Second Quarter/Blog 4: The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Second Quarter/Blog 4: The Crucible by Arthur Miller

The last Act and ending of The Crucible can be best described as doom and gloom.  Many people have been hanged and others are to be hanged.  The town is falling apart.  The townspeople are a wreck.  Proctor and his wife are still in jail and the end centers around whether or not Proctor can be saved from death by confessing.  He confesses, but then refuses to sign a confession.  Therefore, he must die and he does.  I guess standing up for himself now is to be thought of as heroic, but I do not see him as a hero.  I think his situation and the rest of the accusations, trials, and hangings are tragic.  A lot of blood shed because of lies and paranoia.

So what did I come away with from reading this literary work?  Well, I looked up the word crucible.  It is defined as a pot or metal container in which metals or other substances are heated to high temperatures or melted.  Not sure that helps me understand what I read, but then I found that “crucible” could also refer to the literary technique in which characters are placed in an inescapable situation and are forced to change or make difficult decisions.  The characters in this book were definitely in an inescapable situation and forced to change or make difficult decisions.  And their decisions were life or death and most ended in death.  A very morbid plot.

If I go back to why I picked this book, it was because a friend said reading this changed their love of books.   I have say that I do not agree.  I was rather disappointed with the lack of plot and lack of suspense.  There is no witchcraft or spells or excitement at all.  Instead, it is full of false accusations and unfortunate circumstances.  Probably a lot of the interest in this book came from its intended parallel to McCarthyism, but that message was completely lost on me.  The good news is that it was short and once I made it past the first Act it was very easy to read, but unfortunately it did not change my feelings about reading.  I will keep trying.

Second Quarter/Blog 2: The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Second Quarter/Blog 2: The Crucible by Arthur Miller

I am now 30 pages into this book.  Usually it would not take very long to read 30 pages, but to get this far has taken me several hours during quite a few attempts.  There really is not much going on with the plot, but the descriptions of the few characters are lengthy and it’s hard to remember who is who even though there are not that many of them.  If I had not started a blog on this book, then I probably would not keep reading, but I am committed to finish the blogs.

This plot is pretty simple.  The story in the bedroom of a young girl named Betty Parris, age 10, who is sick in bed after “dancing in the forest.”  Her father is Reverend Parris and he is praying over her, but she is not moving or waking, but she is not dead.  The talk around the town is that Betty and her cousin Abigail Williams, age 17, were seen in the woods together, that they were naked, and that were seen flying over houses.  The people of Salem “believed that the virgin forest was the Devil’s last preserve, his home base and the citadel of his final stand.  To the best of their knowledge the American forest was the last place on earth that was not paying homage to God.”

Betty wakes up and talks to Abigail.  She says they drank blood and drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife.  Abigail tells her to stop saying this and not to tell anyone.  Betty collapses again.  People from around the town come by to see what is going on.  The rumors are rampant.  Reverend John Hale is called to ascertain witchcraft, as he is said to be a specialist.  Not much is happening yet.  I find it slow and painful to stay focused and interested.  I hope it gets better soon.     

Second Quarter/Blog 3: The Crucible by Arthur Miller

I finally made it through Act One and then made it quickly through Acts Two and Three.  Act One ends with Reverend Hale showing up to eliminate the evil spirits.  Before his entrance, there is a long discussion about good vs. evil and then a longer discussion about the political twist to equate political policy with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence.  “Once such an equation is effectively made, society becomes a congerie of plots and counterplots, and the main role of government changes from that of arbiter to that of the scourge of God.”  Wow!!  I think this is really deep and beyond comprehension at this point in my short lived political life.  I feel very sheltered from the world of politics and cannot conceive of plots and counterplots.  So whatever messages that the writer is trying to convey are difficult for me to comprehend or relate to but they sound pretty deep.

Thankfully the story’s plot gets ramped up quite a bit.  There is huge roundup of girls in Salem who are thought to be witches.   They are arrested and brought to court.  The number goes from 13 to 39 and then more and more are accused, arrested, and confessing.  If they don’t confess then they are told they will be sentenced to hang.  So the plot thickens around whether or not they are telling the truth about witchcraft or confessing so they don’t have to die.  Then the additional plot is about the Proctors and whether or not Mary Warren (their servant) is telling the truth about the other girls having powers and whether or not the Proctors are liars too.  It’s really not complicated, but the web of misunderstandings and lies causes extreme conflict.  By the end of Act Three everyone in the town of Salem is either on trial for witchcraft or involved in the confusion.

There is only Act Four left to read.  I really can’t predict how this will end.  At this point everyone’s lives are turned upside down and the truth is not going to set anyone free.  The truth up to this point has caused more confusion and problems, so I can’t see a happy ending.  I hope I am wrong and they all realize there are no witches in Salem and all these girls can go back to a normal life, but I don’t think that is how this ends.