that message was from amy, silly me forgot to put my name.
but i'm sure you knew it was from me miss. haha.
xx
Friday, December 28, 2007
Thursday, December 27, 2007
birthday
happy birthday and merry belated christmas miss. hope you enjoyed yourself on both events :)
have a good new year and see you sooon. bet you can't wait.
have a good new year and see you sooon. bet you can't wait.
Sunday, December 02, 2007
The Crucible - Characters
Reverend Samuel Parris
Parris’s guiding principle is self-interest, but he is too ineffective to achieve his purpose.
His vanity, resentment, and constant complaints against his parishioners betray a weak character.
He is servile towards social superiors (e.g. Danforth) but brutal to anyone unable to retaliate, such as Tituba.
In the opening scene we are shocked by his lack of fatherly feeling. He is far more concerns about the effects of Betty’s illness on herself.
His inability to take firm decisions has led him to summon a witch-hunter, while trying to damp down rumours of witchcraft that would damage his own reputation. When the blame is safely diverted to Tituba, Mr. Parris becomes an enthusiastic witch-hunter.
His behaviour during the trial scenes is as self-centred as we would expect. Parris fears the victims will turn against him if they are set free, and sweats with anxiety whenever the judge seems impressed by their defence. His anxious interruptions provoke a crushing rebuke from Danforth.
Parris gets his comeuppance when his niece realises that the tide of public opinion has turned against the witch hunt, and makes a run for it with the contents of his strongbox. When his enemies are condemned to die, he pleads for a postponement – because he fears he may be assassinated, not because of concern for his victims.
John Proctor
John Proctor is the central character of the play, the protagonist.
He appears as one of the villagers drawn to Parris’s house by the rumours of Betty’s strange illness. His entry comes directly after Betty’s cry to Abigail: “you drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife!”
Almost until the end of the play a sense of guilt and shame holds John back from taking positive action at the right moment.
In his scene with Abigail, we learn the reasons for his guilt, and why he lies to himself as well as to abigail and his wife. “I have hardly stepped off this farm this seven-month”.
In the scene around Betty’s bed, John emerges as a down-to-earth man who speaks his mind and is not afraid to confront those in authority, especially when they abuse their position.
We may disapprove of his threatening of Mary and Abigail with the whip, but this must be seen in the context of his time.
His seated replies to Parris are not always to be taken at face value (“why, then I must find it and join it”). They show an honest disgust at Parris’s materialistic outlook and betrayal of his calling.
John is a practical farmer, struggling to win a living for his family, but still finds time to take a sensuous delight in his surroundings: “I never see such a load of flowers on the earth”.
The difficulties with his marriage might appear insuperable; but finally they appear as surface damage to what has been a deep and lasting union.
John’s anguished reaction to his wife’s arrest is the first move towards breaking through the restraints imposed by guilt. In the escalating horror of the witch-hunt, he becomes a reluctant hero. In striving to expose its fraud, he comes to acknowledge his responsibility to society and thereafter finds his true self.
Miller has sometimes been criticised for giving his hero a modern mind. This is surely a misreading of history. By 1692, there was dissent at all levels of colonial society. The number of recorded whippings, reprimands and public humiliations prove that many people did not accept the Puritan ethic. John Proctor in Miller’s play is a link between our own times and the values of seventeenth-century.
Abigail Williams
Miller gives us two facts about Abigail: she is “Strikingly beautiful” and has an “endless capacity for dissembling”.
Abigail is one of a band of Salem girls, most of whom are orphans. Their childhood has been joyless, subject to strict Puritan discipline.
Although adolescent, these girls are addressed as “child”, a wilful suppression of their developing sexuality. They suffer the drudgery of adult labour without adult freedom. They cannot work off their energies in the outdoor pursuits of their brothers, not express their frustrations. Their rebellion takes the form of expeditions into the danger zone of the forest. The thrill of arousing adult anxiety if they are found out is probably part of the excitement.
Before The Crucible begins, John Proctor has drawn Abigail into the adult world by seducing her. “I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart!” she cries, when John rejects her. His repentance is sincere enough, even if it does not stretch to what he has done to his 17 year old servant.
Elizabeth sees her adulterous husband as a “good man…only somewhat bewildered” while Abigail is a “whore”.
As well as being the driving force of the play, Abigail’s desire for John is a symbol for the anarchic, irrational side of life that the Puritans tried so hard to repress. Thwarted love makes her ruthless. She has already “drunk a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife”.
By blaming Tituba for the adventure in the forest Abigail discovers a more dangerous aspect to the ascendancy she holds over her friends.
When she begins to name the witches, Betty picks up her lead without instruction. Backed up by her hysterical followers, Abigail controls the adults who have previously controlled her. Her ability to turn events to her own advantage increases with practice.
Her refusal to accept John’s rejection combines fatally with the rising social panic. The accusations eventually bring down her real target, Elizabeth Proctor. Once embarked on this course, Abigail cannot draw back, even when the man she wants is condemned to die.
In the end all she can do is to leave town in a hurry. With a last bold gesture she ensures a comfortable future by emptying her uncle’s strong box.
Abigail has courage, intelligence and a magnetic personality, but employs these gifts only in destructive ways. She exerts a totally malign influence on the terrified villagers. Most of them do not realise that the only witch in their midst is Abigail Williams.
Mary Warren
The same age as Abigail (17), Mary is the most fully developed character among the band of girls. She is “subservient, naïve, lonely”, and when we first meet her she is in a panic about their escapade in the forest.
She is a target for bullying, yet for such a timid person, she is surprisingly pert to her master, perhaps because she knows his secret.
Mary’s behaviour varies greatly during the play. At the beginning of Act 2, Elizabeth tells John that she has been unable to stop Mary leaving the house: “She raises up her chin like the daughter of a prince and says to me, ‘I must go to Salem…I am an official of the court!’”. The attention of Judge Danforth and other officials has inflated Mary’s ego, but her sense of self-importance is fragile.
When she enters she is depressed and exhausted. She weeps for the sentence passed on Goody Osburn. Her conscience protests, but she is too overawed to question the judges’ version of events. This inner conflict makes her seek comfort in a childish pursuit – doll-making. The “poppet” she sews in court has fatal consequences for the Proctors.
When her master orders her to bed, Mary becomes petulant and tries to assert her rights; but by the end of the act she is sobbing in terror at the thought of standing up to Abigail: “I cannot, I cannot”. Despite her best efforts, this is exactly what happens in Act 3.
Mary stands for all those people who recognise injustice but are too weak to resist it. Through her, Miller also shows how and why the girls managed to believe in the victims’ guilt.
Elizabeth Proctor
Early in the play Abigail describes Elizabeth as “a bitter woman, a lying, cold, snivelling woman…a gossiping liar”. We soon learn the true reasons for her opinion, and when Elizabeth appears in Act 2, it becomes obvious that Abigail has grossly distorted the truth.
Elizabeth has a more complex personality than her quiet, somewhat repressed manner suggests. John’s infidelity has hurt both her pride and her religious convictions. She cannot bring herself to give her husband the warmth he craves, and she suspects, quite rightly, that he still finds Abigail attractive. She undervalues John’s efforts to make amends.
Elizabeth is both gentle and practical. Despite her pity for the “poor rabbit”, she kills and cooks it for John’s super. She tries to save Mary a whipping; after her arrest, she fives orders for the household and tries to conceal her fear, concerned more for the children than herself. She is the first to understand Abigail’s intentions, and braves her husband’s anger to urge him into action. Unfortunately, it is already too late.
During her three months in prison, Elizabeth looks into her heart and realises that her own coldness has provoked John’s adultery: “I never knew how I should say my love. I kept a cold house!”. Going against all her beliefs she lies to save her husband’s reputation, unaware that he has already made his adultery public.
Elizabeth’s real strength shines through in the last Act. She resists all pressure from John himself, from court officials, and her own longing to save him from the gallows. She insists that her husband must decide for himself: and makes no comment on his first false choice. She gives way to grief only when he has torn up his confession.
Danforth
Danforth, the senior judge, is “a grave man in his sixties, of some humour and sophistication”. His reasonable manner only reinforces the horror of his actions in Salem. Only once does he lose control of himself, when at the end of the trial scene he becomes caught up in the hysteria created by Abigail.
At the beginning of Act 4, Danforth hears from a distraught Mr. Parris that Abigail has fled from Salem with the contents of his strngbox. “He walks in thought, deeply worried”. Is Danforth worried that Abigail is a fraud, and the whole series of trials has been based on a false assumption? No, he is anxious that the news may get around and persuade others to think so.
To the very end of the play, Danforth remains convinced that he is in the right. “While I speak God’s law, I will not crack its voice with whimpering”. Like Mr. Hale before his change of heart, he seems to believe that the witchcraft hysteria and its results are in themselves a sign that the Devil is at work in Salem.
Through Danforth, Miller demonstrates what happens when the state assumes absolute moral authority to direct the lives and beliefs of its citizens. The results are terrifying. Danforth “knows” that his mission is to purge the village. This overrides legal quibbles about evidence or court proceedings. He is unable to understand that even if God’s law in infallible, its interpreters are not.
This throw light on his behaviour in Act 3, where he displays both ruthlessness and courtesy. Judge Danforth and the defendants are following different agendas. John and Giles suppose their fate depends on presenting credible evidence. Danforth has a higher good in mind. He must carry out God’s will in Salem. To this end he manipulates court procedure and openly exploits the weaknesses of those on trial. He uses Elizabeth’s pregnancy in his efforts to dissuade John from charging the girls with fraud, and he remains silent while Hathorne bullies Mary Warren. For the same reason, he will not postpone the hangings. Danforth will not permit any crack in God’s fortress.
The overall result is that lies are taken as truth, and common sense ignored, for example, his wilful blindness to the widespread fear his court has aroused in the village, and his refusal to believe that Elizabeth has lied to spare her husband’s reputation. In these incidents Miller drives home the danger of allowing the state to take over the functions of private conscience.
Reverand Hale
The minister from Beverly is perhaps the most pitiable character in the play. Although John Proctor’s road to self knowledge ends at the gallows, he dies with a renewed sense of his own worth and reconciled to his wife. In Reverend Hale’s case, self-knowledge brings a weight of guilt that must haunt him for the rest of his life.
John Hale is a sincere and kindly man. His failing is to believe without question that those who rule by the laws of God cannot make mistakes, and that all evil is external, not in people’s minds.
By the end of the play, he has realised that the powerful can be imperfect. A rather conceited intellectual, and inclined to “smile at the ignorance of the yeomanry”, he is eager to use his “painfully acquired armoury of symptoms, catchwords, and diagnostic procedures”, that without meaning to, he unleashes the Salem witch-hunt.
Hale examines Tituba with conscientious attention to detail; he even treats her kindly. It is plain that her fear prompts her to “confess” and that Parris and Putnam are taking callous advantage, but Hale is too blinded to notice. By Act 2, the witch-hunt he has authorised is out of control.
When he interviews the Proctors, he firmly suppresses his emerging doubts. He convinces himself that the arrest of Rebecca Nurse indicates “some secret blasphemy that stinks to heaven”, and not a miscarriage of justice.
Rev. Hale’s doubts grow as the trials proceed. In Act 3, he becomes increasingly alarms and tries to put a case for the defence. Danforth ignores his attempts. When Elizabeth is removed, Hale brakes into open opposition: “ I may shut my conscience to it no more – private vengeance is working through this testimony”. After John Proctor’s arrest he denounces the proceedings and walks out.
Tortured by remorse, Hale returns to Salem, and tries to persuade the condemned prisoners to avoid hanging by making a false confession. “Cleave to no faith when faith brings blood” he warns Elizabeth, begging her to make her husband confess. She rejects Hale’s plea as “the Devil’s argument”. The minister’s last desperate appeal proves that he has lost sight of everything but his own sense of guilt.
Parris’s guiding principle is self-interest, but he is too ineffective to achieve his purpose.
His vanity, resentment, and constant complaints against his parishioners betray a weak character.
He is servile towards social superiors (e.g. Danforth) but brutal to anyone unable to retaliate, such as Tituba.
In the opening scene we are shocked by his lack of fatherly feeling. He is far more concerns about the effects of Betty’s illness on herself.
His inability to take firm decisions has led him to summon a witch-hunter, while trying to damp down rumours of witchcraft that would damage his own reputation. When the blame is safely diverted to Tituba, Mr. Parris becomes an enthusiastic witch-hunter.
His behaviour during the trial scenes is as self-centred as we would expect. Parris fears the victims will turn against him if they are set free, and sweats with anxiety whenever the judge seems impressed by their defence. His anxious interruptions provoke a crushing rebuke from Danforth.
Parris gets his comeuppance when his niece realises that the tide of public opinion has turned against the witch hunt, and makes a run for it with the contents of his strongbox. When his enemies are condemned to die, he pleads for a postponement – because he fears he may be assassinated, not because of concern for his victims.
John Proctor
John Proctor is the central character of the play, the protagonist.
He appears as one of the villagers drawn to Parris’s house by the rumours of Betty’s strange illness. His entry comes directly after Betty’s cry to Abigail: “you drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife!”
Almost until the end of the play a sense of guilt and shame holds John back from taking positive action at the right moment.
In his scene with Abigail, we learn the reasons for his guilt, and why he lies to himself as well as to abigail and his wife. “I have hardly stepped off this farm this seven-month”.
In the scene around Betty’s bed, John emerges as a down-to-earth man who speaks his mind and is not afraid to confront those in authority, especially when they abuse their position.
We may disapprove of his threatening of Mary and Abigail with the whip, but this must be seen in the context of his time.
His seated replies to Parris are not always to be taken at face value (“why, then I must find it and join it”). They show an honest disgust at Parris’s materialistic outlook and betrayal of his calling.
John is a practical farmer, struggling to win a living for his family, but still finds time to take a sensuous delight in his surroundings: “I never see such a load of flowers on the earth”.
The difficulties with his marriage might appear insuperable; but finally they appear as surface damage to what has been a deep and lasting union.
John’s anguished reaction to his wife’s arrest is the first move towards breaking through the restraints imposed by guilt. In the escalating horror of the witch-hunt, he becomes a reluctant hero. In striving to expose its fraud, he comes to acknowledge his responsibility to society and thereafter finds his true self.
Miller has sometimes been criticised for giving his hero a modern mind. This is surely a misreading of history. By 1692, there was dissent at all levels of colonial society. The number of recorded whippings, reprimands and public humiliations prove that many people did not accept the Puritan ethic. John Proctor in Miller’s play is a link between our own times and the values of seventeenth-century.
Abigail Williams
Miller gives us two facts about Abigail: she is “Strikingly beautiful” and has an “endless capacity for dissembling”.
Abigail is one of a band of Salem girls, most of whom are orphans. Their childhood has been joyless, subject to strict Puritan discipline.
Although adolescent, these girls are addressed as “child”, a wilful suppression of their developing sexuality. They suffer the drudgery of adult labour without adult freedom. They cannot work off their energies in the outdoor pursuits of their brothers, not express their frustrations. Their rebellion takes the form of expeditions into the danger zone of the forest. The thrill of arousing adult anxiety if they are found out is probably part of the excitement.
Before The Crucible begins, John Proctor has drawn Abigail into the adult world by seducing her. “I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart!” she cries, when John rejects her. His repentance is sincere enough, even if it does not stretch to what he has done to his 17 year old servant.
Elizabeth sees her adulterous husband as a “good man…only somewhat bewildered” while Abigail is a “whore”.
As well as being the driving force of the play, Abigail’s desire for John is a symbol for the anarchic, irrational side of life that the Puritans tried so hard to repress. Thwarted love makes her ruthless. She has already “drunk a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife”.
By blaming Tituba for the adventure in the forest Abigail discovers a more dangerous aspect to the ascendancy she holds over her friends.
When she begins to name the witches, Betty picks up her lead without instruction. Backed up by her hysterical followers, Abigail controls the adults who have previously controlled her. Her ability to turn events to her own advantage increases with practice.
Her refusal to accept John’s rejection combines fatally with the rising social panic. The accusations eventually bring down her real target, Elizabeth Proctor. Once embarked on this course, Abigail cannot draw back, even when the man she wants is condemned to die.
In the end all she can do is to leave town in a hurry. With a last bold gesture she ensures a comfortable future by emptying her uncle’s strong box.
Abigail has courage, intelligence and a magnetic personality, but employs these gifts only in destructive ways. She exerts a totally malign influence on the terrified villagers. Most of them do not realise that the only witch in their midst is Abigail Williams.
Mary Warren
The same age as Abigail (17), Mary is the most fully developed character among the band of girls. She is “subservient, naïve, lonely”, and when we first meet her she is in a panic about their escapade in the forest.
She is a target for bullying, yet for such a timid person, she is surprisingly pert to her master, perhaps because she knows his secret.
Mary’s behaviour varies greatly during the play. At the beginning of Act 2, Elizabeth tells John that she has been unable to stop Mary leaving the house: “She raises up her chin like the daughter of a prince and says to me, ‘I must go to Salem…I am an official of the court!’”. The attention of Judge Danforth and other officials has inflated Mary’s ego, but her sense of self-importance is fragile.
When she enters she is depressed and exhausted. She weeps for the sentence passed on Goody Osburn. Her conscience protests, but she is too overawed to question the judges’ version of events. This inner conflict makes her seek comfort in a childish pursuit – doll-making. The “poppet” she sews in court has fatal consequences for the Proctors.
When her master orders her to bed, Mary becomes petulant and tries to assert her rights; but by the end of the act she is sobbing in terror at the thought of standing up to Abigail: “I cannot, I cannot”. Despite her best efforts, this is exactly what happens in Act 3.
Mary stands for all those people who recognise injustice but are too weak to resist it. Through her, Miller also shows how and why the girls managed to believe in the victims’ guilt.
