Post by mslewis on May 3, 2012 15:10:57 GMT
Hi folks - some more key quotes. You should really already have all of these in your notes. They shouldn't be new. 
“Crucible” key quotes
Can be used for John’s character (redeeming himself as man of integrity after affair), theme of integrity, J and E relationship, Act 3 as scene of great tension/turning point, Act 4 as scene of great emotion or effective climax to play.
These quotes could all be used to fit a range of different essay questions.
Act 1
"[his smile widening] ah, you're wicked yet, aren't y'!" - Flirtatious, colluding in breaking of society's rules and dishonesty
"I have seen you looking up, burning in your loneliness"
"I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I'll ever reach for you again.” - Still desires her but shame makes him determined to resist. Dishonesty.
"endless capacity for dissembling" - Abigail’s dishonesty. Sense of foreboding.
"we vote by name in this society, not by acreage" - value of reputation which makes John so reluctant to confess to the affair.
"I may speak my heart I think"- John prides himself on being honest, not bowing down to authority figures he doesn't respect
Dishonesty in Act 1: abigail and the girls (fear and self-interest), Putnam (self-interest), parris (self-interest and fear)
Proctor caught between public reputation for honesty and private sins/desires. Will have to face up to this inner turmoil through witchcraft trials
Act 2
"it's well seasoned" – lack of honesty in Proctor marriage
"I mean to please you Elizabeth" – Proctor trying to repair marriage
"you ought to bring some flowers into the house...it's winter in here yet" – reflects cold relationship. Proctor anxious to repair it: “flowers”
"I'll not have your suspicion any more" - evidence of Proctor’s sense of guilt
"I have good reason to think before I charge fraud on Abigail and I will think on it" - he fears their affair being exposed if he does so, a dilemma for him.
"as though I come into a court when I come into this house" – foreshadowing here as the Proctors will end up in court in Act 3. Proctor feels judged by Elizabeth
"I do not judge you. The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you"- Elizabeth reminds John it is his own conscience that troubles him as he knows he has done wrong
"Were I stone I would have cracked for shame this seven month" - Proctor’s guilt
"She has an arrow in you yet, John Proctor, and you know it well!" – Elizabeth suspects John still has feelings for Abigail, not entirely unjustified based on Act 1
Forgets commandment about adultery: "as though a secret arrow had pained his heart" – This is ironic that John cannot remember the one commandment that he has broken
"there are them that will swear to anything before they'll hang." – John tells Hale this. Reflects the lack of integrity that many of the townspeople have. John will later face this dilemma himself
"I will fall like an ocean on that court! Fear nothing Elizabeth." – John’s determination to save his wife, reflecting his love for her and self-sacrifice. He is beginning to recover his sense of integrity
"my wife will never die for me!...that goodness will not die for me!" – again shows love for Elizabeth. Unwilling for her to die because of his sins. He knows he must be honest.
Act 3
"let you beware, Mr Danforth. Think you be so mighty that the power of hell may not turn your wits?" – Abigail dares to threaten the deputy governor of the province. Frightening – what else will she do? No limit to her power.
"how do you call Heaven! Whore! Whore!" – John’s outburst when Abigail pretends to see Mary’s spirit trying to attack her. He now has no choice but to confess. His reluctance shows his wrestling with the loss of his reputation and sense of shame at confessing
"[trembling, his life collapsing about him] I have known her, sir. I have known her." - shows Proctor’s shame and the consequences for him – he will never regain the life and position he once had. Confident and powerful no more.
"God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat." – Earlier he denied to E that there was any such “promise”. Here we see him facing up to the consequences of his behaviour.
"I have made a bell of my honour! I have rung the doom of my good name." – Proctor’s sacrifice of his reputation by making such a public confession. Just as a bell makes a loud noise, everyone in the town has heard of his sins.
"in her life, sir, she have never lied." - Proctor’s statement about Elizabeth which has terrible consequences as Elizabeth does lie.
"my husband is a good and righteous man" - shows E’s love for Proctor that she will tell lies to protect him.
"[sensing her weakening] Mary, God damns all liars!" – These words of John’s foreshadow his fate and have a sense of foreboding. John is “damned” in the play because he has been a liar. They are also ironic words as in the play, the liars are the characters who have temporary power and their lives are saved. However, according to the Puritans’ beliefs, these people would be damned in the afterlife so in the end Proctor’s refusal to lie means his soul is saved. This also adds to the tension: will Mary have the courage to tell the truth?
"for them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud- God damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together!" – Proctor recognises the terrible consequences of his reluctance to tell the truth initially and that he should be punished for this. He warns Danforth and the court that they are also guilty of dishonesty.
Act 4
"I cannot mount the gibbet like a saint. It is a fraud. I am not that man...Nothing's spoiled by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before." - John still struggling with his conscience. He doesn’t feel he can hang alongside people like Rebecca who have led a blameless life, and seem like a martyr. He believes he deserves to be shamed.
"John, it come to naught that I should forgive you, if you'll not forgive yourself. It is not my soul, John, it is yours" - Elizabeth knows John still struggles with his conscience and reminds him that he needs to redeem himself in his own eyes
"I have sins of my own to count. It takes a cold wife to prompt lechery." - She acknowledges that she was partly to blame for John’s affair.
"forgive me, forgive me John- I never knew such goodness in the world!" - Elizabeth believes that John is truly a good man.
"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!" - John realises that his name and reputation are worth saving and he wants to keep his soul, wants to die a good man. He is beginning to arrive at the decision not to sacrifice this by confessing to witchcraft.
"he have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him!" – Elizabeth refuses to try to persuade John to change his mind. She realises that he needed to make this decision in order to convince himself that he is a man of integrity. This shows her love for him – though she wants him living she knows he has to do what he believes to be right.
