Crucible Responses

 Act 1
I think coming from a modern day perspective, I have looked at the characters of the crucible and the way their town is based in an extremely negative way. For starters, most characters of the Crucible are incredibly greedy and selfish people. With the women of the town it seems to be a competition to outdo each other. Even if their God says to do behave a certain way or act friendly, underneath are lies. Starting from Abbigail who came up with witchcraft to simply pick off the women she didn't like. She even tried to go after Proctor's wife because Proctor said he wouldn't be with her anymore. Not just the women though, Putnam and Parris both seem extremely self-absorbed and only interested in obtaining their wants. Although in present time people are selfish, it takes more than one person (unless in supreme authority) to accuse an endless amount of people. As for Salem itself, the people seemed to be under the authority of Parris but after all the tales spreading of witchcraft everyone uses that tale to gain power. Despite everyone seeming to be a selfish, greedy no good-er, I think Proctor and Parris may rise up to be better people. Parris seems to speak out against the thoughts of witchcraft, even if to save his own name, but it was still better than everyone else. From where the story left off, I believe everyone will use their reputation to gain land, money and more power in the small town of Salem.

Word Count: 254

Act 2
What immediately caught my attention about Act 2 was the main focus on Elizabeth and Proctor. From Act 1, I didn't have a good impression of Proctor and simply though he was another horrible person of Salem. However, from his interactions with his wife he seems to be one of the few people in Salem that can think for himself, and Elizabeth even more. She exhibited such strong will and defended herself when Hale forced her opinion on witchcraft. It filled me with glee seeing two people not just bend to the bible or someone else's words. Elizabeth and Proctor both stated their opinion but not in a way in which they could be blamed for witchcraft. Proctor was especially good at weaving his way out of directly answering the question of whether or not he believed in witches. But another thing I noticed was how torn Mary Warren. She seems to be caught between getting accused by Abbigail and losing Abbigail's approval, or helping Elizabeth and other women by speaking the truth. Although Mary Warren is having a hard time telling the truth, I get the feeling that she might start confessing more as the story progresses.

Word Count: 198

Act 3
Act 3 was the most anger inducing Act for me. The sheer ignorance exhibited by Danforth aggravated me to no end. Francis produced a list of names of people in Salem that vouched for the women being held for witchcraft. Rather than looking at it and doubting Abigail, Danforth eagerly jumped to say everyone on the list should be summoned and questioned for witchcraft. Danforth also tried to use any piece of "evidence" he could to try and accuse Proctor, Giles and Francis of witchcraft or doubts of Christian faith. When Parris says that Proctor plows on Sunday, Danforth tried to use it against him until Hale and Giles spoke out. There was also the extremely obvious outbreak of Abigail and the other women trying not to be accused of witchcraft. Simply because the girls wouldn't stop copying Mary Warren, Danforth chose to believe her 100%. Danforth even chose to believe Mary Warren after her blatant lie about Proctor making her sign a "book" from the devil. It infuriates me because one minute Mary Warren is saying Abigail is telling lies and that Proctor and Elizabeth were good to her, then a minute later she's turned on Proctor and suddenly Abigail stops mimicking her. It's extremely obvious but Danforth and his extreme pride refuses to see the problem and arrests Proctor. Despite Danforths annoying following of Abigail's every word, I was extremely happy at Hale's turnaround. He went from being as bad as Danforth in the ignorance party, to defending Proctors innocence and seeing Abigail's lie. I wasn't happy with how the chapter ended because Abigail again walked away free with Danforth thinking she was a saint.

Word Count: 277

Whole Play
Act 4 was the most surprising Act of the entire play. The character changes in personality were absolutely stunning, Inwardly, some may have still had the same feelings towards Proctor or other characters, but still voiced out. For example, even if for selfish reasons, Parris tried to keep Proctor alive. Parris even begged Elizabeth to reason with Proctor. Another person with a major personality change was Hale. From his first appearance to Act 3, Hale was a lot like Parris and Danforth. He didn't listen to reason or the evidence against witches being fake and blindly followed Danforth's arrests and accusations. But he started listening to what Giles had to say, or the list of people that said Rebecca nurse and other women weren't witches. Hale even went so far as to quit the court because of the ignorance shown to Abigail's lies. In Act 4, Hale went to each of the prisoners, prayed with them, and tried to convince them to lie to Danforth so they could go free. But i'm still left with the question why none of them told a lie to save themselves. It may have been because of their influence with the town or simple pride but to me it seems better to tell the lie and continue living. That's why I hold resentment against Elizabeth for letting Proctor just walk to his death, whether or not he had kept his name. Many of these characters held to much pride and that was why Proctor died and Parris tried to save him. The main thing i didn't see coming was Abigail leaving with all of Parris' money. I had expected her to stay and keep Proctor alive or confess but she just left with one girl. Major shocker on my part. I had also expected more hostility towards Abigail from all the other girls but there was a lot of blind following up until the end. I was also expecting one last word for Betty or Tituba, but they both disappeared from the story. All in all, I found myself liking the idea of the play, but hating majority of the characters.

Word Count: 357