Elizabeth Proctor
Early in the play Abigail describes Elizabeth as “a bitter woman, a lying, cold, snivelling woman…a gossiping liar”. We soon learn the true reasons for her opinion, and when Elizabeth appears in Act 2, it becomes obvious that Abigail has grossly distorted the truth.
Elizabeth has a more complex personality than her quiet, somewhat repressed manner suggests. John’s infidelity has hurt both her pride and her religious convictions. She cannot bring herself to give her husband the warmth he craves, and she suspects, quite rightly, that he still finds Abigail attractive. She undervalues John’s efforts to make amends.
Elizabeth is both gentle and practical. Despite her pity for the “poor rabbit”, she kills and cooks it for John’s super. She tries to save Mary a whipping; after her arrest, she fives orders for the household and tries to conceal her fear, concerned more for the children than herself. She is the first to understand Abigail’s intentions, and braves her husband’s anger to urge him into action. Unfortunately, it is already too late.
During her three months in prison, Elizabeth looks into her heart and realises that her own coldness has provoked John’s adultery: “I never knew how I should say my love. I kept a cold house!”. Going against all her beliefs she lies to save her husband’s reputation, unaware that he has already made his adultery public.
Elizabeth’s real strength shines through in the last Act. She resists all pressure from John himself, from court officials, and her own longing to save him from the gallows. She insists that her husband must decide for himself: and makes no comment on his first false choice. She gives way to grief only when he has torn up his confession.
Danforth
Danforth, the senior judge, is “a grave man in his sixties, of some humour and sophistication”. His reasonable manner only reinforces the horror of his actions in Salem. Only once does he lose control of himself, when at the end of the trial scene he becomes caught up in the hysteria created by Abigail.
At the beginning of Act 4, Danforth hears from a distraught Mr. Parris that Abigail has fled from Salem with the contents of his strngbox. “He walks in thought, deeply worried”. Is Danforth worried that Abigail is a fraud, and the whole series of trials has been based on a false assumption? No, he is anxious that the news may get around and persuade others to think so.
To the very end of the play, Danforth remains convinced that he is in the right. “While I speak God’s law, I will not crack its voice with whimpering”. Like Mr. Hale before his change of heart, he seems to believe that the witchcraft hysteria and its results are in themselves a sign that the Devil is at work in Salem.
Through Danforth, Miller demonstrates what happens when the state assumes absolute moral authority to direct the lives and beliefs of its citizens. The results are terrifying. Danforth “knows” that his mission is to purge the village. This overrides legal quibbles about evidence or court proceedings. He is unable to understand that even if God’s law in infallible, its interpreters are not.
This throw light on his behaviour in Act 3, where he displays both ruthlessness and courtesy. Judge Danforth and the defendants are following different agendas. John and Giles suppose their fate depends on presenting credible evidence. Danforth has a higher good in mind. He must carry out God’s will in Salem. To this end he manipulates court procedure and openly exploits the weaknesses of those on trial. He uses Elizabeth’s pregnancy in his efforts to dissuade John from charging the girls with fraud, and he remains silent while Hathorne bullies Mary Warren. For the same reason, he will not postpone the hangings. Danforth will not permit any crack in God’s fortress.
The overall result is that lies are taken as truth, and common sense ignored, for example, his wilful blindness to the widespread fear his court has aroused in the village, and his refusal to believe that Elizabeth has lied to spare her husband’s reputation. In these incidents Miller drives home the danger of allowing the state to take over the functions of private conscience.
Reverand Hale
The minister from Beverly is perhaps the most pitiable character in the play. Although John Proctor’s road to self knowledge ends at the gallows, he dies with a renewed sense of his own worth and reconciled to his wife. In Reverend Hale’s case, self-knowledge brings a weight of guilt that must haunt him for the rest of his life.
John Hale is a sincere and kindly man. His failing is to believe without question that those who rule by the laws of God cannot make mistakes, and that all evil is external, not in people’s minds.
By the end of the play, he has realised that the powerful can be imperfect. A rather conceited intellectual, and inclined to “smile at the ignorance of the yeomanry”, he is eager to use his “painfully acquired armoury of symptoms, catchwords, and diagnostic procedures”, that without meaning to, he unleashes the Salem witch-hunt.
Hale examines Tituba with conscientious attention to detail; he even treats her kindly. It is plain that her fear prompts her to “confess” and that Parris and Putnam are taking callous advantage, but Hale is too blinded to notice. By Act 2, the witch-hunt he has authorised is out of control.
When he interviews the Proctors, he firmly suppresses his emerging doubts. He convinces himself that the arrest of Rebecca Nurse indicates “some secret blasphemy that stinks to heaven”, and not a miscarriage of justice.
Rev. Hale’s doubts grow as the trials proceed. In Act 3, he becomes increasingly alarms and tries to put a case for the defence. Danforth ignores his attempts. When Elizabeth is removed, Hale brakes into open opposition: “ I may shut my conscience to it no more – private vengeance is working through this testimony”. After John Proctor’s arrest he denounces the proceedings and walks out.
Tortured by remorse, Hale returns to Salem, and tries to persuade the condemned prisoners to avoid hanging by making a false confession. “Cleave to no faith when faith brings blood” he warns Elizabeth, begging her to make her husband confess. She rejects Hale’s plea as “the Devil’s argument”. The minister’s last desperate appeal proves that he has lost sight of everything but his own sense of guilt.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Theme of Truth in The Crucible-
THEME OF TRUTH Wohooo!
Act 1:
We are firstly introduced to a community that believes that if they commit a sin, they must confess to be saved. This is shown in the first act, “so inclined to express publicly his guilt and sins, under the cover of accusations against victims” in Miller’s introduction, but he gives us an example of this, “Martha laid herself down on his chest and ‘nearly suffocated him’. Of course it was her spirit only, but his satisfaction at confessing himself” this shows how Miller believes that the people’s perception of confessing or even telling the truth was used not for its purpose, but for personal gain, in this case it would be to ensure that the accuser was saved and in the light of God.
This episode is repeated in the play although this time for the audience to witness, but appears in another kind of situation. It begins when Betty is incredibly afraid to get in trouble and pretends to be unconscious to avoiding having the confrontation with her father reverend Parris, of what truly happened that night. Abigail the niece of reverend Parris is blamed for Betty’s condition. The community automatically jump to the conclusion of witch craft being involved and accuse the girls of being part of it. Abigail then realises what would happen to her if people would think she was a witch and tries to deny it,”I never called him! Tituba, Tituba…” this then leads to Abigail bending the truth to shift the blame, “she sends her spirit on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayer” this is Abigail ‘telling the truth’ and this also shows a perfect example of her manipulative character. She is a key character as she is the one who triggers the call for a witch hunt. Abigail confesses to Proctor “We were dancing in the woods last night, and my uncle leaped in on us,” which tells us that there was no witchery involved, to prove that the witch hunt is made from lies.
Truth is also unravelled in this act. Parris asks Abigail why she was dismissed from Goody Proctors service, Abigail replies that, “she hates me, uncle, she must, for I would not be her slave. It’s a bitter woman, a lying cold snivelling, woman, and I will work for such a woman”. This is a lie as later on we discover that Goody Proctor had dismissed Abigail for the affair she was having with her husband. We realise this when Proctor goes to visit Parris’s house, Abigail says to him when they are alone “I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I come near!” This is a key scene in act 1 as it shows the feelings they have for each other are still there, but most importantly this is when Abigail confesses to Proctor that they were only ‘dancing’ and this is used later to provide evidence that the girls are lying about there being witch craft.
Reverend Hale is another key character when discussing the theme of truth. Hale acts very confidently which provokes the village believe everything without hesitation as if what he is saying is fact.
Act 1:
We are firstly introduced to a community that believes that if they commit a sin, they must confess to be saved. This is shown in the first act, “so inclined to express publicly his guilt and sins, under the cover of accusations against victims” in Miller’s introduction, but he gives us an example of this, “Martha laid herself down on his chest and ‘nearly suffocated him’. Of course it was her spirit only, but his satisfaction at confessing himself” this shows how Miller believes that the people’s perception of confessing or even telling the truth was used not for its purpose, but for personal gain, in this case it would be to ensure that the accuser was saved and in the light of God.
This episode is repeated in the play although this time for the audience to witness, but appears in another kind of situation. It begins when Betty is incredibly afraid to get in trouble and pretends to be unconscious to avoiding having the confrontation with her father reverend Parris, of what truly happened that night. Abigail the niece of reverend Parris is blamed for Betty’s condition. The community automatically jump to the conclusion of witch craft being involved and accuse the girls of being part of it. Abigail then realises what would happen to her if people would think she was a witch and tries to deny it,”I never called him! Tituba, Tituba…” this then leads to Abigail bending the truth to shift the blame, “she sends her spirit on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayer” this is Abigail ‘telling the truth’ and this also shows a perfect example of her manipulative character. She is a key character as she is the one who triggers the call for a witch hunt. Abigail confesses to Proctor “We were dancing in the woods last night, and my uncle leaped in on us,” which tells us that there was no witchery involved, to prove that the witch hunt is made from lies.
Truth is also unravelled in this act. Parris asks Abigail why she was dismissed from Goody Proctors service, Abigail replies that, “she hates me, uncle, she must, for I would not be her slave. It’s a bitter woman, a lying cold snivelling, woman, and I will work for such a woman”. This is a lie as later on we discover that Goody Proctor had dismissed Abigail for the affair she was having with her husband. We realise this when Proctor goes to visit Parris’s house, Abigail says to him when they are alone “I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I come near!” This is a key scene in act 1 as it shows the feelings they have for each other are still there, but most importantly this is when Abigail confesses to Proctor that they were only ‘dancing’ and this is used later to provide evidence that the girls are lying about there being witch craft.
Reverend Hale is another key character when discussing the theme of truth. Hale acts very confidently which provokes the village believe everything without hesitation as if what he is saying is fact.
Conflict- Dave, Gursevak,Lindsey, Miriam and Stephanie
Conflict
Conflict is a key point 2 the cruciblewhen people such as judge danforth hold strong beliefs conflict is inevitalbethe revenge of the which trials steems from conflict between the villagers which is unsettledalso there is an internal conflict within john proctor as he feels guilt for what he did 2 his wife and the douts his own judgementridled though out the play is the tention between the characters which end for some in a drastic death.
Act 1.
In the first act there is conflict between Abigail and John Proctor. Although it isn't as obvious at points it is a very deep underlying conflict between the two. Both of them have had a connection at some point and there is very mixed feelings between the two. The conflict is there because of the affair in which they had. For John it was for lust but for Abi it was love.
Quotes like ;(Abigail: I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I come near!) Shows us that the affair did happen.
John however denies it, this part of act one is the most straight forward bit to identfy the conflict between the two.
Proctor: We never touched, Abby
Abigail:Aye, but we did.
Proctor: Aye but we did not .
This shows that John Proctor is ashamed of what happened between them and will not even admit it happened , even to Abigail.
Arthur Miller uses stage directions to make an effect on how awkward the company of these two people being together. He uses directions like; "setting her firmly out of his path" and "grasping his hand before he can release her".
Shows us again that Abigail doesn't want John to not want her and he is doing what he can to resist the young girl.
Act2.
There is conflict between elizabeth and John, it is already apparent that John has Slept with Abigail. The seperation between the two continues.
Arthur Miller uses directions to tell us that 'a sense of their seperation arises', this shows us that they are still in conflict with each other.
Elizabeth: (She doesn't want
This again shows us that their is still underlying theme of conflict.
Their are various times in the second act in 'The crucible' that show John Proctor's stage directions with the theme of conflict. Like ;'his anger is rising' and 'with a violent undertone', are just a couple to show the feeling of conflict in this marriage.
Proctor:(laughing bitterly);Oh,Elizabeth, your justice would freeze beer!
This is an important quote as it sums up his feeling towards Elizabeth, he is in conflict not only with Elizabeth but with abigail too.He's also in conflict with himself for what has happened to his mariage.
Conflict- Parris
Parris always goes on about his enemies and what they think about him, but we are never actually told who his enemies are and if they even exist. This could show that he has had conflict or even expects conflict to arise. Parris says things like;'It must come out - My enemies will bring it out'.and 'I cannot blink what i saw, Abigail,for my enemy will not blink it'.
In act3 , Proctor comes into the court ,Parros says'Beware this man. Your Excellency, this man is mischief'. After this he goes on to try and get Proctor in trouble from Danforth. 'Such a Christian that will not come to church but once in a month' and 'Do you rebel the gospel, Mr Proctor?', these quotes show that there is now conflict between these two men. As act 3 progresses Proctor starts getting hiw ways and Danforth starts listening to him, Parris reacts angrly to this and says 'He's come to overthrow the court, Your Honout!'. The stage directions 'Parris nervously moves over and reads over Danforth's shoulder ' show us he is quite a paranoid man.
In Act 4 Parris eventualy shows sympathy for Proctor and begs him to confess to save his life. At this point it seems the conflict has gone.
p.s Miriams attachment wouldn't open on my computer so it is missing, sorry Ms Moore will put it on as soon as we can. - Steph
Conflict is a key point 2 the cruciblewhen people such as judge danforth hold strong beliefs conflict is inevitalbethe revenge of the which trials steems from conflict between the villagers which is unsettledalso there is an internal conflict within john proctor as he feels guilt for what he did 2 his wife and the douts his own judgementridled though out the play is the tention between the characters which end for some in a drastic death.
Act 1.
In the first act there is conflict between Abigail and John Proctor. Although it isn't as obvious at points it is a very deep underlying conflict between the two. Both of them have had a connection at some point and there is very mixed feelings between the two. The conflict is there because of the affair in which they had. For John it was for lust but for Abi it was love.
Quotes like ;(Abigail: I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I come near!) Shows us that the affair did happen.
John however denies it, this part of act one is the most straight forward bit to identfy the conflict between the two.
Proctor: We never touched, Abby
Abigail:Aye, but we did.
Proctor: Aye but we did not .
This shows that John Proctor is ashamed of what happened between them and will not even admit it happened , even to Abigail.
Arthur Miller uses stage directions to make an effect on how awkward the company of these two people being together. He uses directions like; "setting her firmly out of his path" and "grasping his hand before he can release her".
Shows us again that Abigail doesn't want John to not want her and he is doing what he can to resist the young girl.
Act2.
There is conflict between elizabeth and John, it is already apparent that John has Slept with Abigail. The seperation between the two continues.
Arthur Miller uses directions to tell us that 'a sense of their seperation arises', this shows us that they are still in conflict with each other.
Elizabeth: (She doesn't want
This again shows us that their is still underlying theme of conflict.
Their are various times in the second act in 'The crucible' that show John Proctor's stage directions with the theme of conflict. Like ;'his anger is rising' and 'with a violent undertone', are just a couple to show the feeling of conflict in this marriage.
Proctor:(laughing bitterly);Oh,Elizabeth, your justice would freeze beer!
This is an important quote as it sums up his feeling towards Elizabeth, he is in conflict not only with Elizabeth but with abigail too.He's also in conflict with himself for what has happened to his mariage.
Conflict- Parris
Parris always goes on about his enemies and what they think about him, but we are never actually told who his enemies are and if they even exist. This could show that he has had conflict or even expects conflict to arise. Parris says things like;'It must come out - My enemies will bring it out'.and 'I cannot blink what i saw, Abigail,for my enemy will not blink it'.
In act3 , Proctor comes into the court ,Parros says'Beware this man. Your Excellency, this man is mischief'. After this he goes on to try and get Proctor in trouble from Danforth. 'Such a Christian that will not come to church but once in a month' and 'Do you rebel the gospel, Mr Proctor?', these quotes show that there is now conflict between these two men. As act 3 progresses Proctor starts getting hiw ways and Danforth starts listening to him, Parris reacts angrly to this and says 'He's come to overthrow the court, Your Honout!'. The stage directions 'Parris nervously moves over and reads over Danforth's shoulder ' show us he is quite a paranoid man.
In Act 4 Parris eventualy shows sympathy for Proctor and begs him to confess to save his life. At this point it seems the conflict has gone.
p.s Miriams attachment wouldn't open on my computer so it is missing, sorry Ms Moore will put it on as soon as we can. - Steph
Theme - Religion
This presentation is based on the main theme of the 'Crucible', Religion. We have decided to cover many of the different parts of religious activity that is portrayed throughout the play. We are going to show how religion is conveyed through the languauge of the characters, their forenames and the set of the play.
The play lets us know that in 1692 Salem was run by a theocracy, which basically means that the community of Salem was run by the church, so they were exceptionally religious, well they had to be.
The language that is used in the crucible has it's origins in religion.
The people os Salem think they are the chosen ones, but this creates paranoia between them all. This society is one which is rural and deeply religious. The irony of the witch trials is that the fight against sinfullness in Salem will become more sinful and malicious than any of the actual events that occur.
The forenames of the characters, and others mentioned are taken from the bible, as was the practise in christian communities, eg, John, Elizabeth, Mary and Ezekial.
Some of the language that is used in the 'Crucible' mostly comes from religion: "Aye, sir. I pray for her."
This theme is also maintained by the setting of the play. At the very beginning of the play in Act 1 the house of Reverend Parris is described as a very obscure and narrow place. This darkness and narrowness have a connotation of Evil. It is indeed a contrast with the religion they are supposed to be applying to their lives. Furthermore, this obscure place of the shepherd reveals the kind of person he is, he is also driving off the community. This is an example of Proctor ploughing on Sundays and having not baptised his third child. However, at the end of each season there is a harvest, on which almost the whole community lives on. A good harvest, in the bible, symbolises hard-work and also a holy labour. Reverend Parris isn't the only form of misconduct in Salem, it is also due to everyone elses behaviour. The setting of Act 1 shows us Proctor's house, that although seems peaceful, (like it should, according to their religion) is not in reality. This example gives the impression that this is what is happening in every household in Salem. To finnish with this is another fact going against the religion which is the rate of unfair decisions and hangings at the court.
Amy, Anika, Mwamba, Sera and Lyndon.
