I sign to is not the same!”
I really liked this chapter. It tells a lot about human nature as we see the character of John Proctor be twisted and bent almost until breaking. However, this is a really good point that he brings out. The importance of a name, and the importance of what you sign to. You can say something but if you sign your name, your words are set in stone so to speak. The difference is your identity. Seeing your name on a piece of paper takes what you have meant for others’ ears and reflects it back to you. Proctor cannot handle this in his decision and shudders that others should see it. He therefore later rips the paper and decides to hang, shattering the mirror and breaking the lie he had set in ink.

The Crucible (3 of 4)

Quote 1:
"Francis: We have proof of it, sir. They are all deceiving you.

Danforth is shocked, but studying Francis.

Hathorne: This is contempt, sir, contempt!

Danforth: Peace, Judge Hathorne. Do you know who I am, Mr. Nurse?

Francis: I surely do, sir, and I think you must be a wise judge to be what you are.

Danforth: And do you know that near to four hundred are in jails from Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature?

Francis: I—

Danforth: And seventy-two condemned to hang by that signature?"

Here we see the weight that Danforth has upon his shoulders. If he accepts that he has been deceived, all that he has done had been done wrongly. It makes sense that he is then so resistant to the idea, but this weight makes him blind to that truth and we see him dismiss good evidence for pointless reasons because of this.



Quote 2:
"Giles, faltering: I cannot give you no name, sir, I cannot"

Here we see a grammar I am used to hearing. Double negatives. I love these! They are so much fun to use when it makes a positive but few catch this and it is interesting to see how they have become so apart of our culture that they are taken as a single negative.

The Crucible (2 of 4)

Quote 1:
"Mary Warren: ... I only hope you'll not be so sarcastical no more. Four judges and the King's deputy sat to dinner with us but an hour ago. I —I would have you speak civilly to me, from this out.

Proctor, in horror, muttered in disgust at her: Go to bad.

Mary Warren, with a stamp of her foot: I'll not be ordered to bed no more, Mr. Proctor! I am eighteen and a woman, however single!"

Here we see what power does to a person, even if it is very little. Here Mary Warren is simply respected as a fairly high person in court. When that is suddenly taken away from her in the Proctor house, she stands up with her new found pride and demands it... and gets it. Once a person has been given a freedom or a strength, they cannot bare to live without it. We can see this in ourselves as we get older. Imagine how you would act if you were told to do something you hadn't done since you were a child. I have confronted this in my own life in the past and I, as I am sure we all do, naturally retaliate and demand to be respected as an older person, even if the cause is small. It is very interesting to watch her act as we all so often do... and get away with it.




Quote 2:
"Hale: No, no, I have no—

Proctor: I nailed the roof upon the church, I hung the door—

Hale: Oh, did you! That's a good sign then."

Here we can see how piety in Salem is based off of works and not a true relationship with God or a maturity in spirit. This explains why things went so wrongly. As human beings we are going to fall and do bad, resulting in "evidence" for a case if one is brought upon a person. People can easily point out the human flaws within each person's life and condemn them to a hanging.

The Crucible (1 of 4)

Quote 1:

"Betty: I'll fly to mama. Let me fly! She raises her arms as though to fly, and streaks from the window, gets one leg out.

Abigail, pulling her from the window: ..."(p18)

It is parts of the story like this one that intrigue me most. It keeps the audience guessing as to how real all of this witchcraft stuff is in the story. As a magician I see that crave within an audience to witness magic, and this constant unknowing of whether or not the magic is real, or the girls are just delusional keeps and audience on the edge of their seat, not able to wait for what happens next. Just seeing or reading of someone stepping out of a second story window without falling appeals strongly to the audiences imagination and forces them to invest their hopes into this story while at the same thing investing it into the wrong side. The audience knows that if Betty truly can fly then the group of girls with surely be hung, but that human want for flight is something an audience member can't help but wish for. With this it adds a nice complexity in the emotions of the audience.

Quote 2:

"Hale, grasping Abigail: Abigail, it may be your cousin is dying. Did you call the Devil last night?

Abigail: I never called him! Tituba, Tituba"(40)

Okay, I know this is small, but the real ness of the characters is amazing in this story. They are strange, but they still feel real. Often in stories the characters don't follow simple human psychology nor think like a human would, but in this story we see time and time again that even though some characters are bewitched, each one has a backstory and acts as a human would off of that past experience. Each character is explained as to the essence of their past and the effect that past has put on that character. The character then acts off of that as they would. It is simple human nature to point to someone else and to hide the truth. Again from my magic experience, there are a few ways, if someone takes a quarter behind their back, then puts it into one hand, then places both of them right in front of you to tell which one it is. If you can't tell by other means, you can ask them to cross their arms and almost every time they will place the quarter underneath the other arm, trying to hide the truth. This is a simple example of human nature and we see things like this ring true with each character. On top of this each one has a good and bad side to them so you are constantly unsure of which one is the "good guy" if you will. It is nice to see a work that has taken such time with developing every character within the story.