Book #31: The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Who isn’t intrigued by the idea of witches, secret love affairs, secrets, and lies? Well, maybe not in real life, but they sure are entertaining to watch. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play depicting the events of the Salem Witch Trials during the late 1600s. The play was originally a flop when it first premiered, but later became one of Miller’s most well known plays. I first read The Crucible when I was in 10th grade; it was part of our American literature curriculum. I remember enjoying the play as a student and was extra enthralled in English class while we read it. Not that I wasn’t extra enthralled the rest of the time.

Why is He So Dirty?: Teaching The Crucible in the Modern Age

            This year, I taught The Crucible to my one class of juniors. I was so excited to teach this play! I had so many ideas of what I wanted to do with it and what I wanted to discuss with my students. Did my students share in my excitement? Absolutely not. This is how it went down:

            Me: Guys, we are going to start reading The Crucible today! It’s about the Salem              Witch Trials! There are witches and drama and people burning at the stake! Isn’t               that exciting?!
             Student 1 slams head down on desk and groans loudly.
             Student 2 stares at me with a “you are crazy” look smacking her gum loudly.
             Student 3 falls asleep sitting up, drool dripping down their face.
 

Thank God for Student 4 who is nodding vigorously and cautiously smiling at me. It is clear that he is only smiling and nodding to make me feel better. The moral of the story here is that it is difficult to get 16 year olds to be excited about literature at 7:30 am. I tried, though.

            With this particular group of students, there was no way they would even read the play if we did not read it aloud. This did not proceed like I imagined it. There were several problems:

            

1. The students would forget which character they were or zone out when it was their turn to read. So whenever it was someone’s turn to read, they prefaced each line with “Oh shit.” Every. Single. Time. I kept yelling “THAT IS NOT IN THE SKRIPT! DO NOT SAY THAT!” Did they ever stop? No.

2. Some students love to be the center of attention and decide that they will read aloud every character that starts with the letter P. If you are familiar with The Crucible, you know that is a decent amount of characters (Parris, Proctor, Putnam). Whenever another student volunteers to read or accidentally read a P role, they will shout “No ‘expletive’ that’s my role!” At least they are excited about something…

3. Sometimes the students realize that the text is actually interesting. However, their reactions while reading are not always appropriate. Exhibit A: "So it’s saying that Abigail was sleeping with Proctor and his is, like, 30?! That’s so gross! He is so old! This b*!&% is cray!”

Look's so dirty, am I right?

As you can see, teaching the play was not what I was expecting with this group of students. I was very entertained while reading this with them. While they are not always the most studious group of teenagers, they did actually begin to enjoy the text about halfway through it. They also liked watching the movie. That’s probably why they put up with reading the book. However, watching the movie presented all sorts of other issues. The students just could not get over why John Proctor looked so dirty. At least three times a day, they commented: “Why won’t he just take a shower?” It didn’t matter that I told them that the play took place in the 1600s and they didn’t have running water back then. They still could not get over that he looked dirty. That was their main take away from The Crucible.

The Witch Hunt

The Crucible was originally written as an allegory for the Red Scare in the 1950s, referring to the McCarthy trials which was a hunt to find communists hiding in plain site. Arthur Miller was called to the stand during these trials and asked to name people he thought were communists. Miller refused to do so despite what it might do to his reputation. This mirrors Proctor’s predicament in The Crucible. His wife is first accused of being a witch and when Proctor begins to ask questions about the accuser, he is then accused. The only way for Proctor to not be hanged as a witch is to admit to being a witch even though it would be a lie. His only options are to lie and say he is a witch so he can live or to tell the truth and die. Is it better to survive or to die morally? It’s a tough question. Human being are born with the instinct for survival yet we have a moral compass. What happens when these two things are at odds?

            This idea of a witch hunt is applicable to many situations. My students could relate to this because they all deal with rumors and gossips. It is so easy for someone to say something that is untrue and for that rumor to spread and transform over time. False accusations are very common when it is a he said/she said type situation. I can not tell you how many times my juniors would randomly should out "THIS IS HOW LIKE THAT ONE TIME MY EX..." My response was always "I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!" because, trust me, sometimes we are just better off not knowing what they do in their free time. 

In your face, Abigail!

Other Thoughts

- Lorelai mentions The Crucible (probably the movie version) to Luke when she says “Not gonna talk about how good you’d look dressed as one of the guys from The Crucible.” She obviously doesn’t have the same problem as my students.

- Liam Neeson played John Proctor in the 2002 Broadway revival of the play and we all know how we feel about Liam Neeson. I would watch that man in anything.

- I didn’t talk much about Abigail and the girls in this post, but I just have to say that this play shows how teenage girls can be the worst. I have been one. I deal with them everyday. I know. Sometimes they can be the sweetest, but also they can be very scary. The Crucible shows this first hand.

Pictures

- Book Cover: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiX7_HRhujbAhVPzlkKHUEACV0QjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.goodreads.com%2Fbook%2Fshow%2F17250.The_Crucible&psig=AOvVaw3InrROTXmMiEUEdfWU7rdS&ust=1529783712041474

- Proctor: http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0df639c8d68299560f3d2ce9e90b0556.jpg- Meme:http://imoviequotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/1-the-crucible-quotes.gif