The play lets us know that in 1692 Salem was run by a theocracy, which basically means that the community of Salem was run by the church, so they were exceptionally religious, well they had to be.
The language that is used in the crucible has it's origins in religion.
The people os Salem think they are the chosen ones, but this creates paranoia between them all. This society is one which is rural and deeply religious. The irony of the witch trials is that the fight against sinfullness in Salem will become more sinful and malicious than any of the actual events that occur.
The forenames of the characters, and others mentioned are taken from the bible, as was the practise in christian communities, eg, John, Elizabeth, Mary and Ezekial.
Some of the language that is used in the 'Crucible' mostly comes from religion: "Aye, sir. I pray for her."
This theme is also maintained by the setting of the play. At the very beginning of the play in Act 1 the house of Reverend Parris is described as a very obscure and narrow place. This darkness and narrowness have a connotation of Evil. It is indeed a contrast with the religion they are supposed to be applying to their lives. Furthermore, this obscure place of the shepherd reveals the kind of person he is, he is also driving off the community. This is an example of Proctor ploughing on Sundays and having not baptised his third child. However, at the end of each season there is a harvest, on which almost the whole community lives on. A good harvest, in the bible, symbolises hard-work and also a holy labour. Reverend Parris isn't the only form of misconduct in Salem, it is also due to everyone elses behaviour. The setting of Act 1 shows us Proctor's house, that although seems peaceful, (like it should, according to their religion) is not in reality. This example gives the impression that this is what is happening in every household in Salem. To finnish with this is another fact going against the religion which is the rate of unfair decisions and hangings at the court.
Amy, Anika, Mwamba, Sera and Lyndon.
Hype and Hysteria By Ross, Smaira, Jess and Gemma
To hype is to publicise or promote, especially by extravagant, inflated, or misleading claims
People who are "hysterical" often lose self-control due to overwhelming fear
The term also occurs in the phrase mass hysteria to describe mass public near-panic reactions.
Hype and Hysteria is a big theme in Arthur Millers play, ‘The Crucible’. It first becomes apparent when Abigail Williams accuses the innocent of witchcraft, which during this time was a crime punishable by death. Abigail Williams first starts accusing members of Salems community in order to take focus off her own crimes, and accuses Elizabeth Proctor so she can take her place as John’s wife.
Before the accusations began, Salem was a very close knit community, and the witch trials gave the people a chance to speak out against others for the first time.
This was used by people to settle long grudges by accusing them of witch craft.
Elizabeth Proctor was accused by Abigail for the simple reason that she wanted to take her place as John Proctors wife.
John Proctor was also accused because once he told Abigail that he loved his wife and nothing was ever going to happen with them, Abigail became angry and wanted her revenge she then accused Proctor of sending his spirit out on all of the girls.
Goody Nurse was also accused of witch craft, and killing their babies, by the Putnams. Rebecca Nurse was hung because she did not admit to the crime that she did not commit.
Martha Corey was first related to witch craft when her own husband confessed to her reading books.
Hype and hysteria is one of the most important themes of the play as it builds up throughout the play and causes every character to change and go against each other, just to save themselves from death.
People who are "hysterical" often lose self-control due to overwhelming fear
The term also occurs in the phrase mass hysteria to describe mass public near-panic reactions.
Hype and Hysteria is a big theme in Arthur Millers play, ‘The Crucible’. It first becomes apparent when Abigail Williams accuses the innocent of witchcraft, which during this time was a crime punishable by death. Abigail Williams first starts accusing members of Salems community in order to take focus off her own crimes, and accuses Elizabeth Proctor so she can take her place as John’s wife.
Before the accusations began, Salem was a very close knit community, and the witch trials gave the people a chance to speak out against others for the first time.
This was used by people to settle long grudges by accusing them of witch craft.
Elizabeth Proctor was accused by Abigail for the simple reason that she wanted to take her place as John Proctors wife.
John Proctor was also accused because once he told Abigail that he loved his wife and nothing was ever going to happen with them, Abigail became angry and wanted her revenge she then accused Proctor of sending his spirit out on all of the girls.
Goody Nurse was also accused of witch craft, and killing their babies, by the Putnams. Rebecca Nurse was hung because she did not admit to the crime that she did not commit.
Martha Corey was first related to witch craft when her own husband confessed to her reading books.
Hype and hysteria is one of the most important themes of the play as it builds up throughout the play and causes every character to change and go against each other, just to save themselves from death.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Theme of Community!
The Crucible
Community
In this play, the people of the town were always aware of everyone else’s business. No secrets were kept in the community. So, when people started to talk about witchcraft and accusing others of it, everyone knew very quickly.
Everyone and everything belonged to God or the Devil.
These villagers believed in witches and the infallibility of the bible.
Anyone, in the community that doubted any evidence given against an accused person, would be questioning God’s will.
The tensions caused in the community because of the witch trials, led to a confrontations between characters.
Key Characters
Although all characters are linked to the community, Reverend Parris and Reverend Hale are the key ones.
Reverend Parris
Although Parris is meant to be the leader of the town, he changes through the duration of the play. He separates himself from the town and his own family, resulting in the breakdown
of the entire community. He also divides the community by claiming that he doesn’t get enough money and demanding possessions, such as the house that he lives in. This starts arguments between the characters
He shows more concern over his own reputation than his own daughter’s welfare at the beginning. His concerns over his reputation develop throughout the play.
Stage Description
The smallness of the room in Parris’ house symbolises the narrow-mindedness of the community.
Reverend Hale
Hale arrives in the town to question people, as an expert on witchcraft. He investigates who goes to church and who works on Sundays, to see who should be under the suspicion of witchcraft
At first he is arrogant, but his confidence erodes when he realises that the girls may be lying in the court. He finds himself caught up in the hysteria of the community.
McCarthyism
The McCarthy hearings were when people were put under suspicion of being a communist because they were involved in Anti-American activities.
The play has a strong link with the McCarthy hearings of the late 50’s and early 60’s in America. The witch trials symbolise McCarthyism and the community represents the American society of that period.
Community
In this play, the people of the town were always aware of everyone else’s business. No secrets were kept in the community. So, when people started to talk about witchcraft and accusing others of it, everyone knew very quickly.
Everyone and everything belonged to God or the Devil.
These villagers believed in witches and the infallibility of the bible.
Anyone, in the community that doubted any evidence given against an accused person, would be questioning God’s will.
The tensions caused in the community because of the witch trials, led to a confrontations between characters.
Key Characters
Although all characters are linked to the community, Reverend Parris and Reverend Hale are the key ones.
Reverend Parris
Although Parris is meant to be the leader of the town, he changes through the duration of the play. He separates himself from the town and his own family, resulting in the breakdown
of the entire community. He also divides the community by claiming that he doesn’t get enough money and demanding possessions, such as the house that he lives in. This starts arguments between the characters
He shows more concern over his own reputation than his own daughter’s welfare at the beginning. His concerns over his reputation develop throughout the play.
Stage Description
The smallness of the room in Parris’ house symbolises the narrow-mindedness of the community.
Reverend Hale
Hale arrives in the town to question people, as an expert on witchcraft. He investigates who goes to church and who works on Sundays, to see who should be under the suspicion of witchcraft
At first he is arrogant, but his confidence erodes when he realises that the girls may be lying in the court. He finds himself caught up in the hysteria of the community.
McCarthyism
The McCarthy hearings were when people were put under suspicion of being a communist because they were involved in Anti-American activities.
The play has a strong link with the McCarthy hearings of the late 50’s and early 60’s in America. The witch trials symbolise McCarthyism and the community represents the American society of that period.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Act 1 of "The Crucible"
Act 1
First performed in January of 1953, The Crucible is first and foremost an allegorical tale relating the Salem witchcraft trials to their contemporary equivalent in Miller's time, the McCarthy hearings. The figurative witch hunt of McCarthyism becomes literal in Miller's play, which is constructed to illustrate how fear and hysteria mixed with an atmosphere of persecution may lead to tragically unjust consequences.
Miller presents the play with traditional theatrical devices, relying on the dialogue and situations to illustrate his themes, but finds these somewhat insufficient; in the first act the play therefore contains a number of historical digressions that reveal the motivations of each character and which cannot be accurately conveyed through a strict stage interpretation.
Through these prose passages that interrupt the dialogue and action of the play, Miller establishes the particular quality of Salem society that makes it particularly receptive to the repression and panic of the witch trials. The Puritan life in Salem is rigid and sombre, allowing little room for persons to break from the monotony and strict work ethic that dominated the close-knit society.
Furthermore, the Puritan religious ethic informed all aspects of society, promoting safeguards against immorality at any cost to personal privacy or justice. The Puritans of Massachusetts were a religious faction who, after years of suffering persecution themselves, developed a willful sense of community to guard against infiltration from outside sources. It is this paradox that Miller finds to be a major theme of The Crucible: in order to keep the community together, members of that community believe that they must in some sense tear it apart.
Miller relates the intense paranoia over the integrity of the Puritan community to their belief that they are in some sense a chosen people who will forge a new destiny for the world. This relates strongly to the political climate of the early 1950s in which Miller wrote The Crucible. After the end of the second world war, the United States found itself engaged in a struggle for political supremacy with communist forces, in particular the Soviet Union; just as the Salem authorities believe that witchcraft threatens their community, many Americans during this time saw communism as a threat to the American way of life.
However, the Salem witch trials as described by Miller have a sexual element that runs concurrent with the political aspects of the allegory. The community is one that promotes interference in all personal matters and intensely frowns upon any sinful conduct without allowing for any legitimate expurgation of sin. The witch trials serve as a means to break from this stifling atmosphere and publicly confess one's sins through accusation.
This simultaneous fear of and fascination with sexuality is a theme that predominates throughout The Crucible, as demonstrated by the particular relationship between Abigail Williams and John Proctor and the sexual undertones of the dancing that instigates the witchcraft trials, and it also relates to the quality of 1950s culture in which the play was written.
The first act establishes the primary characters of the play who instigate the Salem witch trials. Each has his particular obsessions and motivations that drive him to push for the trials. The first and perhaps most reprehensible of these characters is the Reverend Samuel Parris, a man who symbolizes the particular quality of moral repression and paranoia that characterize the trials. Miller immediately establishes Parris as a man whose main concern is his reputation and status in the community and not the well-being of his daughter, for whom he shows little emotion. It is Tituba who shows more concern for Betty Parris than her father, who rules his household as an autocrat.
When he discusses finding Abigail and Betty dancing in the woods, his concern is not the sin that they committed but rather the possibility that his enemies may use this sin against him. Parris will manifest a sharp paranoia concerning possible enemies, even when they may not exist. The particular quality of Parris that renders him dangerous is his strong belief in the presence of evil; even before the witchcraft paranoia, Proctor indicates that Parris showed an obsession with damnation and hell in order to strike fear into his parishioners. With the seeming presence of witchcraft in Salem, Parris now has a concrete, physical manifestation of the evil he so fears.
Abigail Williams is a less complex character whose motivations are simple; she is a clear villain with straightforward malicious motivation. Miller establishes that Abigail is suspected of adultery with John Proctor, a rumor that is confirmed later in the first act, while Abigail physically threatens the other girls if they disobey her. Abigail demonstrates a great ability for self-preservation: she admits what she must at appropriate times, and places the blame for her actions at the most convenient source, Tituba, when she realizes that it is the most savvy course of action.
Abigail's lack of any morality renders her able to charge others with witchery no matter the consequences. The third character who serves as a proponent of the witchcraft hysteria is Thomas Putnam. While Putnam's motivation is suspicion and paranoia and Abigail's is mere villainy, Thomas Putnam demonstrates that his motivation is his longstanding grudges against others; the witchcraft trials give Putnam an opportunity to exact revenge against others, and, as will later be shown, to profit economically from others' executions.
The final character who sets the witchcraft trials in motion is Reverend John Hale. Hale is perhaps the most complex character in The Crucible, a man who approaches religious matters with the conviction of a scientist and a scientific emphasis on proper procedure. Hale holds the contradictory belief that they cannot rely on superstition to solve the girls' problems but that they may find a supernatural explanation for the events. Since he lacks the malicious motivations and obsessions that plague the other instigators of the trials, Reverend Hale has the ability to change his position, yet at this point he finds himself caught up in the hysteria he has helped to create.
In contrast to these four characters stand the three main opponents of the witchcraft accusations. The Nurses are the most straightforward of these; Miller portrays Rebecca Nurse and her husband as near saints who rely on practical wisdom and experience. In contrast, Giles Corey has none of the noble character of the Nurses, yet he can oppose Parris and Putnam because of his contentious, combative manner. Giles Corey is a man who cares not for public opinion and may therefore choose whichever position he finds most suitable, even if it places him in danger.
However, Miller places John Proctor as the main protagonist of the story and its moral center. Proctor, as Miller writes, is a man who can easily discern foolishness and has the will to oppose it. He is a rational man with a brusque manner who, like Giles Corey, has no qualms about expressing his opinion. Miller portrays Proctor as a decidedly modern character, who eschews superstition for rationality and expresses skepticism for the trappings of organized religion, particularly the obsession with hellfire and damnation that Parris expresses.
The particularly modern quality of John Proctor draws the audience sympathy to him, even if he is a self-professed sinner who had an affair with Abigail Williams. Yet this is the single sin that Proctor manifests and exists more as a plot point than as an organic character trait. The Proctor that Miller portrays throughout The Crucible seems hardly capable of giving in to lust for a manipulative and demonstrably wicked young girl.
Several significant themes emerge early in the play. One of these that Miller develops throughout the act is the capability for gossip and rumors to disseminate throughout the close-knit society of Salem. Miller establishes that Salem is a society in which little information is considered private; there is no line between public and private conduct, for all information is open to suspicion and question. This correlates to the McCarthy hearings, which probed into the lives of the suspected communists for evidence of their anti-American activity, no matter the actual relevance.
Perhaps the most important theme that Miller develops in this act is the ability for accusations to snowball. The charges against the girls and Tituba become perpetually more significant: at first they are accused of merely dancing, then of dancing naked. The charges proceed until Tituba is deemed a witch and accuses others of conspiring with Satan. Legitimate charges of dancing and sinful activity increase in magnitude until charges of Satanism arise. The irony of this situation is that the fight against sinfulness in Salem will become more sinful and malicious than any of the actual events that occurred.
First performed in January of 1953, The Crucible is first and foremost an allegorical tale relating the Salem witchcraft trials to their contemporary equivalent in Miller's time, the McCarthy hearings. The figurative witch hunt of McCarthyism becomes literal in Miller's play, which is constructed to illustrate how fear and hysteria mixed with an atmosphere of persecution may lead to tragically unjust consequences.
Miller presents the play with traditional theatrical devices, relying on the dialogue and situations to illustrate his themes, but finds these somewhat insufficient; in the first act the play therefore contains a number of historical digressions that reveal the motivations of each character and which cannot be accurately conveyed through a strict stage interpretation.
Through these prose passages that interrupt the dialogue and action of the play, Miller establishes the particular quality of Salem society that makes it particularly receptive to the repression and panic of the witch trials. The Puritan life in Salem is rigid and sombre, allowing little room for persons to break from the monotony and strict work ethic that dominated the close-knit society.
Furthermore, the Puritan religious ethic informed all aspects of society, promoting safeguards against immorality at any cost to personal privacy or justice. The Puritans of Massachusetts were a religious faction who, after years of suffering persecution themselves, developed a willful sense of community to guard against infiltration from outside sources. It is this paradox that Miller finds to be a major theme of The Crucible: in order to keep the community together, members of that community believe that they must in some sense tear it apart.
Miller relates the intense paranoia over the integrity of the Puritan community to their belief that they are in some sense a chosen people who will forge a new destiny for the world. This relates strongly to the political climate of the early 1950s in which Miller wrote The Crucible. After the end of the second world war, the United States found itself engaged in a struggle for political supremacy with communist forces, in particular the Soviet Union; just as the Salem authorities believe that witchcraft threatens their community, many Americans during this time saw communism as a threat to the American way of life.
However, the Salem witch trials as described by Miller have a sexual element that runs concurrent with the political aspects of the allegory. The community is one that promotes interference in all personal matters and intensely frowns upon any sinful conduct without allowing for any legitimate expurgation of sin. The witch trials serve as a means to break from this stifling atmosphere and publicly confess one's sins through accusation.
This simultaneous fear of and fascination with sexuality is a theme that predominates throughout The Crucible, as demonstrated by the particular relationship between Abigail Williams and John Proctor and the sexual undertones of the dancing that instigates the witchcraft trials, and it also relates to the quality of 1950s culture in which the play was written.
The first act establishes the primary characters of the play who instigate the Salem witch trials. Each has his particular obsessions and motivations that drive him to push for the trials. The first and perhaps most reprehensible of these characters is the Reverend Samuel Parris, a man who symbolizes the particular quality of moral repression and paranoia that characterize the trials. Miller immediately establishes Parris as a man whose main concern is his reputation and status in the community and not the well-being of his daughter, for whom he shows little emotion. It is Tituba who shows more concern for Betty Parris than her father, who rules his household as an autocrat.
When he discusses finding Abigail and Betty dancing in the woods, his concern is not the sin that they committed but rather the possibility that his enemies may use this sin against him. Parris will manifest a sharp paranoia concerning possible enemies, even when they may not exist. The particular quality of Parris that renders him dangerous is his strong belief in the presence of evil; even before the witchcraft paranoia, Proctor indicates that Parris showed an obsession with damnation and hell in order to strike fear into his parishioners. With the seeming presence of witchcraft in Salem, Parris now has a concrete, physical manifestation of the evil he so fears.
Abigail Williams is a less complex character whose motivations are simple; she is a clear villain with straightforward malicious motivation. Miller establishes that Abigail is suspected of adultery with John Proctor, a rumor that is confirmed later in the first act, while Abigail physically threatens the other girls if they disobey her. Abigail demonstrates a great ability for self-preservation: she admits what she must at appropriate times, and places the blame for her actions at the most convenient source, Tituba, when she realizes that it is the most savvy course of action.
