Answer the following questions from Act III of The Crucible for Monday
QUESTIONS
· What is the setting of Act Three?
· What is the significance of the behind the scenes discussion between Hathorne, Danforth, Martha Corey, and Giles Corey?
· How do Proctor, Francis, and Giles plan to use Mary Warren's testimony to prove that "Heaven is NOT speaking through the children"?
· What is the significance of Proctor plowing on Sunday?
· How do Danforth and Hathorne attempt to get Proctor to drop the charge that Mary Warren has lied? Why do they want him to do so? Why does Proctor refuse?
· Why are Proctor, Francis, and Giles repeatedly accused of attacking the court?
· Why is Putnam brought into the court?
· Why is Giles accused of contempt of court?
· What is the significance of the point made by Danforth that "no uncorrupted man may fear this court"? Is this true? How does this point tie the court and the church together?
· Why does Hale suggest that Proctor should have a lawyer? What does this tell us about Hale's feelings about the justice of the trial? Is this a change in his attitude? Why does Danforth refuse?
· What is contained in Mary Warren's depositions? Why are the other children who have cried out brought in?
· How does Danforth equate the court with the church?
· What does Abigail say about Mary's testimony? Why does she lie?
· What role does Parris play during the testimony? Why does he lie about the dancing in the woods?
· What point does Hathorne make about Mary fainting? Why can't she faint on command?
· How does Danforth confuse Mary Warren?
· What does Abigail do to befuddle Mary?
· What secret does Proctor reveal about himself and Abigail? Why does he reveal it?
· Why does Elizabeth deny John's relationship with Abigail? What is the result of her denial?
· What evidence is there that Hale no longer believes the testimony and crying out of the girls?
· What do the girls do to convince the men otherwise? Why? How does their action further befuddle Mary? What does Mary do?
QUOTATIONS
· "And do you know that near to four hundred are in the jails from Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature?" (Danforth, p. 87)
· "Do you know, Mr. Proctor, that the entire contention of the state in these trials is that the voice of Heaven is speaking through the children?" (Danforth, p. 88)
· "I think not, or you should surely know that Cain were an upright man, and yet he did kill Abel." (Parris to Proctor about his reading the Gospel, p. 91)
· "He's come to overthrow this court, Your Honor!" (Parris about Proctor, p. 92)
· "A person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between." (Danforth, p. 94)
· "We cannot blink it more. There is a prodigious fear of this court in the country." (Hale, p. 98)
· "Then there is a prodigious guilt in the country...there is fear in the country because there is a moving plot to topple Christ in the country!" (Danforth, p. 98)
· "Mr. Hale, you surely do not doubt my justice." (Danforth, p. 99)
· "Now, children, this is a court of law. The law, based upon the Bible, and the Bible, writ by Almighty God, forbid the practice of witchcraft, and describe death as the penalty thereof. But likewise, children, the law and Bible damn all bearers of false witness." (Danforth, p. 102)
· "We are here, Your Honor, precisely to discover what no one has ever seen." (Parris, p. 104)
· "And yet, when people accused of witchery confronted you in court, you would faint, saying their spirits came out of their bodies and choked you" (Hathorne to Mary Warren, p. 106)
· "I - I know not. A wind, a cold wind, has come." (Abigail, p. 108)
· "I have made a bell of my honor! I have rung the doom of my good name." (Proctor, p. 111)
· "Private vengeance is working through this testimony!" (Hale, p. 114)
· "Praise God!" (Parris and the girls after the crying out and Mary's calling Proctor "the Devil's man!", p. 118) "I say - I say - God is dead!" (Proctor, p. 119)
· "A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! And it is my face, and yours, Danforth! For them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud - God damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together!" (Proctor, pp. 119-120)
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First Part
QUESTIONS
• What is the setting of Act Three?
The setting of Act Three is the General Court
• What is the significance of the behind the scenes discussion between Hathorne, Danforth, Martha Corey, and Giles Corey?
I think it shows how closeminded and unfair people are Hathorne and Danforth, because they don't want to hear any word against what they believe in, such as Martha NOT being involved with witchcraft. They don't want her to say that she is free, and they don't want to hear Giles either, her husband, who told them he had true evidence, so this shows how authoritarians they are, but in the end, they hear him, because they are serious people, and of course they want to know the truth, but without having the crowd as a witness, to keep themselves safe, as well to keep their reputation safe.
• How do Proctor, Francis, and Giles plan to use Mary Warren's testimony to prove that "Heaven is NOT speaking through the children"?
By Mary Warren’s testimony, they will show that the girls are just pretending all this witchcraft, that everything is a fraud. That would, supposedly, free their wives from hanging.
