• What do the long narrative sections do in the play?
• Characterize: Reverend Parris, Salem (as a place, it has a character), Abigail Adams, Mercy Lewis, Ann Putnam, Thomas Putnam, John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, Giles Corey, Reverend John Hale, Tituba
• from p. 15-- how does the narrative speak to the audience? Distance us from the action? Experiential v. Critical. Also p. 33, audience put in relation to characters on stage.
• What is Betty's role in Act I?-- Note-- she is present and makes response after conversation between John Proctor and Abigail Adams
• What is the relationship/conflict between: John Proctor and Abigail Adams (note especially p. 21, 22 stage directions, 23); Ann Putnam and Rebecca Nurse; The Putnam family and the Nurse family, the rest of the community; Parris and the congregation (especially Proctor).
• Pay special attention to the interrogation scenes pp. 43-46-- what do we get from this? From the accusation?
• Freewrite for Wednesday, Jan. 27--What is your emotional response to the interaction between John Proctor and Abigail Adams?

Jan. 27-- Act II

• Discuss and turn in freewrites
• Picking up from our freewrite question, characterize Elizabeth Proctor. What is your emotional response to the interaction between Elizabeth and John?
  • identify passages in the play that evoke your emotional response and explain why
  • pick the stage directions that seem most important to your interpretation of the action. What does the reader of a play rely on stage directions for, and in what relation to "reader" and "actor" stand vis a vis the stage directions? How would you "perform"-- make an audience understand by gesture-- the information in the stage directions?
• How does Mary Warren's return in this act move the action of the paly?
• Think through the action on pp. 61-62-- What's going on here? How do we read this action in relation to the socio-historical readings of The Crucible as a metaphor of McCarthyism?
  • Aside-- I think Miller suggests a relation, tried and true in the Western world, between disorderly female sexuality and social disorder-- Do you see anything along these lines? What's up with all of the new sitcoms about teenage and lovesick witches, and do we see any relationship between Miller's representation of Abigail, the social scene of the '90's, and these shows?
• What's Reverend Hale up to, and what is his response to the Proctor's, Francis Nurse, and Giles Corey?
• How does Ezekial Cheever's character change the tone of the act? What does he do, how do his actions/words compare to Hale's, and what is his effect on the movement of the play?
• About John Procter's accusations of vengeance of p. 77-- we know what he means-- how would the characters on stage interpret his meaning? What is the effect of this split knowledge-- the audience/reader knowing what the characters on stage do not?
• The act closes with John and Mary Warren-- what's up here?

Jan. 29-- Act III
-- dramatic reading

Week 3: Feb. 1--Act IV

Feb. 3--Film or theoretical approaches-- class decision

• I would like you to consider some of the issues raised in today's class for a more in-depth discussion on Friday:
  1. Is there a contradiction between Elizabeth's desire for John to speak the truth of his relation to Abigail and her inability to name the adultery when asked by Danforth? If so, how do we explain this?
  2. The text of the play gives us a great deal of information about John Proctor's internal conflicts and struggles, but very little about Elizabeth's. Why is this? What effect does this have on the dramatic action? On the audience's reading/reception? How might we critique this? What kinds of conflict might a contemporary audience imagine for Elizabeth?
  3. How might the conflict a contemporary audience imagine for Elizabeth be different than the conflict an audience in the 1950's might have imagined for her? What accounts for this?
  4. I'm most interested in thinking this through from the angle of performance-- that is, how would *you* PERFORM Elizabeth's role in her final scenes with John? How *does* an actor/actress "get into character"? What do we draw upon in order to perform a role? And how is this aspect of performance related to the ways in which a reader reads? That is, what are the similarities and differences between reading and performing?
  5. If an audience can read/interpret a play differently over time-- that is, if our cultural constructions of self/other affect how we understand the play, then what is the "truth" of the play?

Feb. 5--:Consider/Discuss issues above
Freewrite Exercise:-- Carefully consider a theme, character, plot or staging aspect of The Crucible that you find compelling-- write a 350 word (equivalent to 1 1/2 pages typed, double-spaced) freewrite exploring the issue you have identified as important. Make specific reference to the text-- quote at least one or two places that seem to be especially important to the issue you are developing. I would like these typed-- I am looking to this particular freewrite to see how you enter into a critical reading, and I would like to offer you feedback, dialogue, thoughts for further development. This will be much easier to do if you have typed your work.

Friday, Feb. 12-- Salome discussion