Abigail's lack of any morality renders her able to charge others with witchery no matter the consequences. The third character who serves as a proponent of the witchcraft hysteria is Thomas Putnam. While Putnam's motivation is suspicion and paranoia and Abigail's is mere villainy, Thomas Putnam demonstrates that his motivation is his longstanding grudges against others; the witchcraft trials give Putnam an opportunity to exact revenge against others, and, as will later be shown, to profit economically from others' executions.
The final character who sets the witchcraft trials in motion is Reverend John Hale. Hale is perhaps the most complex character in The Crucible, a man who approaches religious matters with the conviction of a scientist and a scientific emphasis on proper procedure. Hale holds the contradictory belief that they cannot rely on superstition to solve the girls' problems but that they may find a supernatural explanation for the events. Since he lacks the malicious motivations and obsessions that plague the other instigators of the trials, Reverend Hale has the ability to change his position, yet at this point he finds himself caught up in the hysteria he has helped to create.
In contrast to these four characters stand the three main opponents of the witchcraft accusations. The Nurses are the most straightforward of these; Miller portrays Rebecca Nurse and her husband as near saints who rely on practical wisdom and experience. In contrast, Giles Corey has none of the noble character of the Nurses, yet he can oppose Parris and Putnam because of his contentious, combative manner. Giles Corey is a man who cares not for public opinion and may therefore choose whichever position he finds most suitable, even if it places him in danger.
However, Miller places John Proctor as the main protagonist of the story and its moral center. Proctor, as Miller writes, is a man who can easily discern foolishness and has the will to oppose it. He is a rational man with a brusque manner who, like Giles Corey, has no qualms about expressing his opinion. Miller portrays Proctor as a decidedly modern character, who eschews superstition for rationality and expresses skepticism for the trappings of organized religion, particularly the obsession with hellfire and damnation that Parris expresses.
The particularly modern quality of John Proctor draws the audience sympathy to him, even if he is a self-professed sinner who had an affair with Abigail Williams. Yet this is the single sin that Proctor manifests and exists more as a plot point than as an organic character trait. The Proctor that Miller portrays throughout The Crucible seems hardly capable of giving in to lust for a manipulative and demonstrably wicked young girl.
Several significant themes emerge early in the play. One of these that Miller develops throughout the act is the capability for gossip and rumors to disseminate throughout the close-knit society of Salem. Miller establishes that Salem is a society in which little information is considered private; there is no line between public and private conduct, for all information is open to suspicion and question. This correlates to the McCarthy hearings, which probed into the lives of the suspected communists for evidence of their anti-American activity, no matter the actual relevance.
Perhaps the most important theme that Miller develops in this act is the ability for accusations to snowball. The charges against the girls and Tituba become perpetually more significant: at first they are accused of merely dancing, then of dancing naked. The charges proceed until Tituba is deemed a witch and accuses others of conspiring with Satan. Legitimate charges of dancing and sinful activity increase in magnitude until charges of Satanism arise. The irony of this situation is that the fight against sinfulness in Salem will become more sinful and malicious than any of the actual events that occurred.
Act 2 - "The Crucible"
Act 2
While the first act takes place in the ostensibly Œpublic' setting of Reverend Parris' home, the second act moves into what should be considered the private sphere of the Proctors' home. The conversation between John and Elizabeth Proctor is intimate and even at times mundane, but there is a significant subtext of tension that remains between the couple that is undoubtedly caused by Proctor's affair with Abigail Williams. Elizabeth Proctor is intensely suspicious of her husband, worrying when he arrives at home late for dinner and adopting a condescending tone when her husband admits that he was momentarily alone with Abigail Williams.
Miller establishes Elizabeth Proctor as a morally upright woman, respectable and dignified, yet with an air of superiority that renders her frigid and distant. Elizabeth has made her home into a repressive atmosphere, as she continues to punish her husband for his wrongdoing. Still, if Elizabeth Proctor adopts a tone of moral superiority it is because she is in a significant sense the superior of her contemporaries, with an unwavering belief in the capability of persons to remain moral.
Miller creates an atmosphere of guilt within the Proctor household that mirrors the similar conditions within the larger Puritan society. John Proctor has expressed contrition for his infidelity and asked for forgiveness, yet there is no sense of catharsis within his marriage nor ability for full reconciliation. The Proctor marriage is stagnant and stifling, as the weight of John's adultery is a perpetual consideration.
Miller demonstrates this, in particular, when Proctor states the Ten Commandments; while John, likely motivated by guilt, wishes to forget the commandment against adultery, it is Elizabeth who offers him a sharp reminder. Miller seems to indicate that, like the rest of their Puritan society, the Proctors need an outlet to expiate John's sins and without this means for redemption they are committed to a perpetual obsession with the husband's infidelity.
Two major themes emerge in the second act of The Crucible. The first of these is the line between public and private. The chapter itself moves from the intimate conversation between husband and wife to more public matters, but the division between these two spheres becomes obscure. Even in setting, the public discussions of the Proctors' guilt or innocence occurs within the home.
. More importantly, Reverend Hale and the other court officials use private information for their public matters, such as information about the frequency with which they attend church and their belief in the validity of witches. The court officials investigate all aspects of the suspects' private lives. Under such intense scrutiny, these officials are able to find any information that may be may interpreted as evidence of guilt. This certainly relates to the intense public scrutiny of Miller's contemporary McCarthy hearings in which information about who was present at communist meetings years before was considered relevant.
The second major theme of the act is the ambiguity of evidence. This begins even before Hale arrives at the Proctors' home, when Elizabeth Proctor construes John's late arrival at home as possible evidence that he may be guilty of additional indiscretions. This continues with Reverend Hale's misinterpretation of John's forgetfulness of one of the Ten Commandments and the evidence against Martha Corey, which deems her a witch for reading books.
The most significant symbol of this theme in the second act is Mary Warren's poppet. Although Miller makes it clear to the audience that Proctor did not use the poppet as a charm against Abigail Williams, its presence in the house certain attests to this conclusion.
The poppet demonstrates that Abigail Williams is more villainous than earlier indicated. In the first act she behaved solely out of self-interest. She was ready to do harm to others, but only to save herself. However, in this instance she purposely frames Elizabeth Proctor out of revenge, planting the poppet as a means to engineer Elizabeth's murder. This event even serves to break the icy exterior of Elizabeth Proctor, who deems that Abigail must be "ripped out of the world."
Miller creates a situation of bleak irony in this chapter with the arrest of Rebecca Nurse and Elizabeth Proctor. These characters are the most upright in the play, yet are accused of witchcraft by the two most ignoble, Thomas Putnam and Abigail Williams. The dynamic of the witchcraft hysteria has created a situation in which the accuser of witchcraft is automatically presumed holy, as Proctor notes, while even the most spiritual character may be suspected of a Satanic alliance. In this situation the evil persons of Salem may raise their reputations at the expense of the good.
An additional irony that Miller constructs in the act is in the plot structure. The Proctors and their allies can rely on a single person to save themselves from Abigail Williams' treachery. Yet this person, Mary Warren, is the weakest and most pliable character in The Crucible. She alone has the power to stop the hysteria of the witchcraft trials, but neither the strength nor resolve to effect this act. Mary requires intense coercion from John Proctor to even consider admitting to the falsehood in court.
However, despite her weakness Mary Warren is as dangerous as Abigail, for the guileless girl betrays none of Abigail's malicious bearing and thus appears more overtly innocent. She is a pawn who may be used by the Proctors to prove their innocence, but Miller foreshadows that Mary Warren may be used by Abigail to serve her own purposes.
Among the characters in the play, it is Reverend Hale who demonstrates the most prominent character development. While the other characters remain fixed in their particular allegiances and beliefs, Hale demonstrates the debilitating effects of the witchcraft trials by the change in his character. When he reappears in the third act he has none of the enthusiasm of before; although he clings to his belief in the absolute certainty of finding proof of witchery within Salem, Hale appears more tentative about the results.
He demonstrates a strong feeling of guilt for his actions, as shown by his reliance on what he grasps as indisputable evidence; like Pontius Pilate, to whom Proctor compares Hale, he wants to play only a passive role in the proceedings without any feeling of personal responsibility. Hale's growing disillusionment foreshadows his later repudiation of the court's actions.
While the first act takes place in the ostensibly Œpublic' setting of Reverend Parris' home, the second act moves into what should be considered the private sphere of the Proctors' home. The conversation between John and Elizabeth Proctor is intimate and even at times mundane, but there is a significant subtext of tension that remains between the couple that is undoubtedly caused by Proctor's affair with Abigail Williams. Elizabeth Proctor is intensely suspicious of her husband, worrying when he arrives at home late for dinner and adopting a condescending tone when her husband admits that he was momentarily alone with Abigail Williams.
Miller establishes Elizabeth Proctor as a morally upright woman, respectable and dignified, yet with an air of superiority that renders her frigid and distant. Elizabeth has made her home into a repressive atmosphere, as she continues to punish her husband for his wrongdoing. Still, if Elizabeth Proctor adopts a tone of moral superiority it is because she is in a significant sense the superior of her contemporaries, with an unwavering belief in the capability of persons to remain moral.
Miller creates an atmosphere of guilt within the Proctor household that mirrors the similar conditions within the larger Puritan society. John Proctor has expressed contrition for his infidelity and asked for forgiveness, yet there is no sense of catharsis within his marriage nor ability for full reconciliation. The Proctor marriage is stagnant and stifling, as the weight of John's adultery is a perpetual consideration.
Miller demonstrates this, in particular, when Proctor states the Ten Commandments; while John, likely motivated by guilt, wishes to forget the commandment against adultery, it is Elizabeth who offers him a sharp reminder. Miller seems to indicate that, like the rest of their Puritan society, the Proctors need an outlet to expiate John's sins and without this means for redemption they are committed to a perpetual obsession with the husband's infidelity.
Two major themes emerge in the second act of The Crucible. The first of these is the line between public and private. The chapter itself moves from the intimate conversation between husband and wife to more public matters, but the division between these two spheres becomes obscure. Even in setting, the public discussions of the Proctors' guilt or innocence occurs within the home.
. More importantly, Reverend Hale and the other court officials use private information for their public matters, such as information about the frequency with which they attend church and their belief in the validity of witches. The court officials investigate all aspects of the suspects' private lives. Under such intense scrutiny, these officials are able to find any information that may be may interpreted as evidence of guilt. This certainly relates to the intense public scrutiny of Miller's contemporary McCarthy hearings in which information about who was present at communist meetings years before was considered relevant.
The second major theme of the act is the ambiguity of evidence. This begins even before Hale arrives at the Proctors' home, when Elizabeth Proctor construes John's late arrival at home as possible evidence that he may be guilty of additional indiscretions. This continues with Reverend Hale's misinterpretation of John's forgetfulness of one of the Ten Commandments and the evidence against Martha Corey, which deems her a witch for reading books.
The most significant symbol of this theme in the second act is Mary Warren's poppet. Although Miller makes it clear to the audience that Proctor did not use the poppet as a charm against Abigail Williams, its presence in the house certain attests to this conclusion.
The poppet demonstrates that Abigail Williams is more villainous than earlier indicated. In the first act she behaved solely out of self-interest. She was ready to do harm to others, but only to save herself. However, in this instance she purposely frames Elizabeth Proctor out of revenge, planting the poppet as a means to engineer Elizabeth's murder. This event even serves to break the icy exterior of Elizabeth Proctor, who deems that Abigail must be "ripped out of the world."
Miller creates a situation of bleak irony in this chapter with the arrest of Rebecca Nurse and Elizabeth Proctor. These characters are the most upright in the play, yet are accused of witchcraft by the two most ignoble, Thomas Putnam and Abigail Williams. The dynamic of the witchcraft hysteria has created a situation in which the accuser of witchcraft is automatically presumed holy, as Proctor notes, while even the most spiritual character may be suspected of a Satanic alliance. In this situation the evil persons of Salem may raise their reputations at the expense of the good.
An additional irony that Miller constructs in the act is in the plot structure. The Proctors and their allies can rely on a single person to save themselves from Abigail Williams' treachery. Yet this person, Mary Warren, is the weakest and most pliable character in The Crucible. She alone has the power to stop the hysteria of the witchcraft trials, but neither the strength nor resolve to effect this act. Mary requires intense coercion from John Proctor to even consider admitting to the falsehood in court.
However, despite her weakness Mary Warren is as dangerous as Abigail, for the guileless girl betrays none of Abigail's malicious bearing and thus appears more overtly innocent. She is a pawn who may be used by the Proctors to prove their innocence, but Miller foreshadows that Mary Warren may be used by Abigail to serve her own purposes.
Among the characters in the play, it is Reverend Hale who demonstrates the most prominent character development. While the other characters remain fixed in their particular allegiances and beliefs, Hale demonstrates the debilitating effects of the witchcraft trials by the change in his character. When he reappears in the third act he has none of the enthusiasm of before; although he clings to his belief in the absolute certainty of finding proof of witchery within Salem, Hale appears more tentative about the results.
He demonstrates a strong feeling of guilt for his actions, as shown by his reliance on what he grasps as indisputable evidence; like Pontius Pilate, to whom Proctor compares Hale, he wants to play only a passive role in the proceedings without any feeling of personal responsibility. Hale's growing disillusionment foreshadows his later repudiation of the court's actions.
Act 3 of "The Crucible"
Act 3
Among the characters in the play, it is Deputy Governor Danforth who seems to provide the most obvious symbol of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Danforth rules over the proceedings as if he automatically has assigned guilt to the accused suspects, and adopts a harsh and vindictive air. However, Miller does not make Danforth a direct equivalent of the irrational demagogue McCarthy; rather, Danforth is a stern, cold man of unfailing faith in his judicial powers.
He does not manifest any particular political ambition, but instead acts to preserve the strength of the court over which he rules. This does make Danforth suspicious of any attack on the plaintiffs and the proceedings, but does allow him some room for flexibility. He uses reason to persuade Proctor to drop his charges against Abigail, telling him that his wife is spared for at least a year and that he need not worry about her execution.
. It is Danforth's stern rationality that makes him a more disturbing figure; he is not a malicious villain equivalent to Abigail Williams or Thomas Putnam, but rather a man who operates out of intense faith in the integrity of his court. He operates under the assumption that good and evil can be clearly and intensely defined, a flaw of tragic irony. In his desperate hope to sharply delineate good and evil, Danforth becomes the willing accomplice of those who obscure this line.
It is Reverend Parris who appears as the demagogue in this act of the play, denouncing all challenges to the court as challenges to Christianity and God himself. Parris is paranoid and foolish, demanding that all ninety-one people who attest to the good name of the three accused women be brought in for questioning. It is Parris' rabid defense of the trials that finally causes Hale to break from the court and offer a defense of the Proctors, Coreys and Nurses.
Parris knows that the trials are a fraud and that the girls are lying, yet continues to push against witchcraft to suit his ends.
Miller develops the motivations of the proponents of the witchcraft trials in this chapter. Reverend Parris remains motivated by suspicion and paranoia, while Thomas Putnam moves from an original motivation of grudges against others to unabashed greed. Abigail Williams, in contrast, has moved from self-preservation to a more general lust for power. However, upon the arrest of Rebecca Nurse and Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale now eschews the supernatural explanations for more concrete, legal explanations.
He redeems himself from his role as a Pontius Pilate by serving as an advocate for justice. This is significant, for it provides concrete evidence that opposition to the trials does not necessarily mean opposition to law and order.
Deputy Governor Danforth espouses the central irony of the witchcraft trials: because there can be no concrete evidence of witchcraft, one must automatically assume that accusations are true, for the only two persons who take part in the crime are the witch and the victim, and the witch will never accuse herself. This essentially negates the idea of evidence, taking opinion and allegation to be concrete fact. It is this flaw that on which Abigail Williams and the other girls capitalize when making their accusations.
Miller establishes that it takes only a simple accusation for a person to be convicted of witchcraft. Thomas Putnam uses this for economic gain, coercing his daughter into accusing George Jacobs so that he may purchase his land once Jacobs has been executed. Yet it is Abigail Williams who brings this particular quality into sharp relief. Abigail is intense and dramatic; she targets the weak-willed Mary Warren, knowing that she will easily break from her alliance with Proctor once challenged.
When Abigail pretends to see a yellow bird attacking her, it is an obvious falsehood, yet the court accepts it as truth because they have established that such evidence is irrefutable proof.
The chapter culminates to encompass two central ironies. The first of these is that, to prove his own innocence and prove himself faithful to his wife, John Proctor must publicly declare his infidelity. To save Elizabeth and protect himself from an inevitable accusation of witchcraft, Proctor must tear down his name and condemn himself for the crime of lechery.
Despite Proctor's obvious sin, this places Proctor as a martyr, sacrificing any chance for a good reputation in Salem, where public reputation is essential, in order to save his wife and others wrongly accused of witchcraft.
The second irony involves the testimony of Elizabeth Proctor. To save her husband from accusations of witchcraft, she must condemn him for lechery. Miller establishes that she is an honest woman who never lies, yet at the moment in which her honesty is most critical she chooses the noble yet practical lie that she believes will defend her husband. As Hale notes, it is a natural lie for Elizabeth Proctor to tell, yet an incredibly ill-timed one; Elizabeth Proctor chooses dishonesty at the precise moment that her integrity matters the most.
Miller continues the theme of revolving accusations in this act when Mary finally breaks down and accuses Proctor of witchcraft. Fearful of her own life, Mary realizes that the only way to save herself is to accuse Proctor of coercing her into attempting to overthrow the court. In this case the accusation contains some truth: Proctor did force Mary Warren into testifying, yet in this case the purpose is to promote true justice rather than to dispute it.