“Crucible” key quotes
Can be used for John’s character (redeeming himself as man of integrity after affair), theme of integrity, J and E relationship, Act 3 as scene of great tension/turning point, Act 4 as scene of great emotion or effective climax to play.
These quotes could all be used to fit a range of different essay questions.
Act 1
"[his smile widening] ah, you're wicked yet, aren't y'!" - Flirtatious, colluding in breaking of society's rules and dishonesty
"I have seen you looking up, burning in your loneliness"
"I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I'll ever reach for you again.” - Still desires her but shame makes him determined to resist. Dishonesty.
"endless capacity for dissembling" - Abigail’s dishonesty. Sense of foreboding.
"we vote by name in this society, not by acreage" - value of reputation which makes John so reluctant to confess to the affair.
"I may speak my heart I think"- John prides himself on being honest, not bowing down to authority figures he doesn't respect
Dishonesty in Act 1: abigail and the girls (fear and self-interest), Putnam (self-interest), parris (self-interest and fear)
Proctor caught between public reputation for honesty and private sins/desires. Will have to face up to this inner turmoil through witchcraft trials
Act 2
"it's well seasoned" – lack of honesty in Proctor marriage
"I mean to please you Elizabeth" – Proctor trying to repair marriage
"you ought to bring some flowers into the house...it's winter in here yet" – reflects cold relationship. Proctor anxious to repair it: “flowers”
"I'll not have your suspicion any more" - evidence of Proctor’s sense of guilt
"I have good reason to think before I charge fraud on Abigail and I will think on it" - he fears their affair being exposed if he does so, a dilemma for him.
"as though I come into a court when I come into this house" – foreshadowing here as the Proctors will end up in court in Act 3. Proctor feels judged by Elizabeth
"I do not judge you. The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you"- Elizabeth reminds John it is his own conscience that troubles him as he knows he has done wrong
"Were I stone I would have cracked for shame this seven month" - Proctor’s guilt
"She has an arrow in you yet, John Proctor, and you know it well!" – Elizabeth suspects John still has feelings for Abigail, not entirely unjustified based on Act 1
Forgets commandment about adultery: "as though a secret arrow had pained his heart" – This is ironic that John cannot remember the one commandment that he has broken
"there are them that will swear to anything before they'll hang." – John tells Hale this. Reflects the lack of integrity that many of the townspeople have. John will later face this dilemma himself
"I will fall like an ocean on that court! Fear nothing Elizabeth." – John’s determination to save his wife, reflecting his love for her and self-sacrifice. He is beginning to recover his sense of integrity
"my wife will never die for me!...that goodness will not die for me!" – again shows love for Elizabeth. Unwilling for her to die because of his sins. He knows he must be honest.
Act 3
"let you beware, Mr Danforth. Think you be so mighty that the power of hell may not turn your wits?" – Abigail dares to threaten the deputy governor of the province. Frightening – what else will she do? No limit to her power.
"how do you call Heaven! Whore! Whore!" – John’s outburst when Abigail pretends to see Mary’s spirit trying to attack her. He now has no choice but to confess. His reluctance shows his wrestling with the loss of his reputation and sense of shame at confessing
"[trembling, his life collapsing about him] I have known her, sir. I have known her." - shows Proctor’s shame and the consequences for him – he will never regain the life and position he once had. Confident and powerful no more.
"God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat." – Earlier he denied to E that there was any such “promise”. Here we see him facing up to the consequences of his behaviour.
"I have made a bell of my honour! I have rung the doom of my good name." – Proctor’s sacrifice of his reputation by making such a public confession. Just as a bell makes a loud noise, everyone in the town has heard of his sins.
"in her life, sir, she have never lied." - Proctor’s statement about Elizabeth which has terrible consequences as Elizabeth does lie.
"my husband is a good and righteous man" - shows E’s love for Proctor that she will tell lies to protect him.
"[sensing her weakening] Mary, God damns all liars!" – These words of John’s foreshadow his fate and have a sense of foreboding. John is “damned” in the play because he has been a liar. They are also ironic words as in the play, the liars are the characters who have temporary power and their lives are saved. However, according to the Puritans’ beliefs, these people would be damned in the afterlife so in the end Proctor’s refusal to lie means his soul is saved. This also adds to the tension: will Mary have the courage to tell the truth?
"for them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud- God damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together!" – Proctor recognises the terrible consequences of his reluctance to tell the truth initially and that he should be punished for this. He warns Danforth and the court that they are also guilty of dishonesty.
Act 4
"I cannot mount the gibbet like a saint. It is a fraud. I am not that man...Nothing's spoiled by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before." - John still struggling with his conscience. He doesn’t feel he can hang alongside people like Rebecca who have led a blameless life, and seem like a martyr. He believes he deserves to be shamed.
"John, it come to naught that I should forgive you, if you'll not forgive yourself. It is not my soul, John, it is yours" - Elizabeth knows John still struggles with his conscience and reminds him that he needs to redeem himself in his own eyes
"I have sins of my own to count. It takes a cold wife to prompt lechery." - She acknowledges that she was partly to blame for John’s affair.
"forgive me, forgive me John- I never knew such goodness in the world!" - Elizabeth believes that John is truly a good man.
"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!" - John realises that his name and reputation are worth saving and he wants to keep his soul, wants to die a good man. He is beginning to arrive at the decision not to sacrifice this by confessing to witchcraft.
"he have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him!" – Elizabeth refuses to try to persuade John to change his mind. She realises that he needed to make this decision in order to convince himself that he is a man of integrity. This shows her love for him – though she wants him living she knows he has to do what he believes to be right.