• What is the significance of Proctor plowing on Sunday?
This shows how hard working he is, how hard he tries to make money to keep his family moving on, but as he does not go to church, it shows that he cares more about money than God, which makes the court suspect that he is a Devil’s man.
• How do Danforth and Hathorne attempt to get Proctor to drop the charge that Mary Warren has lied? Why do they want him to do so? Why does Proctor refuse?
When Mary is asked to faint, by acting, and she refuses to do it because she didn’t feel like doing it, Danforth and Hathorne take advantage of this to show that she cannot lie, that the other times she fainted were because she was possessed by the Devil. With this, they ask Proctor to drop tha charge that Mary Warren pretended to be a with to protect themselves as being part of the court, because they had already condemned lots of people to death, and assumed to condemn other people, by signing a list, in a couple of days, so they cannot realize now that this witchcraft has never existed because it would give them huge trouble and it would kill their reputation. Proctor refuses because he wants his wife back safe, and thinks also about his friends’ wifes, who don’t deserve to be hanged.
• Why are Proctor, Francis, and Giles repeatedly accused of attacking the court?
Proctor brought them a deposition signed by ninety-one people from Salem, declaring that Elizabeth, Rebecca and Martha are good people. With this the court starts feeling that they have made a huge mistake, and of course they feel attacked, but they don’t want to assume it.
• Why is Putnam brought into the court?
Because he is accused of murder for land.
• Why is Giles accused of contempt of court?
Giles is the one who accused Putnam of murder for land. Someone told him that he heard Putnam say that he asked her daughter to cry witchery from a man called Jacobs, and this gave him a fair gift of land, wich metaphorically means that as he is the most rich man, he could pay for this land, with Jacobs hanged, loosing his property. The problem is that Giles does not want to say who this person is, and because of this, he is accused of contempt of court.
• What is the significance of the point made by Danforth that "no uncorrupted man may fear this court"? Is this true? How does this point tie the court and the church together?
No uncorrupted man may fear this court means, for Danforth, that no honest person should feel of the court, if they are so correct and truly believe in God, but these is not true, because even if you’re the best person in the world and make no mistakes, or if you’re a criminal and a terrible person, it has nothing to see with the court: if you’re accused of witchcraft, you’ll be CONDEMNED, and it will have nothing to see with your personality. During that time, people believed in these things and they could not face this type of accusations. For the court, they were all true, related to what they believed. That’s why the court, representing justice, and the church, representing the people’s belief’s, were tied together. If you were safe with God and noone accused you of witches’ possession, you were safe with the court.
• Why does Hale suggest that Proctor should have a lawyer? What does this tell us about Hale's feelings about the justice of the trial? Is this a change in his attitude? Why does Danforth refuse?
Hale thinks that Proctor will be in jail when he gives Mary Warren’s deposition to Danforth. To protect him, he says that they should let him go and hire a lawyer to defend himself. This shows that Hale suspects that witchcraft is a fraud and that he will not condemn anyone else to death if he is not totally sure that it is deserved, because they have already killed hundreds of people unfairly and he does not want to feel guilty again for another hundred. Danforth refuses because, as he explains Hale, when an accusation is about witchcraft, it is very complicated to solve it, because there’s no evidential proof about it, the witch would never accuse herself, and there’s no way out but to believe what the victim claims and testifies, so the lawyer would have nothing to do and it would be useless to hire one for this type of case. But he will consider the deposition, because is what one of the children claims, as being part of the case.
• What is contained in Mary Warren's depositions? Why are the other children who have cried out brought in?
In the deposition, Mary swears she never saw familiar spirits, apparitions, nor any manifest of the Devil, as well none of the other girls. That’s why they are called, to confess if this is true or not.
• How does Danforth equate the court with the church?
He says that that is a court of law, and that the law is based upon The Bible, which would be the church, and that this forbids witchcraft and describes death as the penalty and that the law and the Bible damn all bearers of false witness, so he equals the law and the Bible with the same moral responsibility that any person has in Salem during that time.
• What does Abigail say about Mary's testimony? Why does she lie?
She says that Mary’s testimony is false. She lies to protect herself, of course, because she knows that if she confesses the truth, she will probably get into trouble and have a terrible penalty for all of what she did. She does not care about Mary Warren, not even if she will be hanged, or anybody else, she’s only acting like these to protect herself only.
• What role does Parris play during the testimony? Why does he lie about the dancing in the woods?