At the end of this chapter, Proctor condemns himself by claiming that God is dead. When he states this, he speaks metaphorically, lamenting a world in which a stock villain such as Abigail Williams may preside over the ostensibly just and moral society of Salem. Once again Proctor gives into melodramatics when faced with injustice. He may be correct, yet expresses his righteousness through means that make him an easy target for those such as Abigail and Reverend Parris.
Among the characters in the play, it is Deputy Governor Danforth who seems to provide the most obvious symbol of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Danforth rules over the proceedings as if he automatically has assigned guilt to the accused suspects, and adopts a harsh and vindictive air. However, Miller does not make Danforth a direct equivalent of the irrational demagogue McCarthy; rather, Danforth is a stern, cold man of unfailing faith in his judicial powers.
He does not manifest any particular political ambition, but instead acts to preserve the strength of the court over which he rules. This does make Danforth suspicious of any attack on the plaintiffs and the proceedings, but does allow him some room for flexibility. He uses reason to persuade Proctor to drop his charges against Abigail, telling him that his wife is spared for at least a year and that he need not worry about her execution.
. It is Danforth's stern rationality that makes him a more disturbing figure; he is not a malicious villain equivalent to Abigail Williams or Thomas Putnam, but rather a man who operates out of intense faith in the integrity of his court. He operates under the assumption that good and evil can be clearly and intensely defined, a flaw of tragic irony. In his desperate hope to sharply delineate good and evil, Danforth becomes the willing accomplice of those who obscure this line.
It is Reverend Parris who appears as the demagogue in this act of the play, denouncing all challenges to the court as challenges to Christianity and God himself. Parris is paranoid and foolish, demanding that all ninety-one people who attest to the good name of the three accused women be brought in for questioning. It is Parris' rabid defense of the trials that finally causes Hale to break from the court and offer a defense of the Proctors, Coreys and Nurses.
Parris knows that the trials are a fraud and that the girls are lying, yet continues to push against witchcraft to suit his ends.
Miller develops the motivations of the proponents of the witchcraft trials in this chapter. Reverend Parris remains motivated by suspicion and paranoia, while Thomas Putnam moves from an original motivation of grudges against others to unabashed greed. Abigail Williams, in contrast, has moved from self-preservation to a more general lust for power. However, upon the arrest of Rebecca Nurse and Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale now eschews the supernatural explanations for more concrete, legal explanations.
He redeems himself from his role as a Pontius Pilate by serving as an advocate for justice. This is significant, for it provides concrete evidence that opposition to the trials does not necessarily mean opposition to law and order.
Deputy Governor Danforth espouses the central irony of the witchcraft trials: because there can be no concrete evidence of witchcraft, one must automatically assume that accusations are true, for the only two persons who take part in the crime are the witch and the victim, and the witch will never accuse herself. This essentially negates the idea of evidence, taking opinion and allegation to be concrete fact. It is this flaw that on which Abigail Williams and the other girls capitalize when making their accusations.
Miller establishes that it takes only a simple accusation for a person to be convicted of witchcraft. Thomas Putnam uses this for economic gain, coercing his daughter into accusing George Jacobs so that he may purchase his land once Jacobs has been executed. Yet it is Abigail Williams who brings this particular quality into sharp relief. Abigail is intense and dramatic; she targets the weak-willed Mary Warren, knowing that she will easily break from her alliance with Proctor once challenged.
When Abigail pretends to see a yellow bird attacking her, it is an obvious falsehood, yet the court accepts it as truth because they have established that such evidence is irrefutable proof.
The chapter culminates to encompass two central ironies. The first of these is that, to prove his own innocence and prove himself faithful to his wife, John Proctor must publicly declare his infidelity. To save Elizabeth and protect himself from an inevitable accusation of witchcraft, Proctor must tear down his name and condemn himself for the crime of lechery.
Despite Proctor's obvious sin, this places Proctor as a martyr, sacrificing any chance for a good reputation in Salem, where public reputation is essential, in order to save his wife and others wrongly accused of witchcraft.
The second irony involves the testimony of Elizabeth Proctor. To save her husband from accusations of witchcraft, she must condemn him for lechery. Miller establishes that she is an honest woman who never lies, yet at the moment in which her honesty is most critical she chooses the noble yet practical lie that she believes will defend her husband. As Hale notes, it is a natural lie for Elizabeth Proctor to tell, yet an incredibly ill-timed one; Elizabeth Proctor chooses dishonesty at the precise moment that her integrity matters the most.
Miller continues the theme of revolving accusations in this act when Mary finally breaks down and accuses Proctor of witchcraft. Fearful of her own life, Mary realizes that the only way to save herself is to accuse Proctor of coercing her into attempting to overthrow the court. In this case the accusation contains some truth: Proctor did force Mary Warren into testifying, yet in this case the purpose is to promote true justice rather than to dispute it.
At the end of this chapter, Proctor condemns himself by claiming that God is dead. When he states this, he speaks metaphorically, lamenting a world in which a stock villain such as Abigail Williams may preside over the ostensibly just and moral society of Salem. Once again Proctor gives into melodramatics when faced with injustice. He may be correct, yet expresses his righteousness through means that make him an easy target for those such as Abigail and Reverend Parris.
Act 4 of "The Crucible"
The fourth act of The Crucible largely concerns the perversion of justice that has occurred in Salem. Miller demonstrates this immediately in the comic interlude that opens the act. Tituba and Sarah Good are foolish comic foils whose claims of communing with Satan are intended to be absurd. Yet while these women are spared the gallows because they have confessed to witchcraft, persons such as Rebecca Nurse who refuse to admit to a crime they did not commit remain sentenced to execution.
This large-scale inversion of justice is reflected in the larger workings of Salem society. As Parris claims, there is the possibility of rebellion because of the witchcraft trials, while the numerous people who remain in jail have caused the village to fall into shambles. This is yet another example of the irony of the witchcraft trials: while they meant to preserve the order of society, the trials throw Salem into a state of anarchy and rebellion.
However, since the previous act there has been a shift in the public opinion concerning the trials. Miller indicates that the citizens of Salem supported the trials when the victims were obviously disreputable members of the community, but now that the executions of the more respectable community members are imminent. This reinforces the idea that the Salem witch trials were in part vindictive; the purpose of the trials was not to remove witches from Salem, but rather to remove certain members of the community for other reasons.
For the citizens of Salem, the executions only become unacceptable when they involve those honored members of the community, even if the charges against them have the same proof, or lack thereof, as those against the disreputable Bridget Bishop or Sarah Osburn. The implications of this are wholly cynical: the shift in public opinion is not a turn toward justice but rather an expression of personal preference.
If there is a sense of justice in The Crucible, it is meted out to Reverend Parris and Abigail Williams in this chapter. Reverend Parris reveals himself to be a fool capable of being easily manipulated by Abigail Williams, whose guilt seems obvious thanks to her sudden escape from town and theft of Reverend Parris' savings. However, even with these revelations which cast further doubt on the validity of Abigail's charges of witchery against others, the Salem court continues with the trials and executions.
This demonstrates that the trials have taken on a life of their own separate from the accusations of the principles, who set legal machinations in motion that even they cannot stop. This therefore fulfills the theme of snowballing accusations that Miller established early in the play. The accusations began with Abigail Williams, but now, supported by the weight of the judiciary, the prosecution does not stop with her downfall.
Contrasting considerations of self-interest lead Danforth and Parris to beg John Proctor to confess to witchcraft. While Parris fears for his physical safety, Deputy Governor Danforth operates to defend the court from further attack. The change in Danforth's overt motivation is important: previously, Danforth meant to uphold the integrity of the court, but here he suggests corruption to simply preserve the political stature of the government; he even worries if postponing the executions might show weakness on the part of the court.
By prompting Proctor to give an obviously false confession, Danforth indicates that he likely believes that the witchcraft allegations are false. This fully demonstrates how the witch hunts have gained a life of their own; considerations of reputation and the political dynamic lead the court to continue with prosecutions and executions even when the original proponents of the trials are proven disreputable and even when the political officials who run these trials show serious doubt concerning the validity of the charges.
The final passages of The Crucible concern ideas of martyrdom and justice. Miller places three of the accused as possible martyrs, each representing different methods and approaches to self-sacrifice. Giles Corey, the first of the noble victims of the trials, remains the comic tragedian even in the event of his death death. He does not passively accept the decision of the court, but struggles against the court's charges. Even when Giles Corey dies at the hands of the court, he chooses his fate, giving as his last words the order "more weight" when he is pressed by stones.
In contrast, Rebecca Nurse accepts her fate passively, remaining consigned to her fate and thus placing herself as a long-suffering martyr to the court's injustice. Unlike the truculent Giles Corey, Rebecca Nurse only displays those most Christian qualities of resignation and turning the other cheek, but in behaving as such she does nothing.
The critical test for John Proctor in this act is whether he will accept the martyrdom of Giles Corey and Rebecca Nurse or choose self-interest. Proctor himself proposes the question of whether a sinful man may accept martyrdom by clinging to principles he has not always upheld. The saintly Rebecca Nurse may accept martyrdom because it suits her character, but the sinful Proctor questions whether or not it is hypocrisy to stand for his principles when he is an overt sinner.
Miller implies that Proctor can choose self-sacrifice for his principles, for it is not a question simply of his reputation, but that of his family and his community. Proctor may not be an exemplar in all matters, but he could not serve as a father to his children if he were to so readily give up his name to preserve himself.
The second question of this chapter is whether it is a worse sin to lie to save oneself or to make a decision that directly leads to one's death. This is the fulfillment of the theme of self-preservation that has recurred throughout the novel.
While Hale suggests that God damns a liar less than a person who throws one's life away, Elizabeth suggests that this is the devil's argument. Miller seems to support Elizabeth's position, for it is by giving self-preserving lies that Tituba and Sarah Good perpetuated the witch hunts.
Elizabeth Proctor serves as the moral conscience in this act of The Crucible. It is she who puts forth the most prominent arguments for Proctor accepting his own death, despite her stated wish that she wants her husband to remain alive. This could be interpreted as another manifestation of Elizabeth's cold nature, for she remains seemingly more concerned about abstract moral principles than her husband's life; Danforth even questions whether Elizabeth does have any sense of tenderness.
However, Miller counteracts the possibility that Elizabeth Proctor is an unfailingly cold woman; she refuses to attempt to influence her husband even if her position is clear, and she even admits her failings, accepting some portion of the blame for her husband's infidelity. Elizabeth shows herself to be more fragile during this act of the play, allowing her to serve as the story's moral conscience rather than a proponent of abstract and harsh moral law.
The negotiations between Proctor and Danforth concerning his confession illustrate the theme of public versus private redemption. Proctor insists that his penitence remain private, while Danforth requires a public declaration of guilt and a further condemnation of other witches. It is this critical factor that turns Proctor to accepting his martyrdom when he chooses sacrificing himself to stop the perpetuation of the witchcraft accusations. Proctor thus answers his own concern about martyrdom, ending his life with an action that remains indisputably noble dispute the sins he has previously committed.
This large-scale inversion of justice is reflected in the larger workings of Salem society. As Parris claims, there is the possibility of rebellion because of the witchcraft trials, while the numerous people who remain in jail have caused the village to fall into shambles. This is yet another example of the irony of the witchcraft trials: while they meant to preserve the order of society, the trials throw Salem into a state of anarchy and rebellion.
However, since the previous act there has been a shift in the public opinion concerning the trials. Miller indicates that the citizens of Salem supported the trials when the victims were obviously disreputable members of the community, but now that the executions of the more respectable community members are imminent. This reinforces the idea that the Salem witch trials were in part vindictive; the purpose of the trials was not to remove witches from Salem, but rather to remove certain members of the community for other reasons.
For the citizens of Salem, the executions only become unacceptable when they involve those honored members of the community, even if the charges against them have the same proof, or lack thereof, as those against the disreputable Bridget Bishop or Sarah Osburn. The implications of this are wholly cynical: the shift in public opinion is not a turn toward justice but rather an expression of personal preference.
If there is a sense of justice in The Crucible, it is meted out to Reverend Parris and Abigail Williams in this chapter. Reverend Parris reveals himself to be a fool capable of being easily manipulated by Abigail Williams, whose guilt seems obvious thanks to her sudden escape from town and theft of Reverend Parris' savings. However, even with these revelations which cast further doubt on the validity of Abigail's charges of witchery against others, the Salem court continues with the trials and executions.
This demonstrates that the trials have taken on a life of their own separate from the accusations of the principles, who set legal machinations in motion that even they cannot stop. This therefore fulfills the theme of snowballing accusations that Miller established early in the play. The accusations began with Abigail Williams, but now, supported by the weight of the judiciary, the prosecution does not stop with her downfall.
Contrasting considerations of self-interest lead Danforth and Parris to beg John Proctor to confess to witchcraft. While Parris fears for his physical safety, Deputy Governor Danforth operates to defend the court from further attack. The change in Danforth's overt motivation is important: previously, Danforth meant to uphold the integrity of the court, but here he suggests corruption to simply preserve the political stature of the government; he even worries if postponing the executions might show weakness on the part of the court.
By prompting Proctor to give an obviously false confession, Danforth indicates that he likely believes that the witchcraft allegations are false. This fully demonstrates how the witch hunts have gained a life of their own; considerations of reputation and the political dynamic lead the court to continue with prosecutions and executions even when the original proponents of the trials are proven disreputable and even when the political officials who run these trials show serious doubt concerning the validity of the charges.
The final passages of The Crucible concern ideas of martyrdom and justice. Miller places three of the accused as possible martyrs, each representing different methods and approaches to self-sacrifice. Giles Corey, the first of the noble victims of the trials, remains the comic tragedian even in the event of his death death. He does not passively accept the decision of the court, but struggles against the court's charges. Even when Giles Corey dies at the hands of the court, he chooses his fate, giving as his last words the order "more weight" when he is pressed by stones.
In contrast, Rebecca Nurse accepts her fate passively, remaining consigned to her fate and thus placing herself as a long-suffering martyr to the court's injustice. Unlike the truculent Giles Corey, Rebecca Nurse only displays those most Christian qualities of resignation and turning the other cheek, but in behaving as such she does nothing.
The critical test for John Proctor in this act is whether he will accept the martyrdom of Giles Corey and Rebecca Nurse or choose self-interest. Proctor himself proposes the question of whether a sinful man may accept martyrdom by clinging to principles he has not always upheld. The saintly Rebecca Nurse may accept martyrdom because it suits her character, but the sinful Proctor questions whether or not it is hypocrisy to stand for his principles when he is an overt sinner.
Miller implies that Proctor can choose self-sacrifice for his principles, for it is not a question simply of his reputation, but that of his family and his community. Proctor may not be an exemplar in all matters, but he could not serve as a father to his children if he were to so readily give up his name to preserve himself.
The second question of this chapter is whether it is a worse sin to lie to save oneself or to make a decision that directly leads to one's death. This is the fulfillment of the theme of self-preservation that has recurred throughout the novel.
While Hale suggests that God damns a liar less than a person who throws one's life away, Elizabeth suggests that this is the devil's argument. Miller seems to support Elizabeth's position, for it is by giving self-preserving lies that Tituba and Sarah Good perpetuated the witch hunts.
Elizabeth Proctor serves as the moral conscience in this act of The Crucible. It is she who puts forth the most prominent arguments for Proctor accepting his own death, despite her stated wish that she wants her husband to remain alive. This could be interpreted as another manifestation of Elizabeth's cold nature, for she remains seemingly more concerned about abstract moral principles than her husband's life; Danforth even questions whether Elizabeth does have any sense of tenderness.
However, Miller counteracts the possibility that Elizabeth Proctor is an unfailingly cold woman; she refuses to attempt to influence her husband even if her position is clear, and she even admits her failings, accepting some portion of the blame for her husband's infidelity. Elizabeth shows herself to be more fragile during this act of the play, allowing her to serve as the story's moral conscience rather than a proponent of abstract and harsh moral law.
The negotiations between Proctor and Danforth concerning his confession illustrate the theme of public versus private redemption. Proctor insists that his penitence remain private, while Danforth requires a public declaration of guilt and a further condemnation of other witches. It is this critical factor that turns Proctor to accepting his martyrdom when he chooses sacrificing himself to stop the perpetuation of the witchcraft accusations. Proctor thus answers his own concern about martyrdom, ending his life with an action that remains indisputably noble dispute the sins he has previously committed.
Monday, November 12, 2007
yarr
am putting this up so i can get it at home ^^ lol
and help if your internet is working please :S
and help if your internet is working please :S
""Harry Potter And The philosophers Stone
This study will look at the theme of good and evil in JK Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone’, we will also focus on Rowling’s use of characterisation, setting and symbolism. Harry is a young boy whose life has not been the best up till when he discovers he’s a wizard. He goes into this new world makes friends and enemies and finds an old one too who almost kills him but Harry escapes and continues on his new happy life.""
OOft Please God Make It Thursday
Please Please Please Please Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please PleasePlease Please Please
pretty please make it thursday most of the class have no chance at all of getting it in =[
Pretty Please are you sure that alcohol won't swing it
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Technical Terms (reposted)
Alliteration:the repetition of the same consonant sound in two or more word.
Allusion:A reference to another event, place, person, or piece of literature.
Ambiguity:Words or phrases in which the meaning is unclear or which has more than one possible interpretation.
Archaic:old-fashioned language; used to describe words which are seldom used any more.
Assonance:The repetition of similar vowel sounds.
Blank Verse:Unrhymed poetry in iambic pentameter.
Cliche:A phrase, idea or image that has been used so much that it has lost its original meaning and significance.
Climax:Building up to a high point or important moment.
Colloquial:Ordinary, everyday speech.
Connotation:The implication or suggestion attached to a word or phrase.
Couplet:Two consecutive lines of verse that rhyme.
Dialect: a way of speaking in certain areas of the country.
Enjambement:A line of verse that flows on to the next line without pause.
Euphemism: A softer, less harsh way of expressing something unpleasant.
