This entire act felt somewhat surreal to me. Tensions felt extremely high throughout the entire chapter and I felt on edge when reading it, wondering how much misfortune would happen next. It also felt a little eerie, some may even say spooky, for several different reasons. It was unclear to me how much time had passed and when the situation escalated so out of control. The last three acts we read seemed to go perfectly in order and connect together, but this one felt out of place. I believe that adding this lost sense of time to this act added the eerie feeling to the chapter. It also is a way to not drag out scenes that happened previously and keep the readers engaged until the end of the story. If Miller had chosen to show every incident with Abigail pretending she is attacked or witches being condemned than it may have felt repetitive.
To answer Caroline’s blog post from act one, we do not like Abigail. Abigail has caused complete damage to the town of Salem and broken families and friends apart. Parris expresses great concern in this act as he tells Danforth how Abigail has disappeared and taken all his money. Parris is obviously broken in this chapter and is terrified. He has found daggers falling from his door and it petrified that he has a death wish from the townspeople, which he most likely does. Again the lack of a sense of time comes into play as Hale is brought back into the story. It is interesting to watch how when Danforth first sees Hale is welcoming and exclaims,” We are gladdened to see you return to your great work!” (Miller 119) Yet as soon as Hale asks Danforth to pardon their souls because they will not confess, he immediately gets angry again and uses the “law of god” as a rebuttal. I found this extremely ironic that he continues to use Christianity as an argument because one of the biggest lessons Christians learn is forgiveness.
Hale can not make proctor confess so he ask Elizabeth’s help. As Elizabeth helps Proctor to decide if he should confess, we hear a story about a man who would not confess, Giles. I found this story chilling to even think for a moment about the pain he was enduring. Giles was tortured to confess to the court about his parking in witchcraft. Giles refused to answer and therefore had large stones put on him. He continued to have stones piled till the weight crushed him. His last words were,” More Weight.” It was petrifying to even think about this happening to someone and made me chest ache to even think about dying in such a painful way. Hearing this story, and speaking with Elizabeth, has finally convinced him to come forward and confess.
Finally, I want to discuss the final scene where proctor is asked to confess and sign his name. I found this scene very intense and while I wanted Proctor to fight for what was a right, there was apart of me while reading this that wanted him so comply in order to save his life. I do not know that if I was put in this situation I would have to the bravery to not confess and be hung. Watching Proctor go through this scene, it almost felt like you were in his position. Proctor finally confesses but is asked to give names. He refuses which makes Danforth irritated. Danforth finally asks Proctor to sign his name. It was inspiring to watch as Proctor comes to a final realization that signing his name is betraying himself. He exclaims,”Because it is my name! Because I can not have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies!” While readers at this moment feel a sense of pride for Proctor reading this and somewhat heartbroken because they know his fate, Danforth is furious. We watch as hysteria rises as he is marched out. Rebecca cries out and so does Parris and Hale. I imagine each screaming voice adds to the chaos of this moment. Reading the final drums and moments of the scene in the last line italicized help me envision how much tension there would have been watching this moment play out in the real play.
In class i would like to discuss the epilogue for those who have read it. Now that we finished the book, I would also like to make discuss how and why this book was perceived negatively during red scare and also find specific moments in the book that reminded us of the red scare. I would also like to talk about the lack of a sense a time I mentioned several times.
No comments:
Post a Comment