Homework W2

In LEAP English at School, we are reading the Crucible. For our first homework task we have to: Choose two characters - one to whom you respond positively and one to you respond negatively. What aspects of the text have positioned you to respond this way? You may want to consider representations, characterization and voice. Quote in support.

Negative Character - Abagail
Abby starts off like a nice young, teenage girl, but as the play progresses, you find that she is not all that she seems. She lies face to face to her Uncle Parris. "We did dance, Uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there's the whole of it ... we never conjured spirits." When in fact, Abby wanted Tituba (their Barbados maid) to place a curse on John Proctor's wife so she may take Mrs Proctor's place. When Abby was working for the Proctors, John came into her room and his wife caught them out. She never has trusted him since. Near the end of Act one, Tituba confessed using witchcraft and she said there were others with the devil. Abby and Betty join in saying different peoples name, shouting out they had seen many people walking with Lucifer. It seems farfetched that all ten people mentioned had made a pact with the devil to overthrow heaven. Also, at the end, Abby is just shouting out any old name of someone who she doesn't like or holds a grudge against. "I saw Bridget Bishop ... Goody Sibber ... Goody Hawkins ... Goody Bibber..." and the horrible thing is most people believe in what she is saying!

Positive Character - John Proctor
Although not mentioned very often, John Proctor would have to be one of the most interesting characters in the entire play (at this point). Even though many people talk about him behind his back, he holds his head up high and continues doing his own thing. Even though he and his wife has had many an arguing over miscellaneous things/people, he is still faithful to his wife. He upholds a strict household, and when he finds Mary Warren (his new servant girl) not in the house helping his wife he shouts "I forbid you to leave the house ... I am looking for you more often than my cows." Even though he may sound harsh, he is soft and gooey on the inside. It has taken me a while to write about a character which I think of in a positive way. Most of the characters seem to hold a grudge against one another and none of them talk to each other in a conversational tone, they are all shown by their faults only, and I believe Arthur Miller wrote it this way, to show what a horrible place Saelem is.