Extended Image: A comparison that is repeated in more than one place in a poem or is continued throughout the writing.
Feminine Rhyme: Rhyme of more than one syllable (eg. constitution)
Figurative Language: Language which is symbolic or metaphorical; not meant to be taken literally, such as similes, metaphors and personification.
Hyperbole: elaborate exaggeration.
Imagery: The use of words to create pictures or images for the reader.
Infinitive: "To" plus a verb form, such as "to jump" or "to swim".Internal Rhyme: Rhyming words within a line rather than at the end of lines.
Inversion: Word order which places the verb before the subject or otherwise "inverts" the usual structure of a sentence with which we are familiar - subject, verb, object - and thereby puts emphasis on the word which is out of order.
Irony: Saying one thing while meaning another: a word or phrase has a surface meaning but the opposite, often contradictory, meaning is implied.
Jargon: Language which is particular to a particular profession or occupation.Juxtaposition: Placing togther two items which are not usually placed together to create a striking combination.
Masculine Rhyme: Rhyme of one syllable.
Metaphor: A comparison of two things to make a description more vivid. the metaphor states that one thing is the other; whereas, a simile would say that it is "like" or "as" the other object.
Metre: Regular use of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry.
Monosyllabic: Single syllable.
Mood: THe overall emotional feeling or atmosphere communicated by a piece of writing.
Octave: The first eight lines of a Petrarchal sonnet.
Onomatopoeia: The use of words whos sound copies the sound of the thing they describe.
Oxymoron: A figure of speech which joins together words of opposite meanings.
Paradox: A puzzle; a statement that appears contradictory, but when it is considered more closely it is seen to be true.
Parallel Sentence Structure: Two sentences follow the same structure of syntax or pattern. usually used to show either a contrast in the ideas of the two sentences or a similarity. (Also known as a balanced sentence or "antithesis")
Parenthetical: from paraenthesis: a word or phrase which gives extra information and is not strictly speaking necessary for the sense. These phrases are placed within brackets or commas.
Parody: A work that is written in imitation of another work, usually written to make fun of the original work.
Pejorative: A negative suggestion or implication of a word.
Pentameter: A line of verse containing five feet.
Persona: The "person" in the poem - not necessarily the poet; it is the perspective or point of view from which the poem is written.
Personification: Giving human qualities to an inanimate object. A metaphor in which an inanimate object is likened to a person.
Polysyllabic: Made up of more than one syllable.Polysyndetic: The joining of words in a list with "and" between each of the items. Usually this is used to emphasise or draw attention to some feature of the list.
Pun: a play o words: two words that have similar sounds but different meanings.
Quatrain: A stanza of four lines which rhyme.
Refrain: Repetition throughout a poem of a phrase, line or verse.
Rhetorical Question: A question which does not require an answer because the answer is obvious or because it is implied in the question.
Rhyme: Corresponding sounds in words, usually at the end of lines.
Rhyme Scheme: The pattern of rhyme in a poem.Sarcasm: Usually a very cruel or cutting remark.
Satire: The exposing of human failings by ridiculing them.
Sestet: The last six lines of a Petrarchan sonnet.
Sibilants: Words which begin with "s" or soft "c", like "soft shoes".
Simile: A comparison of one thing to another in order to make a description more vivid. Similes use the words "like" or "as".
Simple Sentence: A sentence which has one clause with a subject and verb.
Sonnet: A fourteen line poem. A petrarchan sonnet has an octave and a sestet which is often a puzzle followed by an "answer" or a resolution. A Shakespearean sonnet is three quatrains plus a couplet. The quatrains are often related and an idea is developed throughout the quatrains reaching a climax or conclusion in the final couplet.
Stanza: The blocks of lines into which a poem is divided.
Stream of Conciousness: A technique in which the writer writes down thoughts and emotions as they come into mind without seeming to bother about an order or structure.
Structure: The way that a piece of writing is put togther.
Style: The individual way in which a writer uses language to express ideas.Symbol: A physical object representative of something else.
Syntax: The way in which sentences are constructed.
Theme: the central idea or ideas that are explored in a piece of literature.
Tone: The author's voice or overall impression created in the poem. it is created in a combination of ways, such as word choice, sentece structure, rhythm, rhyme.
Transferred Epithet: An adjective which is usually applied to a person is applied to an object to draw attention to the quality.
Verse: A unit of Poetry
Villanelle: A verse form which is complex and artificial. It has a very tight rhyme scheme: aba aba aba aba aba abaa. Certain lines are repeated entirely: line 1 is repeated in lines 6, 12, 18; line 3 is repeated in lines 9,15 and 19.
Allusion:A reference to another event, place, person, or piece of literature.
Ambiguity:Words or phrases in which the meaning is unclear or which has more than one possible interpretation.
Archaic:old-fashioned language; used to describe words which are seldom used any more.
Assonance:The repetition of similar vowel sounds.
Blank Verse:Unrhymed poetry in iambic pentameter.
Cliche:A phrase, idea or image that has been used so much that it has lost its original meaning and significance.
Climax:Building up to a high point or important moment.
Colloquial:Ordinary, everyday speech.
Connotation:The implication or suggestion attached to a word or phrase.
Couplet:Two consecutive lines of verse that rhyme.
Dialect: a way of speaking in certain areas of the country.
Enjambement:A line of verse that flows on to the next line without pause.
Euphemism: A softer, less harsh way of expressing something unpleasant.
Extended Image: A comparison that is repeated in more than one place in a poem or is continued throughout the writing.
Feminine Rhyme: Rhyme of more than one syllable (eg. constitution)
Figurative Language: Language which is symbolic or metaphorical; not meant to be taken literally, such as similes, metaphors and personification.
Hyperbole: elaborate exaggeration.
Imagery: The use of words to create pictures or images for the reader.
Infinitive: "To" plus a verb form, such as "to jump" or "to swim".Internal Rhyme: Rhyming words within a line rather than at the end of lines.
Inversion: Word order which places the verb before the subject or otherwise "inverts" the usual structure of a sentence with which we are familiar - subject, verb, object - and thereby puts emphasis on the word which is out of order.
Irony: Saying one thing while meaning another: a word or phrase has a surface meaning but the opposite, often contradictory, meaning is implied.
Jargon: Language which is particular to a particular profession or occupation.Juxtaposition: Placing togther two items which are not usually placed together to create a striking combination.
Masculine Rhyme: Rhyme of one syllable.
Metaphor: A comparison of two things to make a description more vivid. the metaphor states that one thing is the other; whereas, a simile would say that it is "like" or "as" the other object.
Metre: Regular use of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry.
Monosyllabic: Single syllable.
Mood: THe overall emotional feeling or atmosphere communicated by a piece of writing.
Octave: The first eight lines of a Petrarchal sonnet.
Onomatopoeia: The use of words whos sound copies the sound of the thing they describe.
Oxymoron: A figure of speech which joins together words of opposite meanings.
Paradox: A puzzle; a statement that appears contradictory, but when it is considered more closely it is seen to be true.
Parallel Sentence Structure: Two sentences follow the same structure of syntax or pattern. usually used to show either a contrast in the ideas of the two sentences or a similarity. (Also known as a balanced sentence or "antithesis")
Parenthetical: from paraenthesis: a word or phrase which gives extra information and is not strictly speaking necessary for the sense. These phrases are placed within brackets or commas.
Parody: A work that is written in imitation of another work, usually written to make fun of the original work.
Pejorative: A negative suggestion or implication of a word.
Pentameter: A line of verse containing five feet.
Persona: The "person" in the poem - not necessarily the poet; it is the perspective or point of view from which the poem is written.
Personification: Giving human qualities to an inanimate object. A metaphor in which an inanimate object is likened to a person.
Polysyllabic: Made up of more than one syllable.Polysyndetic: The joining of words in a list with "and" between each of the items. Usually this is used to emphasise or draw attention to some feature of the list.
Pun: a play o words: two words that have similar sounds but different meanings.
Quatrain: A stanza of four lines which rhyme.
Refrain: Repetition throughout a poem of a phrase, line or verse.
Rhetorical Question: A question which does not require an answer because the answer is obvious or because it is implied in the question.
Rhyme: Corresponding sounds in words, usually at the end of lines.
Rhyme Scheme: The pattern of rhyme in a poem.Sarcasm: Usually a very cruel or cutting remark.
Satire: The exposing of human failings by ridiculing them.
Sestet: The last six lines of a Petrarchan sonnet.
Sibilants: Words which begin with "s" or soft "c", like "soft shoes".
Simile: A comparison of one thing to another in order to make a description more vivid. Similes use the words "like" or "as".
Simple Sentence: A sentence which has one clause with a subject and verb.
Sonnet: A fourteen line poem. A petrarchan sonnet has an octave and a sestet which is often a puzzle followed by an "answer" or a resolution. A Shakespearean sonnet is three quatrains plus a couplet. The quatrains are often related and an idea is developed throughout the quatrains reaching a climax or conclusion in the final couplet.
Stanza: The blocks of lines into which a poem is divided.
Stream of Conciousness: A technique in which the writer writes down thoughts and emotions as they come into mind without seeming to bother about an order or structure.
Structure: The way that a piece of writing is put togther.
Style: The individual way in which a writer uses language to express ideas.Symbol: A physical object representative of something else.
Syntax: The way in which sentences are constructed.
Theme: the central idea or ideas that are explored in a piece of literature.
Tone: The author's voice or overall impression created in the poem. it is created in a combination of ways, such as word choice, sentece structure, rhythm, rhyme.
Transferred Epithet: An adjective which is usually applied to a person is applied to an object to draw attention to the quality.
Verse: A unit of Poetry
Villanelle: A verse form which is complex and artificial. It has a very tight rhyme scheme: aba aba aba aba aba abaa. Certain lines are repeated entirely: line 1 is repeated in lines 6, 12, 18; line 3 is repeated in lines 9,15 and 19.
Friday, September 28, 2007
New year - New Class
Hello Higher class 2007/2008.
Welcome to the forum that is my blog. As you know you are taking over this blog from last year's class, but that does not mean you are simply replacing them. You are adding to the wealth of knowledge already displayed. Feel free to look at the postings already made. There is a great deal of brilliant stuff on here. However, do NOT delete anything once it is posted. That is my job! There is a lot of stuff on here that I would like to keep but not had a chance to archive yet.
Over the next few months you will find various hints and tips about the texts studied and to help you with exam technique. There may also be a few surprises along the way. You must check this regularly for feedback, homework tasks, etc.
So welcome and enjoy!
Ms. Moore
Welcome to the forum that is my blog. As you know you are taking over this blog from last year's class, but that does not mean you are simply replacing them. You are adding to the wealth of knowledge already displayed. Feel free to look at the postings already made. There is a great deal of brilliant stuff on here. However, do NOT delete anything once it is posted. That is my job! There is a lot of stuff on here that I would like to keep but not had a chance to archive yet.
Over the next few months you will find various hints and tips about the texts studied and to help you with exam technique. There may also be a few surprises along the way. You must check this regularly for feedback, homework tasks, etc.
So welcome and enjoy!
Ms. Moore
Thursday, September 27, 2007
wehey ^^
wehey i got the blog thing to work for me ^^ score lol so..... aye and that ^^
and omg i can use html :O wehey ^^
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Hooray!!
At long last my dodgy internet has finally been fixed. I know that is not much use to those of you who have been posted recently. I apologise so much. I hope that the exam went well. I have seen a few of you and it doesn't sound like it was a disaster.
Anyway 3 things:
1. Please return your copies of the Crucible and any other materials you have as soon as possible.
2. If you want to come out for some chinese buffet then come and see me by the 1st so that I can add you to the list of names.
3. It is really important you all come along as it will be my leaving do. For those of you who have not already heard I am leaving at the end of June to go and work at Drummond Community High in Edinburgh as PT English and Drama.
Come and see me soon, I am having higher class withdrawl symptoms!!
Ms. Moore
Anyway 3 things:
1. Please return your copies of the Crucible and any other materials you have as soon as possible.
2. If you want to come out for some chinese buffet then come and see me by the 1st so that I can add you to the list of names.
3. It is really important you all come along as it will be my leaving do. For those of you who have not already heard I am leaving at the end of June to go and work at Drummond Community High in Edinburgh as PT English and Drama.
Come and see me soon, I am having higher class withdrawl symptoms!!
Ms. Moore
No More English
Well this year was.... not quite sure how to describe it, the words strange and torture come to mind but thats just me :) No more english for some of us but good luck to you people who took Advanced Higher, why you would take more english, we have no idea. While im here, Miss whats happening about the going out for a meal thing?
Anyways Good Luck to everyone with their exam results
Anyways Good Luck to everyone with their exam results
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Hiyaa
Hiya miss I was just wondering, when are we getting our trick essays back? And are you going away to France on wed or thurs?
Becca D X
Becca D X
Monday, May 07, 2007
tRICK ESSAY ON IDENTITY
HELLO MISS WOULD IT BE POSS IF YOU COULD LOOK OVER THIS ESSAY AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK PLEASE! MUCH LOVE XX
Choose a novel which the writer uses different techniques to convey the main theme.
Focus on how you feel these techniques are specifically important for an overall understanding of the novel and the main character.
In “The Trick Is To Keep Breathing” by Janice Galloway one of the main themes is identity. This essay will focus on the main techniques that the writer uses to portray the theme of identity. The novel is about a grieving young Scotswoman, our protagonist, Joy Stone. She has lost her partner, Michael, in an accident on holiday where he tragically drowned, after banging his head, when diving into the pool. We see Joy at her worst right through to her recovery and Joy begins to adopt her own identity towards the end.
Joy makes various comments about herself which give us proof that she fees she has no identity. “This is my workplace. This is where I earn my definition, the place that tells me what I am.” This is an early reference to Joy’s identity. It is an example of Joy distancing her from herself, she feels she is known by her job, a drama teacher, but not for who she is but “what” she is. She uses her job to disguise her true identity, she feels her real identity will not be acceptable, so uses her job as a security blanket to protect her from other people. Joy also begs “can you speak to me, just speak to me!” Showing her complete insecurity, she feels she has to beg for someone to speak to her, not just ask “can I speak to you?” She does not feel anyone wants to listen to what she has to say.
Janice Galloway uses script to further exaggerate this idea, the script shows how Joy thinks she should behave and so, she finds this quite simple to act out by following her mental script. In these scripts she is a PATIENT, EMPLOYEE, HARRIDAN, IMPATIENT, however she is never JOY in these scripts, but she is, in one script, ME – this is when she is recovering, Janice Galloway uses ME in this script reflecting her confidence and a realisation of her own self. In this conversation Joy is shown to be more confident and strong rejecting Tony “No!” hence the reason Galloway feels the need to use ME in this script. Also in the novel she says “It’s okay. It’s just me. It’s me..” once again not referring to herself as Joy separating Joy from the person she wants people to see. Janice Galloway repeats Joy’s feelings of low self-confidence once again by saying “It’s just me.” She feels insignificant.
Joy’s identity is so lost that she can’t even identify with her own body. Not only can Joy not identify with anyone else but she can’t identify with herself. Joy does not see her body as a whole she sees it in separate parts “to accommodate the tilting, adjusting, redistributing pieces of myself.” Without Michael she no longer feels like a whole person and without Michael she no longer feels she has an identity. She feels she is just a body she is nothing, this idea is emphasised at the service when the minister gives his sympathies to Michael’s wife and family, but she is not mentioned, “I didn’t exist.” “The miracle had wiped me out.” She feels completely lost as her source of identity, Michael, was dead and she was not even allowed to be acknowledged for being part of his life. This repeats the feeling of her being insignificant.
Galloway uses magazine articles to show how Joy is in search of her identity. As she cannot find her own solution, she feels that an agony aunt will tell her. However because no one else has a problem she can identify with she once again feels loss “I push the magazine aside and let the tears drip.” She gets upset when she finds that no one has the answer for her and that there isn’t anyone she can identify with. The horoscopes are a way for Joy to try to create an identity instead of seeing what could happen she uses them as a guideline of how to live. However as Joy begins to recover she acknowledges she needs her own dependence “I have to stop reading these fucking magazines!” This moment is highly significant for Joy who begins to re-identify with herself.
Galloway’s different techniques are very effective in showing the theme of identity, or lack of it. In Joy’s situation it is natural for her to feel loss of part of herself. Re-identifying with herself was necessary for her to fully recover. However this theme would not have been as well portrayed had it not been for the stream of conscience narrative which Galloway adopts. Allowing the reader to empathise with Joy and really feel her sense of confusion and loss of her identity. The use of script and magazines showed also to be very effective as the reader feels like they are reading the magazine with Joy or using a script with her. These techniques help the reader to have an overall understanding of the recovery of Joy Stone and how she comes to realisation of her problem with the central them- identity.
DANIELLE LOCKE
Choose a novel which the writer uses different techniques to convey the main theme.
Focus on how you feel these techniques are specifically important for an overall understanding of the novel and the main character.
In “The Trick Is To Keep Breathing” by Janice Galloway one of the main themes is identity. This essay will focus on the main techniques that the writer uses to portray the theme of identity. The novel is about a grieving young Scotswoman, our protagonist, Joy Stone. She has lost her partner, Michael, in an accident on holiday where he tragically drowned, after banging his head, when diving into the pool. We see Joy at her worst right through to her recovery and Joy begins to adopt her own identity towards the end.
Joy makes various comments about herself which give us proof that she fees she has no identity. “This is my workplace. This is where I earn my definition, the place that tells me what I am.” This is an early reference to Joy’s identity. It is an example of Joy distancing her from herself, she feels she is known by her job, a drama teacher, but not for who she is but “what” she is. She uses her job to disguise her true identity, she feels her real identity will not be acceptable, so uses her job as a security blanket to protect her from other people. Joy also begs “can you speak to me, just speak to me!” Showing her complete insecurity, she feels she has to beg for someone to speak to her, not just ask “can I speak to you?” She does not feel anyone wants to listen to what she has to say.
