Giles Corey

(First off I downloaded and read the playwright of The Crucible as a PDF form. I like to read more than watch movies.) “Great stones they lay upon his chest until he plead aye or nay. They say he give them but two words. "More weight," he says. And died.” In this passage from The Crucible the author describes the size of the stones as “great stones” by doing this he is trying to help the reader understand how heavy and big these stones really were. The author then goes on to say “they lay (them) upon his chest until he plead aye or nay.” With this Arthur Miller is bringing an image to our minds of a man who has been accused of witchcraft and if he denies the claims then they would have hung him. So either way he really was screwed. As punishment for the accusation he is having heavy stones placed on his chest until he dies because of it. This was a very common torture tactic. It would be a slow and painful death. In the next part of the passage it says “They say he give them but two words. “More weight,” he says. And died.” With this Arthur is trying to bring to our minds the image of Giles Corey a man who refused to claim he was a part of witchcraft when he was not so instead he chose to just be crushed to death. That has to be a very strong thing to do because most people would just admit to witchcraft to avoid the slow death such as having large stones placed on your chest vs. being hung which would be a quicker death in most cases.

            I chose this passage because it was a great way to show that Giles was the same old guy when he was alone as when he was in public. By refusing to just admit to witchcraft in order to have a swift death he chose to stand up and not stoop to the level that everyone else was doing by admitting to doing something they didn’t do just so they could receive a quicker death. By Giles saying “More weight” before he died it showed resilience, strength, and dedication to what he believed was right by not taking the easy way out and selling himself when he didn’t do anything. 

Judgement

What I find most interesting about The Crucible is how something like religion, something thought to give people meaning/purpose  in life and bring a society together but instead turns into something so ugly.  In Salem there is no private matters everything is pretty much made public, so it is hard to for anyone to be seen as an individual.  Having such strong beliefs opens the door for judgement for anything that goes against "social norms".  Killing anyone that is accused of witchcraft is a way to restore the social standard or as seen with Abigail used for personal goals.
I feel this book brings up the fact that most people rely on how the public or their peers view them, people will go to great lengths to maintain their reputation. In some cases like in the book maintaining one's reputation means destroying someone else's.
One aspect to learn from John is that perhaps the we shouldn't be afraid of the truth even though it isn't socially acceptable like his adultery with Abigail.  People will judge you no matter what but it is worse to be judged on false accusations.

The Drama Causer

Abigail Williams is the niece of Reverend Parris.  Abigail's social identity is her promiscuity.  Especially in the beginning when we read about the first interaction in the book with John Proctor.  Abigail says, "She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! She is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her.." She blames the situation on Goody Proctor, John Proctor's wife, but takes no responsibility in the role she played in her previous relationship with John Proctor. During this scene she approaches John a lot and tries to pressure him into giving in to his feelings for her instead of being faithful to his wife. Based on what she said she is looking bad in most social situations because of her open disregard for John Proctor's marriage.  Her individual identity compliments her social identity with her assertiveness.  In this scene she tries to control her relationship with John Proctor by bringing up their past and being suggestive. She says,” I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I come near.” The language she uses with him is inappropriate for an unmarried 17 year old girl to be talking to a married man.  She is very firm in what she thinks and believes especially in the case of what happened between her and John Proctor.  She is very assertive in the way she argues with him that they had touched before.  Abigail is sly in many ways and she knows how to perform in order to get people to think what she wants them to.

Reverend Hale

In the Crucible, Reverend Hale (John Hale) is a witch hunter that was called in by Parris to examine his daughter, Betty. He enters in Act I with his stack of books for witchcraft. Over his course in the book, his character transforms more than any other character. He believes that John Proctor and Mary Warren are telling the truth while on the other hand he thinks Abigail is lying. When the time came for the trials, it was too late for Reverend Hale to help because it was no longer in his hands but rather in the hands of Danforth and theocracy. In his failures to help them made him feel down. His belief in witchcraft fades and so does his faith in the law. He is the one who told the accused witches to lie in order for them to save themselves. Hale realizes that the witch trials are evil and shouldn’t exist.

            Reverend Hale’s character stands out the most for me in this story. We learn that he has the ability to understand the accused witches and see that they are truly innocent and shouldn’t be held accountable. His character changed over the course of the story. The once witch hunter now believes it is wrong to kill innocent women. 

Mandrake Root and White Myrtle

        Abigail Williams is, frankly, a little witch (though not in the way the Salem citizens view the term). In Act Two, Scene 2 (the scene in the Appendix), she really shows her true colors and what, exactly, her ‘identity’ is within this text. In fact, through this scene, the reads can see both her individual and social identity.

            The first would be her individual identity. She paints herself to be nothing more than a victim. The saddest thing is, however, she really seems to believe herself to be entirely preyed upon. We see her delusional mind in two places here: first, when she complains that she “ought be given Godly looks when [she] suffer for them as [she] do” (149). This sounds just like something the famous Ebony Way stated once in My Immortal. She is complaining that men find her attractive, and more than that she’s comparing her appearance to that of God’s, which is probably a huge NO-NO for these people. The second peek into her psych comes from when she pulls her dress up to show Proctor her ‘wounds.’ When she finishes speaking, Proctor’s next line is started with a stage-direction that says, “seeing her madness now” (149). This direction implies that there is nothing there. There are no “holes from…damned needles and pins” (149). It’s in her head, and Proctor realizes this; after this, he goes on to try to catch her in her delusion.

