Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

The Concepts of Integrity, Theocracy,
Natural Order in the midst of Hysteria



The Crucible Effect

The image of the crucible is an important metaphor
...

In the story, the “heat and pressure” of religious extremism, witchcraft
accusations and the Court convictions separated these characters, just like a
real crucible does to elements
...
Some challenged the “rules” of
natural order (such as the role of each gender) and some didn’t
...

The combination of panic, superstition, ignorance, hatred and lust in an
extreme religious environment created the Crucible Effect on the characters
...
Hysteria is
chaos and exaggerated fear based on group delusion and brain-washing
...
In
hysterical situations, people often panic, act irrationally and think like “packs”
in almost “animalistic” ways
...
Usually, war
or natural disasters cause this sort of hysterical behaviour
...

Under this sort of pressure, people often show their “true colours” or “metal”
...

Miller positions us to see that amidst the religious hysteria of witchcraft
accusations (Salem 1690s) and Communism accusations (McCarthy 1950s)
the “true” values and beliefs of the characters (good or bad) shine through
due to the Crucible Effect
...
This question is asked directly in witch-fearing 1690s Salem
and symbolically in communist-fearing paranoia of1950s America
...
But it doesn’t take long to realise that this is just a
smoke screen
...
A few girls
danced in the forest with a slave from Barbados, and fantasised about who
they would marry
...
No one could fly or send out spirits or use
voodoo or shape-shift
...

Selfishness, hatred, envy, greed, lust and revenge were afoot in the town
...

Many people in the town, such as Rev Parris, Gov
...

On the other hand, a few characters seem to focus more on their sense of
what is right, rather than on how others see them
...


Response #1: Vanity (lack of personal integrity)
Some saw the panic and hysteria as an opportunity, and used their privileged
positions within the town to take advantage of the fear and manipulation to
increase their own power and reputation
...
Putnam to get rid of Mr Jacobs to “acquire” his land, Danforth to
promote his reputation)
...
Most of these either died or lost everything
for their trouble
...


3

Binary Opposition: Integrity vs Vanity

Important responses within the hysterical theocracy of Salem are Vanity and
Integrity
...


The readers are positioned to see characters that show vanity (Abigail,
Danforth, Parris) are privileged in the hysterical chaos of Salem: they have
power and status in the town because they seem to have power over the
witch-chaos (Parris as minister, Danforth as Christian judge, Abigail in
communication with the invisible world) and they are alive at the end of the
play
...

By contrast, those who show personal integrity in the chaos, while admirable,
are severely marginalised: they are powerless and are mostly executed
(Nurse, Corey, Orburn, John Proctor)
...
Elizabeth is now a poor single mother of three, in grief from losing
her husband, in a community that hates her)
...

Miller positions us to HATE the fact that the good guys lose in the end
...

Miller wants us to take this warning from history VERY SERIOUSLY
...
The author feared being jailed if he spoke out directly
against Senator McCarthy and his anti-Communist agenda, so he wrote a
play about witchcraft which showed all the same features
...
It also relates to modern hysteria about
terrorism, drugs, Islam, asylum seekers etc
...
He
wants us to see the obvious motives of the “bad” characters in Salem as a
warning against people who showed these same AVIs during the McCarthy
era in the 1950s
...
If the court is right to accuse her of witchcraft then how do we
deal with her well-known personal integrity? The fear is, that if Rebecca Nurse
can fall, then anyone can fall, no matter how good they seem
...


# Rev
...
He is famous and has enjoyed triumphs in other towns with other
witches
...
His
celebrity reputation is guaranteed by the Church
...
He learns to like and sympathise with Proctor to such an
extent that he is willing to give up his fame and reputation by encouraging
John to lie to the Court and to the Church, so he can live
...
He
willingly gives up his popularity and even his income for the sake of what is
right and good
...
At the start, he was
fearful and excited about the prospect of witchcraft like everyone was
...
He received information that Thomas Putnam
had forced his daughter, Ruth Putnam, to make false claims against others so
that her father could claim their land
...
He gave this evidence to the Court, but
refused to divulge his source as a matter of honour
...
He showed great
integrity in two ways: first, by opposing the Court at all and second, by dying
rather than betraying his informant
...
She begins the play as
a rebellious, witchcraft-practicing, manipulative whore and ends it the same
way
...
Proctor
names her “…a lump of vanity
...
She is greedy, selfish,
lustful, vengeful, manipulative, arrogant and very, very intelligent
...
Abigail feeds off and encourages the divisions between
others in the town
...
This “proved” the Devil was loose in the town (to most of
the residents) because when Natural Order gets turned upside down, it must
be the Devil
...

