Blog #19

Don't startle the witch!! 

Let's discuss The Crucible.

The introductory paragraphs didn't catch my attention. I'm uninterested for a large majority of it. I'm more appalled that the people of Salem are more superstitious than the people of the Late Middle Ages. And the only reason that I can come up with is because everyone in the town had a grudge on each other. Oh joy, and then hiding their grudge underneath the act of witchcraft and BAM, we got the Salem Witch Trials in a nutshell. The thing that prevented me from enjoying this were the people with their logic.

Act I 
I have to complain that the story immediately begins and I was thrown off by this. Who were these people? Why was Betty even knocked out in the first place? Whatever Betty was under, they instantly labeled it to witchcraft and not even naturally causes. It's even justified when she flies into a fit and attempts to fly out the window. Here we are introduced to the other members of their crazy little group. Abigail is a bit violent, Mercy is annoying and I don't like her, and Mary is just there.

Soon after we are introduced to John Proctor and Abigail seems to shrink in his presence. It was obvious something happened between them just looking at the dialogue. He's married. She's 17 and he's 30. Make the connection man. After some more freaking out, turns out there is some sort of rivalry going on between Parris and Proctor over a land dispute. A rivalry will be instrumental later on as a plot device perhaps.

The exorcist, Hale, seems to be the only person in this story so far that doesn't instantly leap to superstition. These people seem to go to extreme lengths just to extract a nonexistent demon from a little girl, resorting to hurting her or maybe even killing her. Furthermore, the paranoia begins to grow as Abigail is accused of conspiring with the Devil and then she blames it on Tituba. This would start a wild goose chase on who is the real witch when the instigator is standing right in front of them. Betty and Abigail proceed to blame everyone now and starting the witch trials. God help them see the light.

Act II
Eight days later Salem is in complete chaos as the children continue to blame everyone for witchcraft. Hold up hold up, why would the children begin to blame everyone they don't like? What are they trying to gain by doing this? Are they in fact just trying to save themselves from the dance they had done in the forest? It seems that may be the case. John Proctor, our main character, may be the only one with the sense to fight back as he sees through his entire fiasco. Everyone in Salem becomes so paranoid that friends become enemies, and no one can be trusted. Hale may even suspect that Proctor could be a possible witness just because Abigail Williams said it.

Speaking of which, Hale couldn't believe that the girls took part in the dance in the woods. Retorting that all the supposed witches had confessed to their crimes. Well, the only reason why they confessed is because the girls and Hale were instigating them like mad! Plus the constant accusations left and right just because of old grudges!

Everyone in Salem is listening to the accusations and testimonies of little girls and have no free will of their own. Everyone is just afraid of what's happening and trying to save themselves.

Despite my constant bashing of it so far, I am feeling the mood and frantic moments of that time period. Here I am criticizing the things I didn't like about it, which is in fact the intelligence of the people. If they could have stopped and thought about everything for a second, this mess would have never happened. Also if Abigail and the girls just confessed. I believe I'm looking at this from a modern viewpoint and not immersing myself into a past viewpoint.