We had a sub today.
Normally we start this day with SSR (self selected reading), but we are reading Act Four of The Crucible today. Have the students pull a line of desks up to the front of the room and have the students who want to read sit in front of the class. (They can do this as they are coming in before class starts.)
Read the following to the students before they start reading to help set the stage:
Months have passed, and things are falling apart in Massachusetts, making Judges Danforth and Hathorne increasingly insecure. They do not want to, and ultimately cannot, admit that they made a mistake in signing the death warrants of the convicted witches, so they hope for confessions from the remaining prisoners to insulate them from accusations of mistaken verdicts.
Danforth cannot pardon the prisoners, despite Hale’s pleas and his obvious doubts about their guilt, because he does not want to “cast doubt” on the justification of the hangings of the twelve previously condemned and on the sentence of hanging for the remaining prisoners.
In the twisted logic of the court, it would not be “fair” to the twelve already hanged if the seven remaining prisoners were pardoned. Danforth prioritizes a bizarre, abstract notion of equality over the tangible reality of potential innocence.
Clearly, the most important issue for the officials of the court is the preservation of their reputations and the integrity of the court. As a theocratic institution, the court represents divine, as well as secular, justice. To admit to twelve mistaken hangings would be to question divine justice and the very foundations of the state and of human life. The integrity of the court would be shattered, and the reputations of court officials would fall with it. Danforth and Hathorne would rather preserve the appearance of justice than threaten the religious and political order of Salem.
This act begins with Tituba and Goody Good. Although Tituba was told in Act I that she would be spared if she revealed her alliance with the Devil, along with her knowledge of other individuals “in truck” with the Devil, she has in fact been imprisoned. Sarah and Tituba have been in prison so long that they have come to believe that they are in league with the Devil. Cold weather, deplorable living conditions, and the lack of food have made them delusional.
Have the students read through Act IV. Assign parts as necessary.
After the students finish, ask them what “goodness” Elizabeth is referring to when she says that Proctor “has his goodness now.”
Talk about why his name was so important to Proctor. What do they think it means when John says:
Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! 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!
If there is time left at the end, they can work on their found poem assignment that I gave them yesterday.
Homework Collected: None
Homework Assigned: 6th Period Writer’s Notebooks, due Friday, September 25th, Found Poem due Friday, September 25th, Test on The Crucible - Thursday, October 1st.
Handouts given out: None
To Read: Act IV