Janice Galloway uses script to further exaggerate this idea, the script shows how Joy thinks she should behave and so, she finds this quite simple to act out by following her mental script. In these scripts she is a PATIENT, EMPLOYEE, HARRIDAN, IMPATIENT, however she is never JOY in these scripts, but she is, in one script, ME – this is when she is recovering, Janice Galloway uses ME in this script reflecting her confidence and a realisation of her own self. In this conversation Joy is shown to be more confident and strong rejecting Tony “No!” hence the reason Galloway feels the need to use ME in this script. Also in the novel she says “It’s okay. It’s just me. It’s me..” once again not referring to herself as Joy separating Joy from the person she wants people to see. Janice Galloway repeats Joy’s feelings of low self-confidence once again by saying “It’s just me.” She feels insignificant.
Joy’s identity is so lost that she can’t even identify with her own body. Not only can Joy not identify with anyone else but she can’t identify with herself. Joy does not see her body as a whole she sees it in separate parts “to accommodate the tilting, adjusting, redistributing pieces of myself.” Without Michael she no longer feels like a whole person and without Michael she no longer feels she has an identity. She feels she is just a body she is nothing, this idea is emphasised at the service when the minister gives his sympathies to Michael’s wife and family, but she is not mentioned, “I didn’t exist.” “The miracle had wiped me out.” She feels completely lost as her source of identity, Michael, was dead and she was not even allowed to be acknowledged for being part of his life. This repeats the feeling of her being insignificant.
Galloway uses magazine articles to show how Joy is in search of her identity. As she cannot find her own solution, she feels that an agony aunt will tell her. However because no one else has a problem she can identify with she once again feels loss “I push the magazine aside and let the tears drip.” She gets upset when she finds that no one has the answer for her and that there isn’t anyone she can identify with. The horoscopes are a way for Joy to try to create an identity instead of seeing what could happen she uses them as a guideline of how to live. However as Joy begins to recover she acknowledges she needs her own dependence “I have to stop reading these fucking magazines!” This moment is highly significant for Joy who begins to re-identify with herself.
Galloway’s different techniques are very effective in showing the theme of identity, or lack of it. In Joy’s situation it is natural for her to feel loss of part of herself. Re-identifying with herself was necessary for her to fully recover. However this theme would not have been as well portrayed had it not been for the stream of conscience narrative which Galloway adopts. Allowing the reader to empathise with Joy and really feel her sense of confusion and loss of her identity. The use of script and magazines showed also to be very effective as the reader feels like they are reading the magazine with Joy or using a script with her. These techniques help the reader to have an overall understanding of the recovery of Joy Stone and how she comes to realisation of her problem with the central them- identity.
DANIELLE LOCKE
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Hello Miss
Hi Miss. I've got a couple of questions if thats OK.
If I was talking about symbolism in "Trick" would you say that Joy's name is symbollic and why?
Also there's a essay question about Choosing a poem in which contrast is used to classify a key idea. I was wondering if I could use Victor and talk about the form of the nursery ryhme and how that contrasts to his violent actions towards Anna??
Thank
Katie
If I was talking about symbolism in "Trick" would you say that Joy's name is symbollic and why?
Also there's a essay question about Choosing a poem in which contrast is used to classify a key idea. I was wondering if I could use Victor and talk about the form of the nursery ryhme and how that contrasts to his violent actions towards Anna??
Thank
Katie
Monday, April 30, 2007
help with the trick
miss
when im re-reading the trick im finding a lot of quotes that show that Joy is suppressing things, like where she cuts off in the middle of sentences etc. where i could write a lot about them but i cant think of any sort of essay i could put them in
what kind of questions would be good to use those kind of quotes in?
and what kind of questions would be good for th trick in general? coz ive only ever written about narrative structure i think...
Michael M :)
when im re-reading the trick im finding a lot of quotes that show that Joy is suppressing things, like where she cuts off in the middle of sentences etc. where i could write a lot about them but i cant think of any sort of essay i could put them in
what kind of questions would be good to use those kind of quotes in?
and what kind of questions would be good for th trick in general? coz ive only ever written about narrative structure i think...
Michael M :)
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Right, Here's The Thing...
Right, I was looking through my school books, you know as you do, and I realised to myself, where is "The Crucible"? And I looked and looked and I still can't find it. I found An Inspector Calls by J.B bloody Priestley but I just can not find THE CRUCIBLE, I'm not panicking or that because we only have a PRELIM tomorrow and it's only paper 2, the ESSAY section.
Yeah....not panicking IN THE SLIGHTEST.....
Yeah....not panicking IN THE SLIGHTEST.....
Monday, April 16, 2007
the trick i realised i put it up as adraft lol! i h8 pc's! danielle locke
Critical essay “The Trick is To Keep Breathing” by Janice Galloway
The novel “The Trick is to Keep Breathing” by Janice Galloway revolves around an ironically name character, Joy Stone. By looking at the opening section of the novel the reader is faced with the main ideas of the book. These ideas are repeated throughout the book and by introducing these themes at the beginning of the novel the opening section is proved to be very effective. This study will prove how effective the opening is by focussing on imagery and the use of scripts and then connecting these ideas with quotes taken from later on in the text.
As Joy Stone is grieving the loss of her partner, the opening passage is set in a rather depressing atmosphere and we are immediately introduced to the idea that Joy no longer feels part of her body, “I watch myself from the corner of the room.” she feels her mind and body are separate. It’s as if she does not have much control over her body because she is watching what it is doing.The huge gap between her mind and body reflects the huge gap between her mindset and reality this allows the reader to have a good insight into her mental stability at this point in the novel. The idea of her body and mind being separate is repeated many times throughout the book, an example of this is when she is crying to the psychiatrist “cold spots dripped on my upturned palms but I didn’t feel it was me crying. I could find no connection between these splashes and me.” Joy describes her tears as “cold spots” and “splashes” she denies the tears of being any part of her. Crying is one of the most intense physical expressions the body uses to convey the mind’s distress. By rejecting her tears Joy is again denying that her body has any insight into her mind and is again allowing a big separation.
As Joy sits alone in the dark in her living room we are confronted with two very important uses of imagery light and water. Both of which are incredibly important to Michael’s death. Light because brightness of that sunny day by the pool and also because a very dark thing happened on that day. In the opening paragraph Joy tells us “It looks emptier when the lights are on.” This portrays the loneliness Joy feels and we can immediately sympathise with her. This idea of light is also continued through the book however as Joy begins to recover we see her liken to the idea of light. As shown on the last page “watching the coloured lights” To begin and finish with the idea of light is very effective as it shows the complete contrast in tone which light mainly symbolised.
The water imagery is used continuously and especially in the opening section. Joy tells us at the beginning that there is a wet patch on her floor “It seeps when I put my shoe near, bleeding at the rim of leather, suckling at the sole.” she makes an immediate connection with water to death “bleeding at the rim of the leather” this is also a personification this might be because if she can think of the water as a person there is someone to blame. She describes the water to be “sucking at sole” however we can also interpret this as “suckling at the soul” the water has drained her soul when it took Michael away. The idea of seeing water as the murderer is eventually defeated when Joy, at the end of the book, decides to take swimming lessons.
Joy Stone is a drama teacher however when she did not want to open up to someone or was scared to, she went into an acting mode this is demonstrated in the novel by using a script, and this is also introduced in the opening section.
HEALTH VISITER So, how are you/how’s life/what’s been
happening/anything interesting to tell
me/what’s new?
PATIENT Oh, fine/nothing to speak of.
She does not mention names by doing this she keeps it very impersonal and business like because after all acting is her job. Janice Galloway uses lots of these small scripts throughout the novel usually when Joy has to discuss her mental health with a professional for example
DR THREE what sort of treatment do you want?
PATIENT I don’t know. What do you suggest?
Towards the end these begin to be less frequent. We understand that she is recovering from her breakdown because she no longer needs that barrier.
“The Trick is to keep Breathing” has a very effective opening section because we were immediately introduced to the themes that would be carried throughout the novel all of which are incredibly important to Joy’s recovery. The light imagery showed Joy’s tone and successfully portrayed her recovery at the end but to understand the importance of the light the reader needed to be faced with this imagery primarily so to get insight into her depression. The water imagery was very dangerous and sinister to begin with it really set the tone to reveal Joy depressed alone and scared. The separation of Joy’s mind from reality is really effectively described through imagery. Her separation from reality is furthermore shown through Joy’s script. To show all these main ideas in the opening section shows to incredibly valuable to get to know Joy’s mental stability.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Polly's 'Trick' Essay
Choose a novel or a short story in which humour plays an important part. Explain how the humour is created and show how it made an important contribution to your enjoyment of the text as a whole.
“The Trick is to Keep Breathing” by Janice Galloway is a powerful, thought provoking novel told using a stream of consciousness narrative that traps the reader inside the head of the protagonist, Joy Stone, as she struggles with a bout depression after the death of her partner. Considering the novel’s dark subject matter, it is surprising that humour plays a hugely important part in this story. This essay will examine how this humour is created and its contribution to the reader’s enjoyment of the text as a whole.
Joy often jokes about her job as a teacher, denouncing the Scottish Education system in a very familiar way for Scottish readers to recognise. For example - “Scottish Education: apportion blame that ye have not blame apportioned unto you. It wisny me, it was you/him/her/a wee man and he ran away”. The use of colloquial Scottish language here, like “wisny”, is amusing, particularly to a Scottish reader as they can relate directly to this stereotype of Scots ‘passing the buck’, so to speak, and the comical excuse of “a wee man and he ran away” seems like just the sort of thing a teacher in Joy’s position is likely to hear working in an everyday Scottish secondary school. Also, the first sentence is very formal and proper, using words such as “apportion”, whereas the second is a complete contrast and blames “a wee man” rather than saying something more eloquent. This contrast creates a humorous effect and pokes fun at Scotland as a nation. As a result, the reader can see Joy finding fault within herself as a Scot, and despite the hints of humour that undoubtedly come across, it is clear that every inch of what makes Joy herself is tarred for her because of this depression, meaning she’s unable to stop criticising all aspects of her personality, whether she’s being comical or not. This allows the reader to really see just how much this depression has engulfed Joy, yet glimpses of her sense of humour determinedly still shine through.
Moreover, Joy continues to be comical, particularly in reference to her job as a teacher. She lists the disciplines that she teaches her pupils such as “routine”, “when to keep their mouths shut” and “how to put up with boredom and unfairness”. Finally, she teaches them the fifth item on her list - “not to go into teaching”, before quickly following this statement with “That isn’t true. And then again it is. I am never sure what it is I do.” This remark of teaching pupils not to follow her chosen career path is amusing, but is almost negated by her unnecessary comment that this isn’t actually the case. It also shows that she doubts herself, unsure of what it actually is that she does. Therefore we see that Joy almost doesn’t allow herself to be humorous, as if in light of her current tragic situation it wouldn’t be right and she would somehow be doing the wrong thing by cracking little jokes and lightening the tone. Consequently, it is clear that Joy’s partner Michael’s death has had a huge effect on her, causing her to doubt her true self - a beautiful, clever, and certainly funny woman. It’s as if she has to change because her situation has changed. However, it’s evident that, although suppressed, Joy’s sense of humour is still intact after Michael’s sudden death.
The novel’s climax can also be viewed in a humorous light. Joy’s has had to be anaesthetised after taking a turn and wanting to kill herself in an asylum. On a single page on it’s own there is just one word which sums up Joy’s reaction to what she has just tried to do - “oops.” Although dark humour, this is humorous nonetheless. If anything, it’s a comical reaction because the big climax of the novel is in fact a total anticlimax. The action speeds up before this point as Joy gets more and more frantic - “throwing off the sheets and searching, raking through a spill of make-up bag, magazines, paper and pens. Pills are missing… returns with a full needle the bitch the bitch… while the drug snakes a cold up the length of an arm.” Where you’d expect there to be a great explosion of action at the climax of a novel, the “oops” just slows things right down to a stop. Also, “oops” is a childish expression, a little exclamation after making a mistake, and is amusing because it’s as if Joy is just shrugging off this incredibly serious incident. It’s also a classic understatement that doesn’t quite illustrate the severity of the act. Even when it comes to matters as dark as suicide, Joy’s sense of humour is still there, darkened by depression, but certainly still there.
In conclusion, despite the novel’s serious subject matter, hints of humour still come across showing that despite all that Joy’s been through - her partner’s death, her being sectioned, a suicide attempt - she is still the same person she always was underneath, just slightly more fragile and saddened than before. Glimpses of her personality coming across show that although her depression has well and truly engulfed her, the real Joy underneath still remains. The comic interludes throughout the story are mildly uplifting, lightening the tone even if just for a moment, giving the reader hope that Joy could recover, feel better and regain a ‘normal’ way of life.
“The Trick is to Keep Breathing” by Janice Galloway is a powerful, thought provoking novel told using a stream of consciousness narrative that traps the reader inside the head of the protagonist, Joy Stone, as she struggles with a bout depression after the death of her partner. Considering the novel’s dark subject matter, it is surprising that humour plays a hugely important part in this story. This essay will examine how this humour is created and its contribution to the reader’s enjoyment of the text as a whole.
Joy often jokes about her job as a teacher, denouncing the Scottish Education system in a very familiar way for Scottish readers to recognise. For example - “Scottish Education: apportion blame that ye have not blame apportioned unto you. It wisny me, it was you/him/her/a wee man and he ran away”. The use of colloquial Scottish language here, like “wisny”, is amusing, particularly to a Scottish reader as they can relate directly to this stereotype of Scots ‘passing the buck’, so to speak, and the comical excuse of “a wee man and he ran away” seems like just the sort of thing a teacher in Joy’s position is likely to hear working in an everyday Scottish secondary school. Also, the first sentence is very formal and proper, using words such as “apportion”, whereas the second is a complete contrast and blames “a wee man” rather than saying something more eloquent. This contrast creates a humorous effect and pokes fun at Scotland as a nation. As a result, the reader can see Joy finding fault within herself as a Scot, and despite the hints of humour that undoubtedly come across, it is clear that every inch of what makes Joy herself is tarred for her because of this depression, meaning she’s unable to stop criticising all aspects of her personality, whether she’s being comical or not. This allows the reader to really see just how much this depression has engulfed Joy, yet glimpses of her sense of humour determinedly still shine through.
Moreover, Joy continues to be comical, particularly in reference to her job as a teacher. She lists the disciplines that she teaches her pupils such as “routine”, “when to keep their mouths shut” and “how to put up with boredom and unfairness”. Finally, she teaches them the fifth item on her list - “not to go into teaching”, before quickly following this statement with “That isn’t true. And then again it is. I am never sure what it is I do.” This remark of teaching pupils not to follow her chosen career path is amusing, but is almost negated by her unnecessary comment that this isn’t actually the case. It also shows that she doubts herself, unsure of what it actually is that she does. Therefore we see that Joy almost doesn’t allow herself to be humorous, as if in light of her current tragic situation it wouldn’t be right and she would somehow be doing the wrong thing by cracking little jokes and lightening the tone. Consequently, it is clear that Joy’s partner Michael’s death has had a huge effect on her, causing her to doubt her true self - a beautiful, clever, and certainly funny woman. It’s as if she has to change because her situation has changed. However, it’s evident that, although suppressed, Joy’s sense of humour is still intact after Michael’s sudden death.
The novel’s climax can also be viewed in a humorous light. Joy’s has had to be anaesthetised after taking a turn and wanting to kill herself in an asylum. On a single page on it’s own there is just one word which sums up Joy’s reaction to what she has just tried to do - “oops.” Although dark humour, this is humorous nonetheless. If anything, it’s a comical reaction because the big climax of the novel is in fact a total anticlimax. The action speeds up before this point as Joy gets more and more frantic - “throwing off the sheets and searching, raking through a spill of make-up bag, magazines, paper and pens. Pills are missing… returns with a full needle the bitch the bitch… while the drug snakes a cold up the length of an arm.” Where you’d expect there to be a great explosion of action at the climax of a novel, the “oops” just slows things right down to a stop. Also, “oops” is a childish expression, a little exclamation after making a mistake, and is amusing because it’s as if Joy is just shrugging off this incredibly serious incident. It’s also a classic understatement that doesn’t quite illustrate the severity of the act. Even when it comes to matters as dark as suicide, Joy’s sense of humour is still there, darkened by depression, but certainly still there.
In conclusion, despite the novel’s serious subject matter, hints of humour still come across showing that despite all that Joy’s been through - her partner’s death, her being sectioned, a suicide attempt - she is still the same person she always was underneath, just slightly more fragile and saddened than before. Glimpses of her personality coming across show that although her depression has well and truly engulfed her, the real Joy underneath still remains. The comic interludes throughout the story are mildly uplifting, lightening the tone even if just for a moment, giving the reader hope that Joy could recover, feel better and regain a ‘normal’ way of life.
Nicole's Trick Essay
‘‘The Trick Is To Keep Breathing’’
4. Choose a novel or a short story in which a technique (such as symbolism) is used by the author and is, in your view, vital to the success of the text. Explain how the writer employs this technique and why, in your opinion it is so important to your appreciation of the text.
Janice Galloway adopts a stream of consciousness narrative in ‘‘The Trick Is To Keep Breathing’’ which is vital to the success of the text. My essay will explore how Galloway employs narrative structure by using flashbacks and script in order to add to my appreciation of the novel.
A stream of consciousness narrative is a form of first person narration in which we can see the entire novel through the eyes of our protagonist, Joy Stone. This narrative traps the reader into Joy’s mind and allows us to experience every moment of the novel with Joy. Galloway wants the reader to experience Joy’s pain and recovery for themselves in order to understand how upset, mystified and desperate Joy has become. Throughout the novel, Joy’s thoughts are interrupted with a visual stimulus in which Galloway uses these interruptions to show Joy’s unstable mind which occasionally present us with a different narrative.
