1. What is the significance of the
title?
In The Crucible,
the challenges faced by the characters grow more dramatic and losses
become more ruinous as the tension rises. The situation “heats up”,
giving rise to the name of the play, The Crucible.
Characters such as John Proctor and Giles Corey are continually
horrified by the injustices upon the best of their neighbors, such as
Rebecca Nurse, because of the fear created by the incriminating
stories of a few girls. The tests faced by characters are not only
external: they are internal. John Proctor has to mentally battle his
past sin of adultery. Because of this, more pressure is put on him to
be “Christian” as others, like Governor Danforth, interrogate him
in the final scenes of the play. John, not wanting to be
hypocritical, finds it difficult to both unveil the truth about the
supposed witches while not unveiling his past acts. In the end, he
tries to use his act of adultery with Abigail Williams to compromise
the integrity of her testimony against the citizens of Salem. This
event shows how far this war in John's head raged. The problems in
Salem spread because of the unwillingness of those in positions of
authority to attribute mundane happenings to natural causes. Governor
Danforth is unwilling to change his ruling even when supplied with
blunt truths about the accusers, such as the untrustworthiness of the
Thomas Putnam and Abigail stealing Reverend Parris's money.
2. How
does fear fuel conformity?
Throughout
The Crucible, the
townspeople of Salem conform to fear because of social pressures. The
group of girls who accuse others of witchcraft are originally
threatened into that position by Abigail Williams. Abby tells them of
the death of her parents at the hands of natives which gives her a
way to frighten the other girls into obeying her. After this, Abigail
later places the blame on Tituba, a slave from Barbados. Because
Tituba could not defend herself in any way, she admits to signing a
contract with the Devil, but she also names a few others who she saw
with the Devil. She does this because it will lessen the blame on her
by spreading the source of evil onto others. When the group of girls
threatened by Abigail sees this, they name others such as Sarah Good,
Goody Osburn, and Bridget Bishop in order to excuse themselves. This
makes the girls appear as victims of evil instead of as evil-doers.
It creates a shield for them, making them all impervious to future
attacks on their name and integrity. Instead of just admitting to
their actions at the beginning of the play, they throw coal into the
fire of fear and cowardice by spreading the blame. The consequences
for the actions might not have been as extreme for the other
townsfolk if they had just been brave enough to tell the truth. The
fear first placed upon the girls by Abigail Williams erased all
chances of reason prevailing and spread the fear throughout Salem
like leaves spreading the initial sparks of a forest fire.
3. How
does language create reality?
Language
can create a reality when the language is more desirable than the
actual reality. The chain of lies initiated by the girls in Salem
quickly leaves the original truths of the play far behind; it is
forgotten that he girls were dancing in the woods when they shouldn't
have, that characters such as Rebecca Nurse are righteous and
trustworthy, and that Abigail Williams deserted when her goal, being
with John Proctor, was dashed against the rocks with his condemnation
of the authoritative figures of the town. All of these truths are
ignored because their acknowledgment would not be beneficial to
characters such as Danforth, Abigail, Thomas Putnam, and Reverend
Parris. Danforth would not be able to exercise his authoritative
powers to the desired extent if he had taken all the evidence into
consideration. The trials would have been shorter and less important
in written history. Abigail's name would not be “white in the
village” and she would not be able to be with John Proctor if she
had not drawn attention to the oddities that she called witchcraft of
others. Thomas Putnam and Reverend Parris wanted the land and
property of others; they supported the accusations against Giles
Corey and John Proctor because they increased the chances of them
gaining land and wealth. The language supplied by these accusing
characters provided combined with the judicial power of Danforth and
the other judges gave no chance to the characters seeking real
justice and truth. Their language created the reality that they
thought was most beneficial to them.
4. What is the significance of a name?
The value of one's name in The
Crucible is why the characters
choose to either place the blame on others or take the blame. When
Abigail Williams retaliates with the phrase, “My name is white in
the village,” she is indicating the importance she places on her
standing among others. She is willing to accuse innocent bystanders
of crimes punishable by death only to protect her name. All of the
characters in the play who accuse others to excuse themselves show
how they put the value of their own name over the lives of their own
neighbors. Even the people who do not put their names before others
show extreme concern over the defiling of their name; John Proctor is
the example for this. In the final act of the play, John is very
unwilling to physically write down his name to testify of sins that
he did not commit. After being continually informed of the penalty,
which is death, for not signing his name, he signs; but in a
last-second decision, John decides his name is worth more than his
life. He rips up the paper and argues that he judges witness that he
signed the paper was good enough evidence. Rather than be known as a
man who sinned and repented and have the association of evil passed
down through his family, John stands up for himself and defends his
reputation as an honest man. He, like Abigail and the other accusers,
puts a name before a life, but, unlike the accusers who protect their
names by sacrificing others' lives, it is a name that he is
protecting by sacrificing his life.
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