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.