Jordan W. answered • 02/06/22
Montessori teacher and artist with 7+ years of experience
4. Social commentary is when a writer uses his or her text to point out flaws about a society in order to make readers realize that those same flaws likely exist in their own society. What flaws is Miller pointing out based on what you have read so far?
Think back to what is happening in this play. Why did Arthur Miller write it? When did he write it (was anything going on then that was similar to the Salem Witch Trials of the past)? What is it pointing out? At its core, this is a story of people, neighbors, friends, daughters/mothers/sisters who are falsely accused of crimes they did not commit but are sentenced regardless due to their social standing, coupled with mass hysteria (possibly drug-induced), and prevailing beliefs of the time. The accusers think they are following their code of ethics and religion but...are they? Why are they not susceptible to being accused themselves?
5. What does this make you realize about our society today?
Based on what you answer for #4, try to come up with a comparison here. Have there been other events in history or in our current society that reflect people being falsely accused based on how they act/look? Or based on a judicial/belief system that may not be as just as we think it is?
6. Ann Putnam admits that she sent Ruth to Parris's slave Tituba to see if she could conjure spirits of her dead babies. We learn from Abigail that Tituba comes from Barbados. What was believed during this time period about the spiritual abilities of those from Barbados? *You may need to do some quick research to answer this question.
You may want to research folk religions and practices from this area. One I found was called Obeah which is specifically from Barbados. I think this also highlights how European/white people at this time viewed people different from them as the "other", strangers, outsiders, savages. More prone to devil worship, less Godly.
7. What might be the significance of the fact that Tituba is female and the young girls who were caught dancing are female?
I think this goes back as far as the Malleus Maleficarum, also known as The Hammer of Witches, written by Heinrich Kramer. Heinrich wrote this book as an act of revenge (and out of unhealthy obsession) on a woman named Helena Scheuberin. It's a pretty fascinating story to read about on its own, but I think it highlights something here in the nature of men who are told "no". Women have traditionally been seen as second-class, especially at the time The Crucible takes place. Women were also seen as hysterical, emotional, and prone to the temptations of evil spirits and devils. More so, women were powerless and at the mercy of those in charge, namely men. I think it's less about the fact they are evil and corrupt women, and women by nature are more given to pacts with the devil, and more about men feeling rejected, snubbed, or wanting something that these women could provide them (money, land, power) if they were accused of witchcraft.
8. Rebecca Nurse says, "Pray, calm yourselves. I have eleven children and I am twenty-six times a grandma, and I have seen them all through their silly seasons, and when it comes to them, they will run the Devil bowlegged keeping up with their mischief. I think she'll wake when she tires of it." Explain this from a historical point of view.
Sounds like Nurse has a practical understanding of children and their behavior. I think back to when I taught preschool and they would get injured, and make a big fuss over a small injury on their knee. Granted, they were probably hurting from their scrape but they also weren't able to extract the logic that this was a small cut from the emotions they were feeling. Are children/kids nowadays any different? What purpose does this serve, what needs are being met by children who do this? Fun, mischief, excitement? Why would these children/teenagers go through the trouble and potentially serious outcomes of their actions?
9. What does this say about teenagers from all time periods?
I think you can add your personal interpretation here, but can you relate what these children/teenagers do in the play to anything happening in current history? Though as a teacher, frankly, I think the question could be better worded to what this play says about PEOPLE from all time periods, because the blame does not solely lie with the children/teenager in the play, it lies more so with the adults who allowed it to happen.
