Student Name: Student Example
Date: ___________________________
The Crucible
Points: _____/______
Complete the following reading log as you read.
Make five entries per Act, which makes for 20 entries total.
Type in the boxes given, which allows you to make them bigger if needed.
Text
Type of Analysis
(provide all or part of the quote
with page or line number)
(Choose from options #1-7)
If question #5, include a word from the
list on the back of the Reader’s Log
worksheet.
Act I:
“The parochial snobbery of these
people was partly responsible
for their failure to convert the
Indians.” (Miller 5)
Act I:
“Proctor, respected and even
feared in Salem, has come to
regard himself as a kind of
fraud.” (Miller 20 – 21)
Act I:
“Rebecca Nurse: … I have eleven
children, and I am twenty six
times a grandma, and I have
seen them all through their silly
seasons, and when it come on
them they will run the Devil
bowlegged keeping up with their
mischief. “ (Miller 27)
Response
1. Opinion
The Salemites should have put aside their differences to gain more alliances, rather than
add more enemies to the growing list. If they would’ve made peace and converted the
Indians, maybe fewer issues would have occurred.
5. Analysis - Irony
There is a complete irony in the way that Proctor is viewed and how he actually feels about
himself. He’s keeping quiet about his past affair with Abigail and her dark ways as well as his
questionable own.
7. Question
The way that Rebecca had said this makes her seem suspicious, has she ever directly dealt
with the Devil’s dealings before? Also, was she secretly in any way connected to the crime
going on now?
Act I:
“Parris: I cannot offer one
proposition but there be a
howling riot of argument.”
(Miller 30)
Act I:
“Abigail: I want the light of God,
I want the sweet love of Jesus!”
(Miller 48)
Act II:
“Proctor: I am only wondering
how I may prove what she told
me, Elizabeth.” (Miller 53)
Act II:
“Elizabeth: She’d dare not call
out such a farmer’s wife but
there be a monstrous profit in it.
She thinks to take my place,
John.” (Miller 63)
Act II:
“Hale: Theology, sir, is a fortress;
no crack in a fortress may be
accounted small.” (Miller 67)
Act II:
“Proctor: Get y’gone with them!
You are a broken minister.”
(Miller 77)
3. Connections to Real Life
His statement reminds me a lot of modern political issues. Such as if a party starts a
movement there is always another party building against it. Especially in campaigning for
office, anything that is said or done the other analyzes with great discretion.
2. Feelings
I do not believe that Abigail has had a change of heart and I feel that she is just trying to
save her own skin by ratting out anyone who danced for the devil as well as anyone who
crossed her the wrong way.
7. Questions
If Proctor really wanted to save his marriage, he should not have faltered and been
completely honest with Elizabeth about his encounter with Abigail. Why did he falter? Did
he have hidden feelings for Abigail all while he loved his wife? What else is he hiding? Has
he changed since his first appearance?
3. Connections to Real Life
Elizabeth is proof that even though the ways of thriving have change, women still know
when another girl is trying for their man. She was fully aware of the blushing and secret eye
contact between the two yet Elizabeth turned her cheek because she trusted John. But now
that things have gotten underway, all the secrets are coming out much like they would in
today’s cultural pressure.
5. Analysis - Metaphor
Hale compared Theology to a fortress using figurative language. He was inferring that no
matter how small a sin John committed, it was not going unseen.
1. Opinion
I think that when Elizabeth was arrested under the warrant, John had a sense of betrayal
toward Hale. Hale is unintentionally making the witch-hunt even more complicated by
following his hunches when he should be gaining more authority from the town to get
everyone to cooperate. I believe that Hale will eventually solve the case, though.
Act II:
“Proctor: And the wind, God’s
icy wind, will blow!” (Miller 81)
Act III:
“Parris: Beware this man, Your
Excellency, this man is mischief.”
(Miller 88)
Act III:
“Mary Warren: It were pretense.
