Name:
Mr. D’Elia
English 10
Introduction to
The Crucible
A Note taking Activity: Act 1 Overture
Don’t forget to highlight your answers!!
Directions – Read pages three through eight, which constitute Miller’s commentary and background on the play The Crucible. Then, fill in the blanks below with the missing information.
Reverend ______’s age is about mid-______. ______is the Reverend’s daughter and she is ______years old. He is no longer married after having been ______. Although the Reverend has a child he is not very fond of ______. His house is in the ______and the ______is nearby. Salem and the surrounding area had been in existence for only ______years.
The people of Salem were deprived of the following three things: ______, and ______. During the holidays people were expected to______. Their lives could be described as ______and ______. Although, once in a while they enjoyed getting together when______. All in all, “______kept the morals of the place from spoiling.”
A “predilection for ______undoubtedly created many ______which were to feed the coming madness.”
On the four lines below, explain why this behavior (minding other people’s business)
causes trouble in a small town. ______
The edge of ______was close by. It was ______and ______every day and night, for fear of the ______. Indeed, the Salem people believed that the virgin forest was ______’s ______. Therefore the ______was the last place on earth that was not paying homage (respect) to God.
As a result, the Puritans persecuted others who did not believe as they did. They believed that they held in their ______the candle that ______. We (Americans) inherited this belief which helps us and hurts us.
What does it mean to believe that one “holds the candle that lights the world?”
______
Do you agree that modern Americans have inherited this belief from the Puritans? If not, why?
______
Miller claims that, “The ______, which is about to begin,developed from a paradox.” His explanation of the paradox begins with informing readers that the people of Salem developed a ______. What kind of government is that?
______.
Then, Arthur Miller tells us, “The witch-hunt was a perverse manifestation of the______which set in among all the classes when the balance began to turn toward ______.” What is Miller trying to tell us? ______.
People were finally able to express ______for their neighbors, ______and ______toward the happy did burst out in the general revenge.