The fourth act of "The Crucible" was very surprising in two ways. First of all, I didn't expect John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, and the others with good reputations in the town to be hanged. After reading the third act, I had a sense that Abigail would have been caught as committing perjury and therefore be punished rather than all the others in the last act. My inference, however, was the exact opposite of what truly happened. As Hale begs Elizabeth to plead to Proctor to falsely confess to working with the Devil so that his life would be saved, she says "He have his goodnes now. God forbid I take it from him!" and then the final drumroll crashes and he is hanged. This sad ending tells us that the book is definitely a tragedy, which is a dramatic composition where a character is destined to downfall or destruction. The second reason to why act IV was surprising was because I didn't expect the author of the book, Arthur Miller, to omit Abigail from the act because she was such a pivotal chracter. Rather than just fleeing the town aboard a ship, I was hoping that Abigail would have been caught in her deceit and hanged or killed by rioters in the town. How did you expect the book to end?
Here's a link for further understanding of the history of tragedy in literature and the various types of tragedies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree. Im pretty surprised Arthur Miller did not include Abigail into the fourth act. Although I dislike the character sooo much, she brought a lot of excitement into the story. I was hoping she would have brought a little more spark into the story, especially at the last act. When I read that Abigail jad fled town and went aboard a ship, I was disappointed! But oh well.
ReplyDelete