The Crucible

Name: __________________________________

Ms. Marcum English III

The Crucible

.

Theme in Fiction

People who think and write about literature define theme in two ways. Theme is sometimes compared to a topic in an essay. In this sense, theme is one or more of ideas that keep coming up in the story or play. In The Crucible, the idea of deception comes up many times. When we read and think about the play, we have the opportunity to think about the theme of deception, about the kinds of deception as well as the causes and effects of deception. Below, I have reproduced one reader’s list of themes (ideas that keep coming up) in The Crucible:

Themes:

Pride - John does not want to sign the confession because he would loose his pride and good name.

Revenge - The girls and the accusers were naming people whom they did not like and wanted to harm them.

Fear - Fear of the devil allowed the witch trials to go on.

Conflict of authority - Danforth felt the law should be followed exactly, and that anyone who opposed the trials was trying to undermine him and his authority and the church.

Puritan Ethics - They believed lying and adultery were horrible sins.

Self interest - They were looking out for their own lives and took whatever actions necessary to save themselves.

Honesty- Elizabeth was "not able to tell a lie".

http://www.bellmore-merrick.k12.ny.us/crucible.html

Theme is also compared to the thesis of an essay. In this sense, theme is the main point of the story or play. A reader might argue that the theme of The Crucible is that life without integrity (without living up to one’s moral values) is not worth living (so John Proctor refuses to lie to save his life, knowing that if he lied, his lie would not only ruin his reputation but the reputations of people who chose not to lie, Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey). It is difficult, however, to reduce a play like The Crucible to a single point. For one thing, people are likely to disagree about what that single point might be; in addition, to claim that The Crucible is reducible to a single point is to treat the play as a fable or parable, a simple story that teaches a moral or lesson.

In summary, theme, can be used in two senses:

a main or unifying idea of a story

or

the point (moral, lesson) of a story.

Because we read (in this class) complicated stories that cannot be reduced to a single point, when we talk about theme in this class, we are talking about a main or unifying idea of a story. When we talk about the theme of a play (or story) we are talking about what the play (or story) says about one of the main ideas of the play (or story).

Plot in Fiction

“Plot is the arrangement of the incidents in the story.”

--Aristotle

When we study the plot of a story, whether the story takes the form of an epic, a short story, a novel, or a play, we are concerned with the things that happen that move the story forward. The story’s plot is the arrangement of those things that move the story forward—the “incidents.” The stage version of The Crucible and the movie version of The Crucible differ slightly in the selection and arrangement of the incidents in the story and, as a result, have slightly different plots. The stage version begins with Betty at home in bed after the dancing in the woods; the movie version begins with Betty (and Abigail) sneaking out of the house prior to the dancing in the woods. The plot, as the selection and arrangement of the incidents, determines the focus of the story. In analyzing plot, we are concerned with the chain of cause and effect relationships among the incidents: how A leads to B and B leads to C and C leads to D, etc.

(Many stories depend upon and therefore refer to events that lay outside the plot, events that occur prior to the incident with which the story commences. In the case of The Crucible, John Proctor’s affair with Abigail is an event that takes place prior to the play’s commencement and is, strictly speaking, an event that takes place outside the plot. What is/are the result(s) of not including these incidents in the plot?)

People who analyze plots sometimes sort the incidents along Freytag’s Pyramid:

Precipitating Incident: the first incident of the plot; Rising Action: the incidents that develop the conflict in the plot; Climax: the final pivotal incident in the plot (the final turning point); Falling Action: the incidents that resolve the conflict in the plot; Resolving Incident: the final incident of the plot (Note: sometimes the Falling Action and Resolving Incident coincide). Note: the part of the story during which the background information is given is called the Exposition. This typically occurs early in the story.

Characterization in Fiction

“What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character”

–Henry James

Character

Characters are people-like creations made out of words. In creating characters, writers offer us information about a character’s appearance, thoughts, feelings, interests, values, temperament, judgment, moral character, health, life history, present situation, and behavior that we use our imagination and prior experience—from past reading and from life—to assemble into a unified human-like being that plays a part in the story.

