18/11: Today's lesson will start with revision of Dramatic Features in relation to the play. Students will be tasked with considering how to write a PEEL paragraph including analysis of at least one dramatic feature. Afterwards, we will look at ACT III. Finally, if time permits, we will start the revision document.
20/11: We will start by looking at the technique analysis document. We will finish off Act III.
ANNOTATIONS: Annotate the document with these comments.
The dialogue is sharp and accusatory.
Through their dialogue, characters reveal their deepest fears, desires, and motivations.
Characters undergo significant development throughout the play
Miller's detailed stage directions help convey the emotional states of characters, adding depth to their dialogues
Miller's stage directions change the pace
The Salem witch trials in the play serve as an allegory for the "witch hunts" during the Red Scare, where individuals were accused of communism without proper evidence, leading to widespread fear and injustice. The irrational fear of witches parallels the irrational fear of communists.
Miller uses the allegory to critique the moral and ethical lapses of society during times of fear. He highlights the importance of due process, the dangers of mob mentality, and the value of standing up for truth and justice.
The allegory emphasizes the absurdity and danger of the witch trials, mirroring the absurdity and danger of the Red Scare. The rapid pressure to conform to the dominant narrative reflects the pressures faced during McCarthyism.
Tactile imagery (heat and cold) often symbolise broader themes about lack of justice or highly pressured environment
Human qualities - Courage, integrity, loyalty, manipulation
Human motivations - Truth and justice, moral integrity, reputation, power, guilt, self-preservation
21/11: Act IV
Revision Document: revision document
Students refine their PEELs based on feedback, ready to hand in.
GILES, through helpless sobs: It is my third wife, sir; I never had no wife that be so taken with books, and I thought to find the cause of it, d’y’see, but it were no witch I blamed her for. He is openly weeping. I have broke charity with the woman, I have broke charity with her. He covers his face, ashamed. Danforth is respectfully silent.
HALE: We cannot blink it more. There is a prodigious fear of this court in the country—
DANFORTH: Then there is a prodigious guilt in the country. Are you afraid to be questioned here?
HALE: I may only fear the Lord, sir, but there is fear in the country nevertheless.
DANFORTH, angered now: Reproach me not with the fear in the country; there is fear in the country because there is a moving plot to topple Christ in the country!
Voices of townspeople rise in excitement.
A roaring goes up from the people.
PROCTOR, laughs insanely, then: A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! And it is my face, and yours, Danforth! For them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud—God damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together!
PROCTOR, his mind wild, breathless: I say—I say—God is dead!
PROCTOR, his mind wild, PROCTOR: I have made a bell of my honor! I have rung the doom of my good name—you will believe me, Mr. Danforth! My wife is innocent, except she knew a whore when she saw one! : I say—I say—God is dead!
EMOTIONS (FOR ASSESSMENT):
Fear, Hysteria, Pride, Anger, Loyalty, Jealousy, Guilt
RUBRIC LANGUAGE (FOR HSC):
How does it represent individual experiences and collective experiences
How does it represent human qualities and emotions arising from human experiences?
What insight does it give into paradoxes, anomalies, inconsistencies in human behaviour and motivations?
How does it invite the responder to see the world differently?