# Dep
...
Danforth is keen to pursue the witch trials all the way because
his reputation as a God-fearing and uncompromising judge is at stake
...
Although he seems to be following his own idea of truth, the
audience knows he is wrong in the wider context
...
He is not willing to damage his reputation as a
fundamentalist Christian judge and governor, even if it costs lives: and it did19 innocent people were executed in a country which honours freedom, just to
maintain the reputation of this rigid and unfeeling man
...
Parris is almost an absurd character because his only obvious
concern is for his superficial reputation as a minister
...
He is
such a coward that he employs Hale to come and solve the problem rather
than facing the town himself
...
” At this point, even Danforth says: “You are a brainless
man
...
Something had to spark the Crucible Effect
...
Religion is a human phenomenon seen across the
world and across history
...
Religions are usually very clear and specific
about what is right and wrong
...


Religions are run by a ruling hierarchy that draws authority from an invisible
“higher” force and some canonical texts
...
Religions sometimes
create religious governments called theocracies
...
This Christian Theocracy was passionately against the Devil and
witchcraft
...
The people
believed that witchcraft and demonic forces were tangible
...
They had very strict criteria about what was
sinful, and what moral code to follow
...
)

Marginalised - Those who weren’t “seen” as good Christians (like Proctor
who didn’t always go to church) were marginalised under the theocratic law
...


It is ironic that the characters who had the most power in the play, and SEEM
to be the most Christian, in fact ignored the basic values of their own
religion in their personal AVIs
...
The
theocracy gave these characters status on the surface, but their deep unChristian values really drove them
...


Characters under the Theocracy of Salem

# Abigail (using false accusations / trials) whips up hysteria and fear in
Salem, by proclaiming the widespread power of the Devil (deeply feared in the
religious town), and then uses this chaos to get rid of her enemies (like
Elizabeth) and gain power and attention (vanity)
...
Abigail had high status because she could “see” the
invisible forces feared by the town
...
”

# Danforth is privileged within the theocracy because he is part of the
recognised religious, political and legal hierarchy (the civil law was also God’s
law)
...
Because he supports the authority of
Abigail and the girls, he enjoys great status in the town
...
Although he seems to be acting out of
Christian duty, Danforth is focused on his own reputation and power
...
Danforth tries to force John
Proctor to confess (falsely) in the hope that others would follow John’s
example and the executions could cease
...


8

# Although he was a good man at heart, John Proctor is marginalised under
the theocracy because he does not attend church every week, he doesn’t
support Parris, his knowledge of the Bible is imperfect and he is rumoured to
have had an affair with Abigail
...


Because of the belief the “Eve” brought sin into the world first, by giving the
forbidden fruit to Adam, women were thought to be more vulnerable to the
Devil and witchcraft
...
The only “logical” conclusion
under the Natural Order was to assume these women drew their power from
the Devil, after all, a man praying to God had failed, so the only power left for
women to use must be “dark” power
...
This is why the belief in witches was so
widespread and why paranoia and hysteria abounded
...
The rumours of the dancing and love spells create the
hysteria mentioned above
...
The townsfolk are
EAGER for any solution to the threat of spiritual enemies, and any excuse to
get rid of their earthly enemies and increase their land holdings
...


11

The general hierarchy was:
God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)
Angels
Saints / Martyrs
Saved Souls
King (or Queen)
Nobility
Ministers of the Church
Men
Boys
Livestock
Women
Girls
Wild Animals
Heathen
Damned Souls
Demons
Devil

12

It is clear that the concept of GENDER played an important part in where
people were placed in the Natural Order
...
They’re supposed to be obedient, quiet, virtuous, gentle,
hard-working, uncomplaining, unambitious and maternal
...
Women
could not have authority roles
...
This also explains the girls’ obsession with whom they were to
marry in their forest excursion)
...
Women were defined by the men they were with,
either in families (father or brother) or to whom they were married
...
They were to be bold, physically able and
violent (if needed); confident, loyal and domineering
...
Nearly all
of the men in the town fail to meet the masculine expectations of a puritan
community under the natural order
...
They
were to be decisive, rational, broad-minded, generous, forgiving, obedient to
God, cooperative and committed to the truth
...


Females

Abigail Williams - Does not fulfil the Puritan female stereotype
...
Abigail is violent and threatening to the other girls and
to anyone who stands in her way
...
Governor and head of the Court! These “non-female” flaws are
especially obvious as Abigail is Rev Parris’s niece
...
Abigail should have
been near the bottom of the power structures of the town
...


Elizabeth (Goody) Proctor - Contrasts with Abigail Williams as she is the
model Christian woman under the Natural Order
...
She keeps the house and bakes fresh bread every day
...
She has “righteous” anger and suspicion towards John as he
committed adultery with Abigail
...
As she softens towards John, her
inherent goodness is revealed when she chooses to lie to the Court to protect
her husband (denying his affair with Abigail)
...


Danforth - The clearest example of a man stepping outside of his role
...
Under normal
circumstances, Danforth would not have paid any attention to the girls, but
because of the hysteria and strife in this theocracy, he chooses to accept
“invisible” evidence regarding the “invisible” crime of witchcraft
...
Contrary to the expectations of puritan manhood
under the Natural Order, Danforth seems immune to questions of honour,
decency, forgiveness, logic and rationality
...
But Hathorne is weak and does not challenge
Danforth effectively
...


15



---