Character: Construction

Writers present information about characters though commentary, which is also called “exposition” (what the author or narrator states directly about the characters), physical description, thought and feeling, speech, action, and symbolic association. In addition, in drama, information about characters may be given in stage directions.

Characters: Major and Minor

The major characters are those featured prominently in the story, the characters we get to know up close and whose fates we care about. The minor characters are lodged, for the most part, in the background. They are sometimes important but we don’t know them as well as the major characters and the story is less concerned with how things turn out for them. In The Crucible, John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, Abigail Williams, Judge Danforth, Reverend Hale, Reverend Parris, Mary Warren, and perhaps Giles Corey and Rebecca Nurse are major characters; the others are minor characters.

Characters: Simple (flat) and Complex (round)

Characters may be simple, with limited motive and action, such as those in children’s literature (e.g., the tortoise “The Tortoise and the Hare”) or those in adult literature with minor roles (e.g., Cheever in The Crucible) or characters may be complex, with deep-rooted and conflicting motives and complicated and far ranging actions, such as those in adult literature with major roles (e.g., John Proctor in The Crucible).

Characters: Static (unchanging) and Dynamic (changing)

When we read a story, we often find that some characters remain essentially the same while other characters change. The key word is “essentially.” A static character’s appearance or age may change or but those elements at the character’s core remain essentially (basically) the same. Some characters remain the same because they are minor characters with a limited function (e.g., Cheever arrests people); some major characters remain essentially the same because of an inertia (a resistance to change) that results from a balance of conflicting forces (e.g., Judge Danforth). When we analyze character, we are typically most interested in understanding why some complex characters remain the same while others change.

Type

Simple Character

Complex Character

Static Character

Cheever

Judge Danforth

Dynamic Character

John Proctor

Characters: Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonist is the main character, the character at the center of the story, the one whose actions and fate the story is most concerned with. John Procter is the protagonist in The Crucible. The antagonist is the character (the antagonist can also be an animal or force of nature) in conflict with or prominently opposed to the protagonist. A protagonist may have more than one antagonist or, in the case where the protagonist’s conflict or struggle is inside his or herself, no antagonist.

Characters: Foils

A foil is a character whose values and behavior stand in sharp contrast with another character. In The Crucible, Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams are each other’s foils.

Character: Motivation

In understanding what motivates or drives a character, there are three important questions to consider: (1) what does the character want?; (2) what is preventing the character from having what he/she wants?; and (3) what will it cost the character to pursue or acquire what he/she wants?

The Crucible: The Cast of Characters (in order of appearance)

Directions: Record what you learn about each character and where and how you learn it.

Character Notes

What I Learned

Where and How I Learned It

Reverend Samuel Parris

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

Betty Parris

1

2

1

2

Tituba

1

2

3

1

2

3

Abigail Williams

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

John Proctor

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Elizabeth Proctor

1

2

3

4

5

6

1

2

3

4

5

6

Susanna Walcott

1

1

Mrs. Ann Putnam

1

2

3

1

2

3

Thomas Putnam

1

2

3

1

2

3

Mercy Lewis

1

1

Mary Warren

1

2

3

1

2

3

Rebecca Nurse

1

2

3

1

2

3

Giles Corey

1

2

3

1

2

3

Reverend John Hale

1

2

3

4

5

1

2

3

4

5

Francis Nurse

1

2

1

2

Ezekiel Cheever

1

1

Marshal Herrick

1

2

1

2

Martha Corey

1

2

1

2

Deputy Governor Danforth

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Girls of Salem

1

1

Sarah Good

1

1

Plot: Cause and Effect Worksheet

Reason for/Cause of Incident

Incident

Effect of Incident

The girls and Tituba practice witchcraft while in the woods

Betty can’t be awoken by the doctor

Parris sends for Reverend Hale, an authority on witchcraft

Proctor comes to town to investigate the rumor of witchcraft

Proctor tells Abigail that they never touched

Rebecca Nurse urges Parris to send Reverend Hale away and look to natural causes for the girls illnesses

