For homework complete responses to the
following:
What
things have contributed to the situations we find at the end of Act 1 where
people are being arrested for witchcraft? Make a list of all of these things
including the more indirect things. For example, why does this Act include a
seemingly irrelevant discussion of Parris’s firewood?
· The fact that the girls were all in the forest chanting and dancing with Tituba because they were doing something that was forbidden and they were caught. Dancing is seen as a devils practise and they fear that they will be declared witches so they accuse others.
· Mr. Hale’s attitude which is that the devil exists and that this is not superstition tips the community over the edge as to blame the devil and witches for the situation. Mr. Hale’s reputation as a knowledgeable man adds authority to his claims.
· Abigail and John Proctors secret relationship means that Abigail wants John Proctors wife dead so that she can replace her. There has been talk in the town as to why Abigail was sacked by the Proctors as a domestic servant.
· Parris is feeling insecure about his position and authority and sees the situation with the girls as a threat to his power and in order to save his position he feels he has to deal with the threat provided by the claims of witchcraft.
o There are some individuals in the community who are not wholly committed to the authority of the church. John Proctor stands out as an individual who will go his own way if necessary.
· Mrs. Putnam has lost 7 babies out of 8 and is looking for someone or something to blame and so witchcraft seems to be a good place to look especially when her last child is acting strangely. She encouraged her last child, Ruth, to conjure up the baby spirits to ask what happened to them.
· The midwives were already on the outside of the community and into herbal medicine making them look as if they are witches.
· The situation gives people the opportunity to bring out the small issues with others for example, Giles brings out his issue with his wife’s reading and the issue of Parris’s firewood comes to the fore.
· There is a lot of animosity in the community especially over land. Accusing somebody of witchcraft was a way to express this animosity but also a way to get rid of the individual so you can claim their land.
· A level of hysteria creeps in and people begin to accuse others just because they can and because others are doing it.
Choose two characters – one to whom you respond
positively and one to whom you respond negatively. What aspects of the text
have positioned you to respond this way? You may want to consider
representations, characterization and voice. Quote in support
I respond positively to John Proctor, who is a character of
purity and innocence, trying to change his wrong actions of adultery by
restricting himself from interacting with a young girl whom he had fallen in
love with called Abigail Williams. He knows it is wrong and is at the very
least attempting to make things better, “Abby, I may think of you softly from
time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again.
Wipe it out of mind. We never touched, Abby.”
Abigail Williams, however, is a character that I respond
negatively to as she is portrayed as a selfish, arrogant and deceiving girl.
She knows Proctor is trying to rid of his sin and knows that he is married, yet
demands him to continue the secrecy of their relationship and influences his
decision for her own benefit, “I know how you clutched my back behind your
house and sweated like a stallion whenever I come near! Or did I dream that?
It’s she put me out, you cannot pretend it were you. I saw your face when she
put me out, and you loved me then and you do now!” She does not consider the
consequences that may follow or Proctor’s feelings and what may happen to him
if this secret relationship was to be discovered. Abigail is not only selfish
but deceiving, as she forces others to help her cover a lie, “Now look you. All
of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. That is all.
And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about
the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night
and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.”