Galloway uses flashbacks which are written in the present tense to illustrate Joys recurring memory of Michael’s death. Galloway has used the present tense to show Joy is constantly reliving the memory and remembers it exceptionally well. The flashbacks are chronological, yet broken up which takes the reader along time to piece together which reflects Joy’s frame of mind. These flashbacks are subconscious interruptions which sometimes overlap to build on top of one another. In the opening flashback: ‘‘Now I remember everything all the time. You never know what you might need to recollect later, when the significance of the moment might appear.’’ demonstrates that before her husband died Joy couldn’t retain the good things in her life but now that Michael has died she’s committed to her memory and remembers everything because it is more important to her as if an element of her is missing. This shows her pain and grief as she remembers everything because of what she has lost. Additionally ‘‘A little boy, five or six, stands with a piece of shirt in one brown fist. Tugging. … signor you husband is dead.’’ highlights Joys pain and shows that her memory is very clear of what happened to Michael. ‘‘I look back at the child. His eyes bloom.’’ illustrates that the boys eyes shrivel and that Joy just seems to fade at this heart breaking news. These flashbacks are essential to the accomplishment of the text as without these the reader would not be able to relate to Joy and what happened to her previously so therefore this allows the reader to be trapped into Joy’s mind and experience her pain.
Galloway uses script to help support Joy’s feelings of being dissociated from events as well as a way for her to describe a conversation without using direct speech. This shows the reader at the beginning of the novel that Joy does not want to open up to the health visitor or doctor. Script helps Joy feels as though she is in control and suggests an idea of putting on an act which creates a sense of defamiliarisation as if anyone could take on either role. Galloway uses script when introducing the health visitor because Joy knows what the health visitor is going to ask her so she’s not herself again reinforcing the idea of putting on an act. This reflects her need for order and routine as it’s a schedule were she has puts on act several times before. ‘‘There’s a lot to do before she comes but it’s a set routine so I don’t need think.’’ This also shows that Joy feels as though she is separate from her physical being: ‘‘It just uses my body and runs itself…’’ As Joy watches the health visitor eating biscuits she feels intimidated and annoyed because she doesn’t want the health visitor to be there and the health visitor knows this : ‘‘This is the forth time we have played this fucking game.’’ showing that Joy is disgusted by it. When Joy says ‘‘You Always Expect To Much’’ emphasises that she thinks that the health visitor expects too much of her and makes her feel guilty because the health visitor seems disappointed and bothered as Joy is not giving the correct answers so she feels trapped by the health visitor . Script in the novel also helps to introduce the theme of identity. Joy is a drama teacher; sense of putting on an act. Drama teachers read scripts so Joy uses these to disguise her true identity. In the scripts Joy does not refer to herself but to: patient, Harridan, Me, Impatient and Employee showing that she does not identify with herself. Her only form of identity is her job so conversations are therefore written in script.
In conclusion narrative structure is vital to the success of the text as without this structure the reader would not understand and be able to relate to the protagonist Joy stone. In the novel the self-help book presents us with different steps of Joy’s grieving process which the reader sees her go through all the way throughout. This can rearrange the narrative of the novel to actually follow the chapters of the self-help book and adds to my appreciation of the text as it shows the reader exactly how Joy sees her life and in her particular order.
4. Choose a novel or a short story in which a technique (such as symbolism) is used by the author and is, in your view, vital to the success of the text. Explain how the writer employs this technique and why, in your opinion it is so important to your appreciation of the text.
Janice Galloway adopts a stream of consciousness narrative in ‘‘The Trick Is To Keep Breathing’’ which is vital to the success of the text. My essay will explore how Galloway employs narrative structure by using flashbacks and script in order to add to my appreciation of the novel.
A stream of consciousness narrative is a form of first person narration in which we can see the entire novel through the eyes of our protagonist, Joy Stone. This narrative traps the reader into Joy’s mind and allows us to experience every moment of the novel with Joy. Galloway wants the reader to experience Joy’s pain and recovery for themselves in order to understand how upset, mystified and desperate Joy has become. Throughout the novel, Joy’s thoughts are interrupted with a visual stimulus in which Galloway uses these interruptions to show Joy’s unstable mind which occasionally present us with a different narrative.
Galloway uses flashbacks which are written in the present tense to illustrate Joys recurring memory of Michael’s death. Galloway has used the present tense to show Joy is constantly reliving the memory and remembers it exceptionally well. The flashbacks are chronological, yet broken up which takes the reader along time to piece together which reflects Joy’s frame of mind. These flashbacks are subconscious interruptions which sometimes overlap to build on top of one another. In the opening flashback: ‘‘Now I remember everything all the time. You never know what you might need to recollect later, when the significance of the moment might appear.’’ demonstrates that before her husband died Joy couldn’t retain the good things in her life but now that Michael has died she’s committed to her memory and remembers everything because it is more important to her as if an element of her is missing. This shows her pain and grief as she remembers everything because of what she has lost. Additionally ‘‘A little boy, five or six, stands with a piece of shirt in one brown fist. Tugging. … signor you husband is dead.’’ highlights Joys pain and shows that her memory is very clear of what happened to Michael. ‘‘I look back at the child. His eyes bloom.’’ illustrates that the boys eyes shrivel and that Joy just seems to fade at this heart breaking news. These flashbacks are essential to the accomplishment of the text as without these the reader would not be able to relate to Joy and what happened to her previously so therefore this allows the reader to be trapped into Joy’s mind and experience her pain.
Galloway uses script to help support Joy’s feelings of being dissociated from events as well as a way for her to describe a conversation without using direct speech. This shows the reader at the beginning of the novel that Joy does not want to open up to the health visitor or doctor. Script helps Joy feels as though she is in control and suggests an idea of putting on an act which creates a sense of defamiliarisation as if anyone could take on either role. Galloway uses script when introducing the health visitor because Joy knows what the health visitor is going to ask her so she’s not herself again reinforcing the idea of putting on an act. This reflects her need for order and routine as it’s a schedule were she has puts on act several times before. ‘‘There’s a lot to do before she comes but it’s a set routine so I don’t need think.’’ This also shows that Joy feels as though she is separate from her physical being: ‘‘It just uses my body and runs itself…’’ As Joy watches the health visitor eating biscuits she feels intimidated and annoyed because she doesn’t want the health visitor to be there and the health visitor knows this : ‘‘This is the forth time we have played this fucking game.’’ showing that Joy is disgusted by it. When Joy says ‘‘You Always Expect To Much’’ emphasises that she thinks that the health visitor expects too much of her and makes her feel guilty because the health visitor seems disappointed and bothered as Joy is not giving the correct answers so she feels trapped by the health visitor . Script in the novel also helps to introduce the theme of identity. Joy is a drama teacher; sense of putting on an act. Drama teachers read scripts so Joy uses these to disguise her true identity. In the scripts Joy does not refer to herself but to: patient, Harridan, Me, Impatient and Employee showing that she does not identify with herself. Her only form of identity is her job so conversations are therefore written in script.
In conclusion narrative structure is vital to the success of the text as without this structure the reader would not understand and be able to relate to the protagonist Joy stone. In the novel the self-help book presents us with different steps of Joy’s grieving process which the reader sees her go through all the way throughout. This can rearrange the narrative of the novel to actually follow the chapters of the self-help book and adds to my appreciation of the text as it shows the reader exactly how Joy sees her life and in her particular order.
Trick.../Steph .
“The Trick is to Keep Breathing” by Janice Galloway is a novel which conveys one woman’s struggle, Joy Stone, to overcome her depression after her lover drowned. Galloway’s narrative structure helps convey Joy’s depression throughout the text, through her use of stream of consciousness narrative, scripts and flashbacks. This essay will explain why Galloway employs the technique of flashbacks and why this is so important to the reader’s appreciation of the text.
Galloway’s use of flashbacks help convey Joy’s depression after the loss of Michael and help to show the reader how serious Joy’s depression is. “I look down and his mouth is a red O. White water runs through his hair.” This shows how affected Joy is by his death, she constantly relives the nightmare and cannot forget him. The descriptive details used show how exact her memories are, she remembers every little detail about him, every moment, “ ..a red O.” These memories haunt her. By using this technique the reader gains sympathy for Joy and allows the reader to become involved in the text.
As well as conveying Joy’s depression the flashbacks also show Joy’s unstable mind. Joy could be anywhere doing anything, yet she could have a flashback. She cannot control her mind, “I don’t know where to put my clothes, how to fold them…it took three days to get him home. They had to call everyday to check. Not to me…” The jump from Joy’s normal thoughts her to her flashbacks is so abrupt and unprovoked. The reader can see from this the Joy is very unstable in her state of mind and needs serious help. Galloway has gained the reader onside with Joy and allows the reader to feel part of Joy’s mind, living every moment with her, sympathising and hoping she recovers.
Finally through the use of this technique Galloway does convey Joy’s recovery. The flashbacks calm down and become less frequent for Joy. This allows the reader to see Joy is finally taking back control of her life and feel happy for her. “His mouth touched my neck then the shadow length ended, moved into the sun…” her final flashback is easier to understand than any other, she also seems calmer conveying recovery. Galloway has taken the reader on a journey of Joy’s struggle, from breakdown to recovery gaining respect, sympathy and in some cases perhaps even relation to this character Joy Stone.
Throughout the text Galloway’s use of flashbacks keep the reader intensely interested and involved. Due to this the reader can learn a lot and partially understand what it can be like to be so lost in depression. Galloway uses this technique extremely well to enhance the reader in the text.
Galloway’s use of flashbacks help convey Joy’s depression after the loss of Michael and help to show the reader how serious Joy’s depression is. “I look down and his mouth is a red O. White water runs through his hair.” This shows how affected Joy is by his death, she constantly relives the nightmare and cannot forget him. The descriptive details used show how exact her memories are, she remembers every little detail about him, every moment, “ ..a red O.” These memories haunt her. By using this technique the reader gains sympathy for Joy and allows the reader to become involved in the text.
As well as conveying Joy’s depression the flashbacks also show Joy’s unstable mind. Joy could be anywhere doing anything, yet she could have a flashback. She cannot control her mind, “I don’t know where to put my clothes, how to fold them…it took three days to get him home. They had to call everyday to check. Not to me…” The jump from Joy’s normal thoughts her to her flashbacks is so abrupt and unprovoked. The reader can see from this the Joy is very unstable in her state of mind and needs serious help. Galloway has gained the reader onside with Joy and allows the reader to feel part of Joy’s mind, living every moment with her, sympathising and hoping she recovers.
Finally through the use of this technique Galloway does convey Joy’s recovery. The flashbacks calm down and become less frequent for Joy. This allows the reader to see Joy is finally taking back control of her life and feel happy for her. “His mouth touched my neck then the shadow length ended, moved into the sun…” her final flashback is easier to understand than any other, she also seems calmer conveying recovery. Galloway has taken the reader on a journey of Joy’s struggle, from breakdown to recovery gaining respect, sympathy and in some cases perhaps even relation to this character Joy Stone.
Throughout the text Galloway’s use of flashbacks keep the reader intensely interested and involved. Due to this the reader can learn a lot and partially understand what it can be like to be so lost in depression. Galloway uses this technique extremely well to enhance the reader in the text.
Friday, April 06, 2007
Trick essay
Choose a novel or short story in which a central character's failure to understand the reality of his or her situation is an important feature of the text. Explain how the writer makes you aware of this failure, and show how it is important to your appreciation of the text as a whole.
Joy Stone is a central character in Janice Galloway’s ‘The Trick is to Keep Breathing’ who fails to understand the reality of her situation. This essay will examine how Galloway makes the reader aware of this lack of understanding, and how important it is to the reader’s appreciation of the novel.
Joy’s mental state is made apparent from the beginning of the novel as she makes several desperate and paranoid sounding remarks, such as ‘They never give you any warning’ and ‘You never know…when the significance of the moment might appear’, immediately conveying her mental instability to the reader, and illustrating her distorted perception of reality. She no longer sees the world like everybody else, instead choosing to believe such improbable things as being able to ‘watch herself from the corner of the room’, which either means she feels disconnected from her body, or she keeps a mirror in the corner.
The idea of Joy’s mind seeing her body as a collection of disparate parts is revisited many more times in the novel, with Galloway at one point devoting an entire paragraph to the simple act of Joy getting out of a chair, using long and painfully slow sentences such as ‘releasing pressure and rebalancing in the chair to accommodate the tilting, adjusting, redistributing pieces of myself’. In doing so, Galloway effectively conveys the difficulty Joy is experiencing, with the long sentences mirroring the amount of time it takes for Joy to make the necessary effort to stand up, and the slow pace of the sentences mirroring the speed of Joy’s movements. It doesn’t make for particularly riveting reading, however.
Joy’s inability to understand her reality is also conveyed via the use of marginalia; these seemingly random and pointless words that sit on the edges of pages represent Joy’s subconscious thoughts encroaching on Joy’s conscious mind, and so show the astute reader that she is intentionally blocking out the truth of her situation; indeed, she first recognises this truth before the beginning of the timeline of the novel, in the house of her friend’s mother, Ellen. Joy says ‘I remember watching her face changing, and having to acknowledge then that something was wrong’, yet during the main portion of the book, Joy blocks out this realisation in favour of living in a dream world, shunning light and fearing water. The marginalia contains messages that pertain to Joy’s situation, usually in the form of warnings, yet the way in which they are continually blocked out makes Joy’s denial of the facts of her life clear to the reader, assuming said reader is still possessive of any vague interest in the novel by this point. Another giveaway is that the presence of the marginalia decreases drastically after Joy’s stay in the institution, as after this point, she listens to her subconscious and has fully realised her situation, therefore her subconscious has no need to ‘shout’ at her any more, and so the marginalia is absent thereafter.
All these techniques come together to reinforce the idea that Joy has lost all grip on anything resembling reality, but why is this important? Well, for a start, if it was absent, the novel would have even less of a plotline that it currently does, but the main purpose of Joy’s instability is to convey how much of an effect Michael’s death has had on her, how much he meant to her, and to put Joy’s actions in the rest of the novel into a believable context. This causes more forgiving readers to feel sympathy for Joy, and increases the likelihood of them reading the novel all the way to the end, where Joy is marginally less depressed. Joy’s lack of conscious understanding or acknowledgement of her situation is therefore a major feature of the text, one which adds depth and a semblance of credibility to the tale.
In short, Galloway’s main character most definitely fails to understand the reality of her situation, and Galloway makes use of many different techniques to convey this and to highlight its importance, making it an important feature of the text as a whole, and a feature that undoubtedly contributes to the reader’s appreciation of the text. This, however, assumes the reader has any appreciation of it in the first place.
Steven Thomson
Joy Stone is a central character in Janice Galloway’s ‘The Trick is to Keep Breathing’ who fails to understand the reality of her situation. This essay will examine how Galloway makes the reader aware of this lack of understanding, and how important it is to the reader’s appreciation of the novel.
Joy’s mental state is made apparent from the beginning of the novel as she makes several desperate and paranoid sounding remarks, such as ‘They never give you any warning’ and ‘You never know…when the significance of the moment might appear’, immediately conveying her mental instability to the reader, and illustrating her distorted perception of reality. She no longer sees the world like everybody else, instead choosing to believe such improbable things as being able to ‘watch herself from the corner of the room’, which either means she feels disconnected from her body, or she keeps a mirror in the corner.
The idea of Joy’s mind seeing her body as a collection of disparate parts is revisited many more times in the novel, with Galloway at one point devoting an entire paragraph to the simple act of Joy getting out of a chair, using long and painfully slow sentences such as ‘releasing pressure and rebalancing in the chair to accommodate the tilting, adjusting, redistributing pieces of myself’. In doing so, Galloway effectively conveys the difficulty Joy is experiencing, with the long sentences mirroring the amount of time it takes for Joy to make the necessary effort to stand up, and the slow pace of the sentences mirroring the speed of Joy’s movements. It doesn’t make for particularly riveting reading, however.
Joy’s inability to understand her reality is also conveyed via the use of marginalia; these seemingly random and pointless words that sit on the edges of pages represent Joy’s subconscious thoughts encroaching on Joy’s conscious mind, and so show the astute reader that she is intentionally blocking out the truth of her situation; indeed, she first recognises this truth before the beginning of the timeline of the novel, in the house of her friend’s mother, Ellen. Joy says ‘I remember watching her face changing, and having to acknowledge then that something was wrong’, yet during the main portion of the book, Joy blocks out this realisation in favour of living in a dream world, shunning light and fearing water. The marginalia contains messages that pertain to Joy’s situation, usually in the form of warnings, yet the way in which they are continually blocked out makes Joy’s denial of the facts of her life clear to the reader, assuming said reader is still possessive of any vague interest in the novel by this point. Another giveaway is that the presence of the marginalia decreases drastically after Joy’s stay in the institution, as after this point, she listens to her subconscious and has fully realised her situation, therefore her subconscious has no need to ‘shout’ at her any more, and so the marginalia is absent thereafter.
All these techniques come together to reinforce the idea that Joy has lost all grip on anything resembling reality, but why is this important? Well, for a start, if it was absent, the novel would have even less of a plotline that it currently does, but the main purpose of Joy’s instability is to convey how much of an effect Michael’s death has had on her, how much he meant to her, and to put Joy’s actions in the rest of the novel into a believable context. This causes more forgiving readers to feel sympathy for Joy, and increases the likelihood of them reading the novel all the way to the end, where Joy is marginally less depressed. Joy’s lack of conscious understanding or acknowledgement of her situation is therefore a major feature of the text, one which adds depth and a semblance of credibility to the tale.
In short, Galloway’s main character most definitely fails to understand the reality of her situation, and Galloway makes use of many different techniques to convey this and to highlight its importance, making it an important feature of the text as a whole, and a feature that undoubtedly contributes to the reader’s appreciation of the text. This, however, assumes the reader has any appreciation of it in the first place.
Steven Thomson
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