The Crucible Act IV

In Act IV of The Crucible, everyone has seemingly reached a breaking point. Abigail has fled Salem, the court is done waiting for confessions, and hundreds of accused townspeople have confessed to crimes they did not commit. This is where people’s true colors come out. Hale has strayed from the ideas of the other members of the court and is working night and day to save the lives of those accused. Court members such as Danforth are obviously worried that they killed twelve innocent people, and now they are in too deep to stop the murders. So Danforth refuses to delay the hangings so that no doubt can be placed on his decisions by the townspeople. He is valuing the integrity of the court over innocent people’s lives, as well as condemning himself by killing people even though he probably knows he is wrong.

At this point, Proctor has been in a dungeon for three months, and he is trying to decide whether to confess. It is clear that these people accused of conspiring with the devil are devoted Christians, though, because of how they refuse to lie. They see lying as a sin and reject the option to save themselves by doing so. They would rather die pure than live as a sinner. This seems like the most obvious sign that someone has not compacted with the devil.

Near the very end, when Proctor has chosen to hang, Rebecca Nurse says, “Let you fear nothing! Another judgment waits us all!” (Miller 133). This basically sums up the whole play. Those who confessed will be saved, and those who murdered innocent people will be condemned.

The Crucible Act I

From reading the introduction and Act I, I can already tell several things about this time in Massachusetts. Paranoia spread through the town at rapid speed, everything you said and everything you did was all watched closely and analyzed because there was always a chance you were possessed by the Devil. No one was safe and, as we said in class, betrayal was not uncommon by any stretch of the imagination.

I generally don’t like reading plays because they feel choppy but Miller uses notes and stage directions to make it read smoothly and cohesively. It’s ironic that we see in this opening scene that Reverend Parris’ daughter, Betty, is one of the girls accused of doing witchcraft. During this time, religion was the government and it was what people relied on in every aspect of their life, and the witch trials were really the first time religion was put to the test. You can see in the first act just how distraught Parris is that his daughter might have been participating in witchcraft. But, I don’t think he was really that worried about his daughter and her health, I think he really only cared about his reputation. He told Susanna, “Go home and speak nothing of unnatural causes” (9) and then pondered what he was going to tell people when they asked him about Betty.

When it was revealed that John Proctor and Abigail had an affair but that he no longer feels anything for her, it made me think that he was saying that because he didn’t want to be accused of being with a witch. I’m not sure it that is accurate, but it is an example of a betrayal that could happen during this time. Husbands and wives could turn on each other because one was accused, there were no limits. It was also interesting that an affair is already a betrayal between husband and wife, so it’s almost like “if you think this is bad wait until you see how other people betrayed their spouses”.

We know, looking back, that Betty was not possessed by the Devil when she collapsed at the sound of Jesus’ name and was instead, like Rebecca said, just an overwhelmed child who was ashamed of her un-Christian behavior and frightful of the punishment that could accompany her actions.

Act I laid the groundwork for the rest of the play by introducing issues that will continue to boil up and eventually overflow as well as some background knowledge about the witch trials that will be needed to understand the rest of the play.

            While Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” was very confusing for me at some points, his overall message is meaningful and a relevant message for today. Before reading this, the word “society” always made me think of positive aspects such as community, togetherness, and building off each other’s ideas. However, Emerson’s perspective of how society changes us is much different. Emerson argues that society makes us conform to social expectations and destroys one’s true self. In other words, instead of focusing on how your community can grow together, focus on yourself and your own goals. Self-reliance and independence from one’s community will make one feel confident and complete.

            Through metaphors and references to admired individuals, Emerson effectively argues that conforming to society is self-damaging. To Emerson, giving in to society is the equivalent to death because if you are not being yourself, you’re not actually living. He also personifies society as an evil that “loves not realities and creators, but names and customs,” (47). Emerson proves that being different is key to living a meaningful life by referencing known individuals: “Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood,” (49). At this point in Emerson’s argument, I fully understood and supported his message because I related it to all the individuals he mentions. All of them made history and are still admired because they were different and introduced a new idea to society. I love Emerson’s perspective on the importance of self-reliance, but he fails to mention how this benefits society. If everyone were just focused on themselves, how would the community grow as a whole? Instead of focusing on how one should reach their own goals, they should focus on how they can help their community such as the individuals like Luther and Socrates. Being independent and believing your own ideas is important, but belonging to a supportive community is also important.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from Birmingham Jail is astonishing and powerful. After organizing a peaceful protest in Birmingham, Dr. King was arrested because of a lack of city permit for the movement. In his letter, King speaks as to why he decided to come to Birmingham to help organize the rally against the racial injustice present in the city. One interesting fact to note is that King smuggled out sections of the letter through his lawyer while spending time in jail.

In my sophomore year, I studied peaceful protests and people power movements. King’s peaceful protest approach to the discrimination in America throughout the civil rights movement is influenced by Gandhi, and it is prevalent in this letter. He approaches his audience captively and urgently to move people to become involved and fight for their own or other’s civil rights. One of my favorite quotes from this letter is “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” This quote from King shows how he urges people to become involved. The idea of peaceful protests is to promote awareness for a situation in hope that the people power behind the movement grows large enough that the government feels persuaded to enact on it. Sometimes this works, and other times it fails miserably. King is an overall powerful speaker and influencer throughout the Civil Rights movement, and although this letter is very impactful to history, it is like other speeches and essays that he has written. However, King’s quote on injustice provides a staple for American intervention shown elsewhere in history. While reading this letter, one thing that surprised me was the similarities between the civil rights movement and some events in the present and past. When something goes wrong in other countries, America feels the need to intervene to try to set things right per our views. This quote reminded me of the intervention that the US has had in other people power movements as well such as the Lithuanian freedom line, the Turkish Orange Rebellion, and the feminist movement. King also introduces the idea of unjust versus just laws: “An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. ... By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.” This questioning that King introduces of right versus wrong allows provoking thoughts throughout the US in regards to civil rights, as well. Overall, King’s letter is powerful and eye-opening to those who may have been kept in the dark.