Tituba confesses to being a witch

Tituba accuses Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne of being witches

Abigail confesses to being in the service of the devil

Elizabeth tells Proctor to tell the court there was no witchcraft, but Proctor resists

Elizabeth tells Proctor that “there is a promise made in any bed”

Hale visits the Proctors

Elizabeth is arrested

Proctor takes Mary Warren to court to testify there was no witchcraft

Judge Danforth questions Proctor’s motives

Mary Warren tries to faint but cannot

Proctor tells Danforth that he committed the crime of lechery with Abigail

Elizabeth lies about the reason she dismissed Abigail

Mary Warren accuses Proctor of being a witch

Hale quits the court

Danforth, Parris, and Hale ask Elizabeth to persuade Proctor to confess

Proctor signs his confession

Proctor tears up his confession

Elizabeth refuses to ask Proctor to reconsider

Elizabeth says that Proctor has found his goodness

Directions: Identify the speaker and explain the significance of that line in terms of that moment in the play or the play overall.

No.

Page

Line

Speaker

Significance

01

You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor.

02

But I will cut off my hand before I ever reach for you again.

03

There is a prodigious danger in the seeking out of loose spirits.

04

You think that is god’s work that you should never lose a child and I bury all but one?

05

Why, then, I must find it and join it.

06

I mean to crush him utterly if he has shown his face.

07

You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to your death.

08

It’s winter in here yet.

09

I do not judge you. The magistrate that sits in your heart judges you.

10

I never knew before. I never knew anything before.…I remembered everything she done to me.

11

I must tell you , sir, I will be gone every day now. I am amazed you do not see what mighty work we do.

12

Adultery, John.

13

Herrick, Herrick, it is a needle.

14

Come now. You say your only purpose is to free your wife. Good then, she is saved at least this year, and a year is long…will you drop this charge?

15

But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it. There will be no road between.

16

Do that which is good and no harm will come to thee.

17

I cannot give you his name.

18

It is a whore.

19

No, sir.

20

You will confess yourself or you will hang.

21

My niece, sir, my niece, -I believe she has vanished.

22

Postponement means a floundering on my part.

23

Suspicion kissed you when I did.

24

There will be no higher judge under heaven than Proctor is.

25

Let Rebecca go like a saint, for me it is a fraud.

26

I am John Proctor! You will not use me!

27

And there’s your first marvel, that I can. You have made your magic now for I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor.

28

He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it away from him!

Literary Elements: Elements of Drama

#

Term or Element

Definition (from text glossary or handout)

Example(s) from The Crucible (where possible)

01

Drama

02

Tragedy

03

Comedy

04

Dialogue

05

Stage Directions

06

Setting

07

Plot

08

Plot: Exposition

09

Plot: Precipitating Incident

10

Plot: Rising Action

11

Plot: Climax

12

Plot: Falling Action/Resolution

13

Plot: Resolving Incident

14

Conflict: Internal

15

Conflict: External

16

Character: Flat

17

Character: Round

18

Character: Static

19

Character: Dynamic

20

Character: Motive

21

Character: Protagonist

22

Character: Antagonist

23

Character: Foil

24

Foreshadowing

25

Irony

26

Theme

Name: __________________________________________

Date: ____________

Notes on Characters

What does Abigail want?

What is preventing Abigail from having what she wants?

What will Abigail do to get what she wants?

What will it cost Abigail to get what she wants?

What will happen to Abigail if she gets what she wants?

Does what Abigail wants change? If so, why?

What does Paris want?

What is preventing Paris from having what he wants?

What will Paris do to get what he wants?

What will it cost Paris to get what he wants?

What will happen to Paris if he gets what he wants?

Does what Paris wants change? If so, why?

What does Proctor want?

What is preventing Proctor from having what he wants?