In this Act, Parris plays a demagogue paper. He knows perfectly what the truth is, he knows that the girls are pretending, and he lies about the dancing in the woods and about many other things to protect himself, to keep himself over the popularity, protected and showed as a caring and serious minister, which he isn’t, because he is dishonest, stands in a terrible position by considerating witchcraft as a real fact, provoking the deaths of innocent people, actually knowing that he is making an enormous mistake, just to take care of his reputation.
• What point does Hathorne make about Mary fainting? Why can't she faint on command?
He wants to test her. If Mary can faint, that will be an important proof to know that they were able to pretend all the time. But she can’t faint on command because she feels all the pressure from the girls that are there, Parris pressure that is always trying to throw her down, and she doesn’t feel like doing it.
• How does Danforth confuse Mary Warren?
When Mary says she thought she saw the spirits, Danforth asks her that again by repeating what she said, and she says she didn’t see them, she just thought about them. She probably felt confused because of the pressure of his question.
• What does Abigail do to befuddle Mary?
She makes up a scene where there’s a supposed cold wind that comes from the window and looks at Mary as if she had something to see with this, like if it was her witchcraft. Of course it’s all pretense, but that would make the authorities think that Mary is a witch or something, by seeing this whole act.
• What secret does Proctor reveal about himself and Abigail? Why does he reveal it?
He confesses is affair, he’s obliged to do it because he called Abigail a whore after pretending these last witchcraft, and the authorities of course suspected that something has happened, and also he confesses this because he wanted to protect her wife Elizabeth. He says that Abby accused her because she hated her and thought she could take her place in his life if Elizabeth was dead.
• Why does Elizabeth deny John's relationship with Abigail? What is the result of her denial?
She denies it because she wanted to protect him. She says she fired Abby because she thought John fancied on her. For the first time she acts dishonestly for a good reason and it ends up worst, because his husband had already told the truth to protect HER, so she’s brought out of the court and condemned anyway to death.
• What evidence is there that Hale no longer believes the testimony and crying out of the girls?
Hale knows that Proctor is a good man because he had gone to his house and confirmed it. In the end, when he sees that Mary sticks together with the other girls, and against Proctor, after saying that she had never seen spirits before, he realizes that as she could have pretended lies before, she could be doing it now, so he no longer believes the testimony and crying out of the girls
• What do the girls do to convince the men otherwise? Why? How does their action further befuddle Mary? What does Mary do?
The girls start imitating and repeating what Mary says to pretend that they are being witch crafted by her, so that the authorities see this and believe that she is a witch. Of course, as Mary is very weak, at the end she feels so pressured and with no other way out to protect herself that she starts pretending too. She acts against Proctor and lies by saying that he has treated her bad and that he has threatened her. She says that she will never hurt Abby again. She acts like the other girls like she had done before.
QUOTATIONS
• "And do you know that near to four hundred are in the jails from Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature?" (Danforth, p. 87)
Danforth has a very important position in this cases because his power let him make the mistakes he made. He has the resposability and all the weight over his shoulders because he has put lots of people into jail, and now starts suspecting that they are innocent.
• "Do you know, Mr. Proctor, that the entire contention of the state in these trials is that the voice of Heaven is speaking through the children?" (Danforth, p. 88)
This means that there’s a deep relation between the law and the Christianism.
• "I think not, or you should surely know that Cain were an upright man, and yet he did kill Abel." (Parris to Proctor about his reading the Gospel, p. 91)
This means that even though you’re an upright man, you can become into a criminal, the possibility is never denied. So Parris in a way tries to say that he can be a correct man, but he can be guilty also of this whole mess about witchcraft.
• "He's come to overthrow this court, Your Honor!" (Parris about Proctor, p. 92)
Parris is always trying to show that Proctor is a bad person and that he’s guilty. As he realizes that he's loosing the fight, he looks for ways to protect himself, and with this he tries to make the authorities think that Proctor is only there to destroy the court with lies and frauds, which is not true.
• "A person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between." (Danforth, p. 94)
Danforth is very clear with this. He says that if you think like the court does, you're with them, and if not, you will always be looked in a different way because you'll be against what they think. Like Proctor, Francis and Corey. They are considered against the court because they know the truth, which is not well received by the court.
• "We cannot blink it more. There is a prodigious fear of this court in the country." (Hale, p. 98)
Hale knows and assumes that people don’t want to go to the court because even though they are honest or dishonest, they take the same risk: be hanged to death.
• "Then there is a prodigious guilt in the country...there is fear in the country because there is a moving plot to topple Christ in the country!" (Danforth, p. 98)
Danforth thinks different compared to Hale. He blames people itself for being afraid of the court, because there’s a movement that is making Christ go down, but provoked by the popularity. He doesn’t want to see that the court and its limits and penalties makes the people afraid of it.
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