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Crucible

Crucible. Act Four. Act 3 Wrap Up. Gather into groups so all the focus questions are represented, six people in a group Read your paragraphs to each other. After each paragraph is read, please add any other comments/kernels of insight that any of you might have with the group.

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Crucible

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  1. Crucible Act Four

  2. Act 3 Wrap Up • Gather into groups so all the focus questions are represented, six people in a group • Read your paragraphs to each other. After each paragraph is read, please add any other comments/kernels of insight that any of you might have with the group. • Feel free to jot down page numbers and other notes if you want. • We can spend no more than 20 mins on this activity!

  3. Act Four-Start • 1. What is the significance of the scene between Herrick and the accused witches? What seems to be going on with Tituba? • 2. What state is the town of Salem in according to Cheever? What is happening in Andover? What does the news of what is happening in Andover have to do with the trials in Salem? • 3. What updates do we learn from Parris? About Parris? How is he doing ? What does he fear?

  4. Readers-to page 140 • Hale (lg) • Danforth (lg) • Proctor (lg) • Herrick (md) • Parris (md) • Elizabeth (md) • Hathorne (sm) • Rebbeca (xsm)

  5. Examining Hale & catch-22 • Why do Hale, Parris, and the judges still want those who have not to confess? (The reasons might differ between them). • Are readers supposed to respect Hale? Explain. • Find two quotes that illustrate Danforth’s sense of “justice” in Act 4 and explain why they are, no doubt, frustrating. • What does Elizabeth really want Proctor to do?

  6. Proctor Why he should confess Why he should not confess Does Proctor’s choice ultimately change the witch trials? Why did they end?

  7. Why Proctor is chosen • His reputation • There is crisis in nearby areas so a statement needs to be made • His position and qualities (not perfect, smart, catch 22) • Parris, “for if he bring even one of these to God (Rebecca, Proctor), that confession surely damns the others in the public eye, and none may doubt more than they are all linked to Hell. This way, unconfessed and claiming innocence, doubts are multiplied and many honest people will weep for them.” • Paris says later about John, “It is a weighty name; it will strike the village that Proctor confess.”

  8. Why he should confess and sign the statement: • It is a seemingly small thing to do to save his life. It is a pretense if he dies a martyr with Rebecca since he is actually a sinner but not the sin of witchery. • “I cannot mount the gibbet like a saint”(137). • “Let Rebecca go like a saint; for me it is fraud!”(139). • He is already a sinner. • “Nothing’s spoiled by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before”(137) • Wants to live. • “I will have my life”(139).

  9. Why he should not do it: • “Spite keeps me silent…It is hard to give a lie to dogs” (137). • “Why do you cry it? It is evil is it not? It is evil”(139). • He knows Elizabeth would not give them the lie • He wants to protect his reputation, but can’t be since he revealed the affair. Wants to redeem himself. • He won’t let this affect more than just him and his fate. Danforth explains that “for the good instruction of the village, Mister; this we shall post upon the church door!”(140). • Proctor responds, "I cannot judge another. I have no tongue for it” and then “I have confessed myself, isn’t that enough?....You will not use me!... I John Proctor…how may I teach my children to walk like men in the world and I sold my friend? Beguile me not! I blacken all of them when this is nailed to the church the very day they hang for silence!”(142-144).

  10. Wrap- Up • He basically says, say what you will about me, but my name cannot be used to tarnish others… “It is my name and I cannot have another in my life….I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” • He won’t let them have the signed confession, and he sacrifices his chance at life so that his name can’t be used to justify this injustice. (“I can [hang]…for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor.”) • “He has his goodness now” (146). • Also worth noting, in real life the witch trials essentially ended after accused people of weighty significance hanged without confessing. Their sacrifice finally allowed some light to be shed on the illogic of the courts.

  11. Danforth-The court’s justice vs. Proctor’s Goodness • Those who die in this Act become martyrs. Giles, Proctor, Martha, and Rebecca • Actually, these people didn’t die on the same day in history, let’s look at the appendix.

  12. Martyr/American Tragic Hero? What is a martyr? • Definition: a person who sacrifices something of great value (especially life itself) for the sake of principle What uniquely American values might Proctor represent? • Individualism • Freedom of Expression • Justice What does the Witchery Court symbolize? • Corrupt government (esp. tragic bc/ precursor to American government based on traits above). Both the theocracy the Puritans created and the HUAC committee during the Red Scare • Ponder this-Is Proctor a Tragic Hero according to Aristotle’s definition (more on this soon)?

  13. Remember, this is an historical allegory • Miller’s goal is to drawn inferences between the “red scare” in America and the witch trials in Salem. He can clearly see the injustice and Catch-22s in both instances. • Perhaps not quite as grave since the punishments were mostly blacklisting and jail, those during Miller’s time who were accused of being communists were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t (confess and name names). So what to do, protect thyself at all costs or martyr yourself to defend the cause • In fact, Miller’s best friend EliaKazan decided to name names, resulting in a number of black listed individuals, and this act saved himself and allowed him to prosper without much competition. Miller refused to name names and Proctor is essentially Miller’s response to what his friend did.

  14. Power of Emotions • “The concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear” -Edmund Burke • “Knowledge is the antidote for fear” -Ralph Waldo Emerson • “I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature; and that power, whether vested in many or a few , is ever grasping, and, like the grave cries, ‘Give, give!’” -Abigail Adams

  15. Hwk: • 1. Socratic Qs (mon) • 2. Crucible Final Quiz (Tues/Wed). It is Act 3-4 and 30 MC Questions • 3. Puritan Project! Draft/Notes due Tues/Wed in class

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