Skip to main content

At the very end of The Crucible, there is a scene where John Proctor and Abigail are talking in forest. Why did Arthur Miller delete that scene?

In this deleted scene, Abigail tells John that her "spirit's changed entirely. [She] ought to be given Godly looks when [she] suffer[s]" for the people as she does. Abigail shows John the marks she claims to have received from the specters of various accused witches, and the stage direction says that John "see[s] [her] madness now." Abigail seems sincere when she accuses John of being hypocritical and speaking for his wife Elizabeth because Abigail believes John secretly wants her dead. 


I think such a scene casts Abigail's state of mind into doubt: has her mind really turned?  If so, if she has gone mad as a result of the hysteria, then this might cause the audience to feel sympathy for her, and Miller doesn't want us to sympathize with Abigail. He wouldn't want to lessen the amount that we can blame her for what has happened because Abigail, in many ways, represents Senator Joseph McCarthy, the congressman who led the witch hunt for Communists in the 1950s and '60s. In order to make his point, to really compare McCarthy to the Salem residents that Americans judge so harshly for the Witch Trials, Miller needs us to see Abigail as absolutely within her right mind and thus unproblematically responsible for the violence her accusations cause.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in  The Outsiders  by S. E. Hinton and  Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy.  In both  The Outsiders  and  Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While   socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In  The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In  Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...