…
Danforth: Ah? And the other
girls? Susanna Walcott, and- the
others? They are also
pretending?” (Miller 89)
Act III:
“Danforth: Mr. Proctor, this
morning, your wife send me a
claim in which she states that
she is pregnant now.” (Miller 92)
Act III:
“Danforth: This is a court of law,
Mister. I’ll have no effrontery
here.” (Miller 98)
Act III:
“Proctor: There might be also be
a dragon with five legs in my
house, but no one has ever seen
it.” (Miller 104)
5. Analysis - Foreshadow
It occurred to me that John may be foretelling that the town and its people were going to
receive what they deserved.
1. Opinion
I think that at this point, Parris was only defending his name and letting those who did not
agree with him become suspects. Proctor, who he referred to as mischief, may have actually
been telling the truth but Parris was too stubborn to realize the real possible culprit was
someone that he had wavered off.
6. Examination of Unclear
Words –
pretense/pretending
Seeing the word pretense earlier in the book, I had thought the verb meant that something
had occurred in the past and was no longer in action. Context clues bolded have revealed
that pretense actually means the act of falsehood.
7. Questions
Was Elizabeth really pregnant and how could John not known about it, he is her husband
after all? Was this a ploy to prolong her sentence? Was there a conspiracy with the other
pregnant woman in jail?
6. Examination of Unclear
Words - effrontery
I was unfamiliar with this word so I searched it. Effrontery is defined as boldness without
any fear. This word originated from the French word esfront which translates to shameless.
5. Analysis - Sarcasm
Proctor was retorting toward anyone accusing his wife of collecting poppets in secret. She
clearly hadn’t owned one since she was a girl and Proctor was defending Elizabeth by
inferring that anyone who thought she was hiding poppets was merely babbling nonsense.
Act IV:
“Tituba: We goin’ to Barbados,
soon the Devil gits here with the
feathers and the wings.” (Miller
122)
Act IV:
“Cheever: There be so many
cows wanderin’ the highroads,
now their masters are in jails,
and much disagreement who
they will belong to now.” (Miller
125)
Act IV:
“Proctor walks to her, halts. It is
as though they stood in a
spinning world. It is beyond
sorrow, above it. He reaches out
his hand as though toward an
embodiment not quite real, and
as he touches her, a strange soft
sound, half laughter, half
amazement, comes from his
throat. He pats her hand. She
covers his hand with hers. And
then, weak, he sits. The she sits
facing him.” (Miller 133-34)
Act IV:
“Rebecca: Why, it is a lie, it is a
lie; how may I damn myself? I
cannot, I cannot.” (Miller 140)
1. Opinion
Tituba and Sarah Good have definitely taken the toll of being in jail and I think that they
have lost any sanity they had in them (if they had any to start with). I think eventually they
will be hung or possibly tortured for their dark deeds.
2. Feelings
I feel a sense of pity on all the ones who were innocently arrested and especially the ones
who were unjustly killed. It is truly a tragedy due to so many lives lost because a naïve town
believed in a not-so-saint-like girl who used them like puppets.
5. Analysis - Creation of
Empathy
When John Proctor saw his wife for the first time in 3 months and within an hour of his
death, I could not blame him to think Elizabeth was a mirage. Nor could I fathom how he
managed to not have an utter break down from the stress of it all. This is a moment when
the reader/audience understands the Proctors without the couple speaking but through
their actions and feelings.
5. Analysis - Repetition
Rebecca expressed her solidity by repeating her statements and holding on to what she felt
was true. This was an effect that helped the reader/audience believe her.
Act IV:
“Elizabeth: He have his goodness
now. God forbid I take it from
him!” (Miller 145)
1. Opinion
This was a lovely ending as Elizabeth proclaimed her unconditional love for John and let him
proceed with the action he felt the most truth was in, even if it was his own hanging.
Because she would not judge him, I think that this was a true sign of their love no matter
how things would end up.