Ann Putnam's statement in Act One of The Crucible that "...there are wheels within wheels and fires within fires" in Salem village present one of the major themes of the novel--selfishness/self-directed society. Which character do you feel is most self-directed and why? How does his/her self-motivation "spin" the wheels of others? In this blogging, you must read the responses given by your fellow classmates who posted before you. Not only must you add to the conversation, you must reply to their responses. I will start this comments. The person who comments after me can not write about the same person I did and must make some comment about what I said.(The deadline to post a response to this blog is midnight Tuesday, September 6, 2011.)
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Wheels Within Wheels...
Ann Putnam's statement in Act One of The Crucible that "...there are wheels within wheels and fires within fires" in Salem village present one of the major themes of the novel--selfishness/self-directed society. Which character do you feel is most self-directed and why? How does his/her self-motivation "spin" the wheels of others? In this blogging, you must read the responses given by your fellow classmates who posted before you. Not only must you add to the conversation, you must reply to their responses. I will start this comments. The person who comments after me can not write about the same person I did and must make some comment about what I said.(The deadline to post a response to this blog is midnight Tuesday, September 6, 2011.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
The person I found most self-serving is Rev. Samuel Parris. His desire to protect his professional status and his paranoia that he is being persecuted dominate his thinking. Had he told that he saw his daughter and neice dancing in the forest instead of protecting his name, innocent people like Rebecca Nurse and Elizabeth Proctor would not have been called out for witchcraft.
I agree that Parris is very self-serving and only thinking about himself. It would have been easier if he would have told the truth about the dancing in the forest. I also think that Abigail is very selfish as well. She is willing to lie to everyone only to accomplish what she wants. She also accuses Elizabeth because she wants John even though he does not want her. Abigail is only thinking of herself when she is accusing people of witchcraft.
I also believe that Reverend Parris is self-serving, and only cares about protecting his reputation. He refuses to tell the town that his daughter and niece may have been invovled in witchcraft, thus effecting everyone who is later accused of being a witch. Parris is a selfish man, but so is his daughter Betty. In Act One, she is caught dancing in the forrest and does not want to get a whipping for it, so she starts accusing women of being witches who possessed her. Even though Betty got herself out of a whipping, she caused many women and their families the hardships of being accused of being witches.
I agree with all three of you that Reverend Parris is a selfish man. He is constantly worried about his reputation. If he would not have been so selfish many people would not have been accused of withcraft. Even though Reverend Parris is selfish, I believe the most selfish person in The Crucible is Abigail. She starts accusing people of withcraft for attention and so she would not get in trouble for dancing in the woods and drinking blood. She only accuses the people she does not like or the ones that have done something to her. They are all found guilty even though there is no proof. She put many people though hardships that could have been avoided.
Yes, Reverend Parris is very selfish. He worries about nothing other than his reputation. Even though Abagail accuses many of witchcraft, I believe John Proctor spins the wheels of Abagail's accusations. Now that John is done with Abagail, she is on a frenzie. His and Abagails actions spin the wheels of many others.
BP-blk 1, I believe you made a very good point about John Proctor setting Abigail's accusations off. Also I believe Abigail is extremely selfish. One example of this is when she wishes death upon Goody Proctor only for her own desire to be with John Proctor. Another example is when she is caught dancing in the woods to avoid her punishment she takes full advantage of the excuse of witchcraft. She throws wild accusations of witchcraft to avoid her own punishment for her actions. I believe she has distinguished herself to be very selfish and selfcentered.
Emma, I believe you are right in saying that Abigail is only thinking of herself and trying to accomplish what she wants. I also believe that Abigail is the biggest "wheel" in this play because she influences all of the little girls involved in the trials. I think that Reverend Hale is also a selfish person in this play, though not intentionally. Reverend Hale has the power to end all of the nonsense going on, but instead chooses to let it continue, which is considerably selfish. He is only worried that his first little experiment won't be as big as he first thought.
I believe that Abigail is very selfish because of the way that she is accusing people left and right of being a witch when she was the one who drank a charm to kill Elizabeth. She is also very selfish in trying to get rid of Elizabeth so she can be with John. She seems to try her hardest to get him even though she is hurting everyone around her in doing so, making her very self centered and very selfish.
Brittany, you must comment about the post prior to yours as well as adding your comments. Please make sure you go back and change your post.
I also believe that Abigail is quite the selfish person in the play. She always wants to get someone else in trouble. I also believe that Goody Putnam is a very selfish person. If she would stop trying to pass the blame on everyone else than Rebecca Nurse would not be charged with murder. She just couldn't come to realise maybe she just can't have children. Instead of trying to find the real reason her babies keep dieing she uses this new outburst of "witchcraft" to pass the blame to Rebecca Nurse all because there families do not like each other.
I agree that Abigail is very selfish and is only makes the matters worse. However, I also think that Tituba was quite selfish. She is the one that started naming off "witches". She was only trying to get out of the blame. She is also the one that was "conjuring" and teaching the girls to do so. She led them all to the woods and started all of it.
Samantha, you did not comment on the response before yours. You need to go back and read the directions to get credit for responding.
Post a Comment