I wanted to use Arthur Miller's The Crucible to introduce to you
broad questions about the place of art in culture, the role of the
reader/performer/audience in interpreting a text, and the ways in which
we read "truth" in a text. We left some of the important
social-historical context of the play out of our classroom discussion.
For instance, while we discussed the play as a critique of McCarthyism,
we did not spend much class time discussing the historical particulars
of McCarthyism, Miller's refusal to name other artists as communists, or
the effects on Miller's life and career of his political stand. If you
are interested in developing your long paper about any of these issues
in The Crucible, you would begin by checking out a biography of
Arthur Miller and getting a few journal articles about Miller's
political trials.
With Salome, I am interested in walking you through the method
of a close, critical reading of a text. Both because Salome is a
very short play, and because it is so highly stylized, the text provides
us with an opportunity to trace extended metaphors, collapses in gender
and ojbect referents,
Things to consider as you read:
- Pay careful attention to which characters look at the moon and note
what they see. What does each character's description of the moon tell
us?
- Quite self-consciously, Wilde constructs this play as though with
mirrors-- trace the mirroring effects of the text by:
- Keeping careful track of who LOOKS at whom
- Keeping careful track of who tells whom NOT TO LOOK
- Tracking the repetitions in the play
- How are Salome and Jokaanan similar? How are Salome and Herod
similar?
- What colors are used in the play and with what are they associated?
- Describe Wilde's diction in the play-- read several pages out loud
to yourself and draw some conclusions about what the language sounds
like