Crucible Response

 Act I Response: The beginning to The Crucible was really interesting in that it immediately began with drama, and didn't have much of a dull start to it. Abigail immediately came off as the "villain" of the play, just because she was one of the first people to be accused of witch craft. The whole Betty situation was sort of confusing though. I think it might have just been her struck scared, but was it because she knew she was going to be prosecuted for witch craft? It only seemed right that Rev. Parris be her family member, as he was also portrayed as a more unlikeable character immediately as well. 

Act II Response: I think a lot of the plot in "The Crucible" has something to do with hypocrisy. Many of the characters don't "practice what they preach." For instance, Reverend Parris is always talking about how its not possible that witchcraft goes on in his house, yet he's always preaching about Hell, and the devil. Another example would be Proctor, and he's always asking for material things, even though he claims material things and money aren't important to him. Another thing I noticed from reading the first act of The Crucible is that its shocking how people used to accuse people of things such as witchcraft just because they wanted land, or just didn't like someone else. Goody Proctor accused Abigail of witchcraft because she found out that her husband and Abigail had been seeing each other behind her back.

Act III Response:
   After reading Act III of The Crucible, I was shocked at how many people got falsely accused of witch craft. I hated how Abigail just kept lying on page 1327, when she tells Danforth that she never saw Mary Warren make the poppet, and that while she worked for the Proctors, Elizabeth used to have poppets around the house all the time. It was also sort of shocking when Proctor confessed to being a "lecher" because he knew it would blacken his name in the village. But then Elizabeth denied it when the judge asked her if it was true. Although it was sweet that she wanted to do whatever she could to protect her husband, I wonder what would have happened if she had confessed. Would all the witch craft cases be thrown out? I guess that would have ruined the whole purpose of the play though. The end to Act III was pretty intense when the girls were acting like the were under some sort of spell. I really wish the judge could've known the lies, but I guess that's where the dramatic irony comes into play.

Complete Crucible Response:

Over all, I really liked The Crucible. The only problem I had with it was that for all of the dramatic suspense portrayed throughout the entire novel, the ending was really weak. I was expecting a whole lot more drama at the ending. I was kind of hoping that the people accused of witch craft, like Abigail, would come out being found guilty and prosecuted. Even though what I had wanted to happen didn’t happen, the ending was still quite shocking though. I never expected for John Proctor to completely change his story, and go along with the fact that he supposedly worked with the Devil. For the rest of the play, I probably liked reading the first two acts of the play the best. I felt they followed through with the suspense more, meanwhile the last act ended up disappointing the reader on the last few pages. The first act did a really good job with setting the scene without boring the reader. Some parts of the play were also a bit confusing. I feel like the play could have been just as good without some of the information and characters. I felt like a lot of them were useless, except for the emphasis on the hysteria of Salem with all of the false accusations being made. I would’ve liked Betty being involved in the play more, just because her part kind of set the play’s mood on the first few pages in Act I. That possibly could’ve made the play even more dramatic.

           

  After finishing the play, the idea of McCarthyism was easier to connect with the play as a whole. Just like people were falsely being confused of witch craft, people in the U.S were being accused of being Communists. Many of these times the accusations were made because of “land lust.” That concept was even portrayed in The Crucible with the Putnam’s and how greed was brought up from accusing people just because they wanted their land.  

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