            Her social identity does partial come from the point made before, that Proctor sees her as crazed and lying b…witch, but she continues to show her true self throughout the rest of the scene. Basically, her entire reason for spewing lies (as well as likely making herself actually believe them) is because she’s jealous. She wants Proctor to herself, and hates that he’s married. She will do anything to make him hers. She wants his wife hanged for witchcraft. She even says “I will make you such a wife when the world is white again” (150). The problem is however, she got herself all wrapped up and confused, thus slipping up. When Proctor tells her that his wife is going to be tried the next day, she acts like she wasn’t entirely aware of it. This does not match her previous statement about being with him once everything was good. Having said that implied that she knew that Mrs. Proctor was on her way to being “gone.” Abigail is a squirmy-slippery-worm that has both a nasty individual identity as well as a social one (even if only Proctor sees it).  

          Oh, and a side note that I found to be interesting…The witch in the first Witcher is named Abigail. Only now do I know that it’s a reference to the actual Salem Witch Trials.

  

           

The Witch in All of Us

The intro to The Crucible was very well written.  Within the first few paragraphs, as Salem is being described, it is said, "To the European world the whole province was a barbaric frontier inhabited by a sect of fanatics...".  To me this is a great line of foreshadowing.  The people of Salem have a strong social identity of being hard working, religious followers.  They try to represent themselves as the best of the best, fine people.  However, when accusations begin, the town collapses on itself.  In a truly barbaric way, it becomes a battle of words and belief.  It is later written: "The witch-hunt was not, however, a mere repression.  It was also, and as importantly, a long overdue opportunity for everyone so inclined to express publicly his guilt and sins, under the cover of accusations against the victims.".  The population of Salem revealed their true identities during this time.  Built-up feelings, not expressed due to their deep beliefs, could finally run free towards anyone.  It is as if these people saw it improper to show feelings.  We all know so well though, this cannot lead to anything positive.  The Salem Witch Trials were a devastating time in history that proved what a mindset and crowd mentality can do.

A Blockade In Identity

In the Crucible, Abigail and her friends were in the forest one night dancing around a fire when Reverend Parris saw them. Towards the middle of the first act, Abigail shows panic as she tries to convince her friends to lie to everyone despite the rumors of witchcraft. Her length goes as far as slapping Betty after Betty states that Abigail drank blood to charm Proctor’s wife into death. This a good example of how secrets at the personal level can affect a group of people. In this certain situation, the friends danced and wished for the death of John Proctor’s wife, yet accusations are being thrown of witchcraft. Abigail’s personal identity is interrupted by her social identify because of these acts. She went out with a group of friends and did something that isn’t completely horrid, but now her personal identity has to pay the consequences. In this case, at worst, a hanging. I can go further and express how socially determined decisions (which can be compared to peer pressure, of a sort) can affect one’s life at a personal level. Here, Abigail must confess or lie. If she confesses, she will be whipped and humiliated; if not, she may be caught in a lie which will force everyone’s believe towards witchcraft and she will be hung. Other members of Abigail’s clan are convinced that they should speak the truth, but Abigail’s personal identity stands in the way of her making this logical decision with her friends. Furthermore, on the reverse end of my previous statement, personal identities can stand in the way of social identities as well. 

A Misjudged Woman

Salem is a little town where everyone knows everyone and there are no secrets. But like in any small town there can be trouble in paradise. Elizabeth Proctor happened to be a victim in this town. After horrible accusations that were brought against her by a younger girl. These accusations were that she was working with or worshiping the devil. Elizabeth was a good woman who worshiped God and would do anything for her husband, John Proctor. The reason that Abigail brought such a horrible act upon Elizabeth that could be punished by death was because of her relationship with her husband, John Proctor.  Reputation was a huge factor in this novel and played a part in the outcome. Elizabeth was known as a faithful and a religious woman. Not once was she ever thought to do the unspeakable that would go against everything she loved. This was all the act of a wicked child that wanted to get the wife out of the way so she could have her love affair with Mr. Proctor. After the accusations were said things changed for Elizabeth. She was arrested along with other women who are falsely accused. The people were starting to believe what the girls said instead of Elizabeth and the other women. Life seemed to turn upside down for Elizabeth Proctor and there seemed to be no end in sight.

A Jury of Her Peers

In A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell, I think that the sheriffs’ wife, Mrs. Peters, had a hard time being herself and following her instincts because she is married to the sheriff and therefore ‘the law’. In this book, there is a strong sense of male dominance, and I feel like not only Mrs. Wright felt this, but also Mrs. Peters. The men usually laughed at what the women thought, so when they found evidence they decided not to share it with the men. Mrs. Peters understood what Mrs. Wright was going through because she mentioned how she knows what stillness is, which is what they believe Mrs. Wright was experiencing. (99). The problem is that she knows about this stillness but then immediately following she reminds Mrs. Hale of the law and how they must obey it. I think Mrs. Peters feels trapped by her marriage with the sheriff. It is one thing to feel stillness in a relationship. It is another when she is constantly reminded that she must act a certain way because it is right by the law and her husband. They did not share the information because they are sympathetic to Mrs. Wright, in the sense that they understand the feeling of stillness. Mrs. Wright had hope with this animal, but when her husband took that hope away is when she had nothing to lose. I think that Mrs. Peters went against the law and with held information against her husband not only because he wouldn’t believe the women’s theories, but to stand up to him and be herself, and also to support Mrs. Wright because they understand her situation.