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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
brilliant
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Considering it was a school assignment, I knew I wasn't going to love it. It was kind of chaotic and all over the place.
challenging
dark
fast-paced
Read this for GCSE and quite glad for it, good story and interesting view of the ideas going on in those times.
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"now, mr proctor, before i decide whether i shall hear you or not, it is my duty to tell you this. we burn a hot fire down here; it melts down all concealment"
ahh the crucible - a play i fear a lot of people were forced to read for ncea english or drama. in fact why do i vaguely remember watching some of my friends in the crucible? idk. anyway...
i really fucking loved reading this! death of a salesman was the first book i read last year and i knew that one day i'd finally read the crucible too.
i believe arthur miller wrote death of a salesman from a cabin in the woods and it took him about 6 weeks to write it. a couple of years later, his friend reported him and a bunch of others to huac (the house un-american activities committee) as being communists. arthur miller then didn't talk to this friend for 10 years and went on to write 'a view from the bridge' and 'the crucible'. i knew this information when going into reading this book, and i think it makes the themes within the book of: religious extremism, mass group hysteria, and just generally trying to prove ones innocence when everyone has already persecuted you -much stronger.
back in the day when the evidence was simply a 'he said / she said' situation, how was anybody able to be convicted for anything? the church was corrupt, and the courts were corrupt, so proving your innocence was extremely hard. in the crucible there are many petty vengeances that play out over the four acts, and you see motivations behind maybe what started as a bit of folly on abigails behalf, that completely spirals out of control later on in the story.
because women were often deemed more vulnerable, that's why they were more commonly thought to be witches. their soul was more "weak" and therefore, it made it easier for the devil to take control of them. i think overall 19 people were hanged during the witch trials in salem, but between 40,000-60,000 all over europe were also hanged for witchcraft. which is crazy, because you kind of only hear about what happened in salem. but the mass hysteria WAS everywhere and so many innocent people died... classic humanity.
there were times in the play where i was shouting at the pages, feeling so frustrated. like... just lie haha. back in those days, you kinda had two options: confess to witchcraft, thereby relinquishing your sins and letting god in, OR... denying you had anything to do with witchcraft, but everyone thinks you're lying so you are hanged anyway. so many people had to fight their inner demons (haha) in terms of weighing up whether it is worth it to lie (to spare your life) however, lying goes against your religion so when you eventually die, will you still be welcomed into "heaven" because of your dishonesty?
anyway, i loved reading this. parts i feel, did drag, on account of so much religious talk. but when the girls are all doing their thing (even if it's pretending to be possessed by a devil) it got so interesting and i couldn't put it down. and i suppose in a 2025 world where the courts ARE still corrupt and the church IS still corrupt as well... what even is innocence when put to the test? SO many abusers get to walk free and vice versa, because of inherent biases, there are so many innocent people sitting behind bars everywhere.
"PROCTOR: [with a cry of his soul]: because it is my name! because i cannot have another in my life! because i lie and sign myself to lie! because i am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! how may i live without my name? i have given you my soul; leave me my name!"
i guess that's why they don't just lie ^^
ahh the crucible - a play i fear a lot of people were forced to read for ncea english or drama. in fact why do i vaguely remember watching some of my friends in the crucible? idk. anyway...
i really fucking loved reading this! death of a salesman was the first book i read last year and i knew that one day i'd finally read the crucible too.
i believe arthur miller wrote death of a salesman from a cabin in the woods and it took him about 6 weeks to write it. a couple of years later, his friend reported him and a bunch of others to huac (the house un-american activities committee) as being communists. arthur miller then didn't talk to this friend for 10 years and went on to write 'a view from the bridge' and 'the crucible'. i knew this information when going into reading this book, and i think it makes the themes within the book of: religious extremism, mass group hysteria, and just generally trying to prove ones innocence when everyone has already persecuted you -much stronger.
back in the day when the evidence was simply a 'he said / she said' situation, how was anybody able to be convicted for anything? the church was corrupt, and the courts were corrupt, so proving your innocence was extremely hard. in the crucible there are many petty vengeances that play out over the four acts, and you see motivations behind maybe what started as a bit of folly on abigails behalf, that completely spirals out of control later on in the story.
because women were often deemed more vulnerable, that's why they were more commonly thought to be witches. their soul was more "weak" and therefore, it made it easier for the devil to take control of them. i think overall 19 people were hanged during the witch trials in salem, but between 40,000-60,000 all over europe were also hanged for witchcraft. which is crazy, because you kind of only hear about what happened in salem. but the mass hysteria WAS everywhere and so many innocent people died... classic humanity.
there were times in the play where i was shouting at the pages, feeling so frustrated. like... just lie haha. back in those days, you kinda had two options: confess to witchcraft, thereby relinquishing your sins and letting god in, OR... denying you had anything to do with witchcraft, but everyone thinks you're lying so you are hanged anyway. so many people had to fight their inner demons (haha) in terms of weighing up whether it is worth it to lie (to spare your life) however, lying goes against your religion so when you eventually die, will you still be welcomed into "heaven" because of your dishonesty?
anyway, i loved reading this. parts i feel, did drag, on account of so much religious talk. but when the girls are all doing their thing (even if it's pretending to be possessed by a devil) it got so interesting and i couldn't put it down. and i suppose in a 2025 world where the courts ARE still corrupt and the church IS still corrupt as well... what even is innocence when put to the test? SO many abusers get to walk free and vice versa, because of inherent biases, there are so many innocent people sitting behind bars everywhere.
"PROCTOR: [with a cry of his soul]: because it is my name! because i cannot have another in my life! because i lie and sign myself to lie! because i am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! how may i live without my name? i have given you my soul; leave me my name!"
i guess that's why they don't just lie ^^
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death
Minor: Sexism
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"But I’ll cut off my hand before I ever reach for you again."
This was a lot better than Death of a Salesman!! Spooky witch trials instead of a delusional man!! There were also some banger quotes in here. And the plot was actually interesting!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Religious bigotry
Moderate: Infidelity
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes