mould

REVIEW: The Crucible
A wild thing may say wild things. But not so wild, I think.

Recently went to watch The Crucible at some theatre in Stratford-on-Avon. Brought back all the memories of secondary school lit and secondary school. For me, Crucible and TKAM will always hold a special place in my heart, cos it was these two that stoked my interest in lit as a subject, and fooled me for a few happy years into thinking I was perhaps pretty good at it as well.

Sentimental reasons aside, I do like the Crucible very much. It’s probably the first play I’ve done as a text (not that I’ve done many anyway, but come to think of it now I have enjoyed both tremendously), and I remember writing a short personal essay on it on the eve of O levels or something. Why? Academic superstition given form by my need for rational unity I suppose. I thought that if I could integrate it into my self, cohere my thoughts and feelings about it, maybe I might do better in the exams. Whatever. Anyway, having reread that essay in preparation for this post, I see that I used not to like it. Apparently I was pretty childish then and wanted happy endings. The Proctors’ love had gotten to me and I was just really upset that Proctor died just when he’d reconciled himself. But then young me realises that the only way Proctor could have made peace with himself was to die, and because of that it was a good ending. His search for a relief from the burden of his conscience finally gained fruition in that “first marvel”.

Apart from the whole tragic hero thing which is pretty nice I suppose, there’s also the touching love between John and Lizzie. I’m pretty against infidelity but for some reason it didn’t seem to bother me that much in this play. I liked both characters very much and because of that I was pretty happy for them when they got lovey-dovey in the jail. Other than that, I suppose John Hale is somewhat appealing as well, though more because I think this whole witch-hunter thing is pretty cool than for any real lit reason.

The most important thing is probably the language. It’s just really cool. Miller himself likens it to “hard burnished wood” and I can see where that’s coming from. But it’s not just the accent and the language that’s cool – it’s the quotes themselves as well. They’re all really incredible. Just off the top of my head, let’s just see what I can remember.

I mean we have normal, action things like:

“I say God is dead!”
Or, “I will fall like an ocean on that court”
“More weight.”
“He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him.”

But what’s much better are the guailan quotes. Obviously there’s the above one, which might as well be used for this blog. Then we have:

“We never touched. – Aye, but we did. – Aye, but we did not.”
“You are charging her with a cool and marvellous plot to murder.” Geez, I wish I could come up with a cool and marvellous anything.
“…a pointy reckoning…”
“I only come to see the great doings in the world – I’ll show you a great doing on your arse.”
“A fart on Thomas Putnam!”
All the Abigail-Proctor stuff about stallions and coming near.
Hale’s stuff about the invisible world caught and calculated in his book – your witches by sea, land and air (a bit like Navy Seals?) and your warlocks by day and night.
“My Betty be hearty?”

There must be so many more – gosh everything they say is incredible. I wish I could speak like that…Anyway, I guess that’s it. I started off a bit sentimental but I suppose it’s good to end on a higher note.