Week 16: November 18-22

Upcoming dates to note:

• M 11/18: The Crucible "Who's to Blame?" debate
• M 11/18: Bring a copy of Twain's Huck Finn to class
• Thursday 11/21: Crucible Unit Test-- see review questions below

Monday 11/18

• Crucible Character Trials -- Who's to Blame? 
• Homework: please read "Tragedy and the Common Man" if you did not read it last week
  Study for the test -- see review questions below for plot events, see study guide for characters and literary terms

Tuesday 11/19

• Continue examining Miller's motifs to better understand his message
• Discus John Proctor as the tragic hero
• Review lit terms
• Homework -- review for test

Wednesday 11/20

• Guidance College Counseling
•  Please note: no early release on Wednesday

Thursday 11/21

• Crucible Unit Test -- see study guide and review questions below

Friday 11/22

•  Background on Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn
• Need your book when we return

Questions for reviewing the important ideas in the play

Act I:

1. What did the girls do in the woods the night before Act One begins?
2. What is the significance of the woods? What happened to Betty and Ruth?
3. For what reason is Rev. Parris so worried about these events?
4. What reasons do Thomas and Ann Putnam have to be resentful?
5. What does Putnam tell Parris to do to defend himself from accusations?
6. What secrets come out when the girls are left alone?
7. Why do the girls argue about whether or not to tell the truth?
8. Who wins the argument? How?
9. What is Abigail’s relationship to John Proctor? Goody Proctor?
10. What does the conversation reveal about John Proctor’s internal conflict?
11. When does Betty cry out? How is this cry interpreted?
12. Who calms Betty? How? What does she say will cure Betty?
13. Why does Proctor dislike Parris? Why does Parris dislike Proctor?
14. Why is Hale invited to Salem from Boston? Has Hale ever found a witch?
15. Why is Hale concerned about what happened in the woods?
16. How does Abigail react when Hale questions her?
17. What happens that causes Tituba to confess that she had a “compact with the devil”? How is Tituba treated when she confesses?
18. What does Tituba’s story about her encounter with the devil reveal about her life in Salem and her desires?
19. What does Abby do when she sees how the others react to Tituba?
20. By the end of Act I, how many people do Tituba and the girls accuse of witchcraft (being seen “with the Devil”)?
21. Which characters seem to enflame the hysteria?
22. Which characters seem to call for calm? 

Act II -- see your Act II questions that you submitted for a classwork assignment; here is another copy if you need it

Act III

1. Who is being charged as Act Three begins?
2. What possible motive does Giles Corey offer for the accusations against his wife and others? How does the court react to Giles’s charge?
3. How does Giles feel about his wife being charged? Why?
4. By what judgments “upon his signature” throughout the Massachusetts Bay Colony does Judge Danforth measure his worth?
5. What information does Mary Warren bring to the court?
6. How does Judge Danforth react?
7. What do Ezekiel Cheever and Marshall Herrick reveal to the court about John Proctor? How do they feel about making these claims?
8. What does Judge Danforth tell Proctor about Elizabeth? How does this “state” change her trial and punishment? What action does Danforth expect from Proctor upon hearing this news?
9. What evidence does Proctor bring to the court? What is the result of this evidence?
10. When Judge Danforth tells John Proctor “the pure of heart need no lawyers,” what could this line mean if we consider it ironically?
    (HINT: verbal irony would mean that we call into question who says it and who the speaker addresses)
11. What does Giles Corey charge in his deposition against Thomas Putnam?
12. What evidence does Corey bring, and does Danforth accept the evidence?
13. How does Danforth rule in the case between Giles and Putnam? What happens to Giles?
14. How does Hale feel about the crisis at this point? Has his attitude changed since Act I?
15. Paraphrase Judge Danforth’s "ipso facto" argument about witchcraft. Where does the flaw in his logic lie?
16. What does Mary Warren’s deposition claim? What is Danforth’s reaction?
17. What does Danforth ask Mary Warren to do in order to prove her claim that the girls’ testimony was “pretense”? Is she able to do it? Why?
18. What does Abigail do when confronted with Mary’s accusation of pretense?
19. How does John Proctor react to Abigail? What does he reveal? Why now?
20. Who does Danforth summon to verify Proctor’s confession? What does Proctor tell Danforth about this person?
21. How has Elizabeth changed since she was in jail? What does she tell the court? How does Danforth use Elizabeth’s testimony against Proctor?
22. How does Abigail retaliate against Mary Warren? What happens to Mary?
23. How do these events affect John Proctor? What does he say about the court at the end of the act?
24. How do these events affect Reverend Hale? What does he say about the court at the end of the act?

Act IV

1. Why are there so many cows on the road? As you read through to page 1325, look for futher affects of the witchcraft trials on life in Salem.
2. Why has Reverend Hale returned to Salem? How does Judge Danforth feel about this?
3. Why does Judge Danforth want Rebecca Nurse “to soften”?
4. What troubling news does Parris tell Danforth? What bothers Parris the most about this development?
5. What has happened to the witchcraft trials in Andover? What other occurrences show that people have lost faith in the court?
6. What has happened that makes Parris request a postponement of the hangings? Why is Parris more frightened to hang Proctor and Nurse than anyone else?
7. How many people have already been executed? Why does Danforth refuse to postpone the hangings or pardon the accused? How is Danforth a victim of his own logic?
8. What does Hale mean when he says that he has come to Salem to do the “Devil’s work”? How have his beliefs about witchcraft changed?
9. Why does Danforth allow Elizabeth to speak to John Proctor? How have her feelings for John changed?
10. What does Hale urge Elizabeth to persuade Proctor to do?
11. What news does Elizabeth tell John about Giles?
12. What would have happened to Giles’s land if he confessed? How does Giles die? Why isn’t he hanged?
13. Why has Proctor refused to confess? How does he feel about honesty? Does he see himself as an honest man?
14. How has Elizabeth changed? What has she realized?