What will Proctor do to get what he wants?

What will it cost Proctor to get what he wants?

What will happen to Proctor if he gets what he wants?

Does what Proctor wants change? If so, why?

What does Elizabeth want?

What is preventing Elizabeth from having what she wants?

What will Elizabeth do to get what she wants?

What will it cost Elizabeth to get what she wants?

What will happen to Elizabeth if she gets what she wants?

Does what Elizabeth wants change? If so, why

What does Hale want?

What is preventing Hale from having what he wants?

What will Hale do to get what he wants?

What will it cost Hale to get what he wants?

What will happen to Hale if he gets what he wants?

Does what Hale wants change? If so, why?

What does Danforth want?

What is preventing Danforth from having what he wants?

What will Danforth do to get what he wants?

What will it cost Danforth to get what he wants?

What will happen to Danforth if he gets what he wants?

Does what Danforth wants change? If so, why?

What does Mary Warren want?

What is preventing Mary Warren from having what she wants?

What will Mary Warren do to get what she wants?

What will it cost Mary Warren to get what she wants?

What will happen to Mary Warren if she gets what she wants?

Does what Mary Warren wants change? If so, why?

Themes in The Crucible

Self-Interest: Some of the characters in the play make their decisions based only on what is best for them. What does the play have to say about using self-interest as the only basis for making a decision?

Character

Behavior

Commentary

Revenge: Some of the characters in the play are out for revenge. What does the play have to say about what happens to people who seek revenge or to people who are the victims of revenge?

Character

Behavior

Commentary

Authority and Religion: The characters in the play live in a community where everyone is expected to follow the rules of one religion. What does the play have to say about the consequences of everyone being expected to follow the rules of one religion? What does the play have to say about a community where the political authority and the religious authority are one and the same?

Character

Behavior

Commentary

Pride: Some of the characters in the play are so full of pride that it comes to dominate their decision making. What does the play have to say about the dangers of pride?

Character

Behavior

Commentary

Integrity: Some of the characters in the play are willing to die rather than betray the values that are important to them. What does the play have to say about making the choice between living a life with integrity (living up to the values a person believes in) and living a life without integrity?

Character

Behavior

Commentary

Honesty and Deception: Over and over again in the play, characters are faced with the choice between being honest or being a deceiver. In fact, some characters choose to deceive themselves as well as others. What does the play have to say about honesty and deception?

Character

Behavior

Commentary

Greed: Some of the characters in the play are filled with greed. What does the play have to say about greed?

Character

Behavior

Commentary

Fear: Many of the characters in the play have fears that determine their actions. What does the play have to say about what happens when people give in to their fears?

Character

Behavior

Commentary

Metaphor in The Crucible

A metaphor is the implied comparison of two things of unlike nature (“all the word’s a stage”). Identify the metaphors in each of the lines below and explain the comparison.

Line

What is being compared to what?

It’s winter in here yet (192)

An everlasting funeral marches around your heart (194)

The promise a stallion gives a mare I gave that girl (197)

She has an arrow in you yet (197)

Theology, sir, is a fortress; no crack in a fortress may be admitted small (199)

My wife is the very brick and mortar of the church (201)

I have made a bell of my honor! I have rung the doom of my good name—you will believe me, Mr. Danforth! (221)

Now we shall touch the bottom of this swamp. (221)

Here is an example of a simile, an explicit (stated) comparison of two things of unlike nature.

Line

What is being compared to what?

I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion (234)

The Crucible: Plot

Act I

Act II

Act III

Act IV

John Proctor

Reverend Parris

Abigail Williams

Elizabeth Proctor

Reverend Hale

Judge Danforth

1

2

5

3

4

6

9

7

8

11

10

12

14

13

15

Rising Action

Falling Action

Precipitating Incident

Resolving Incident

Climax

Rising Action

Precipitating Incident

Exposition

Rising Action

Rising Action

Climax

Falling Action

Resolving Incident

Rising Action

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