WORD LISTS

"The Crucible," Vocabulary from Act 3 (Part 2/2)

Mon Oct 12 18:20:11 EDT 2015
By Mr. Rudebusch (SD)
The accusations fly in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible." The play's dramatic retelling of the Salem Witch Trials where the truth gets obscured by sensational charges of possession by demons echoes the crusade of Senator Joseph McCarthy to root out communists, which was occurring while the play was being written. Learn these word lists for the play: Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, Act 4
callous
Then you tell me that you sat in my court, callously lying, when you knew that people would hang by your evidence?
perjury
I will tell you this--you are either lying now, or you were lying in the court, and in either case you have committed perjury and you will go to jail for it.
apparition
"Manifest" is short for "manifestation" which means "an indication of the existence of some person or thing" or "an appearance in bodily form"--both definitions make the word nearly synonymous with "apparition" and "spirit" and all three words could be connected to the Devil.
Your friend, Mary Warren, has given us a deposition. In which she swears that she never saw familiar spirits, apparitions, nor any manifest of the Devil.
guile
But if she speak true, I bid you now drop your guile and confess your pretense, for a quick confession will go easier with you.
contemplation
He charges contemplation of murder.
afflict
You say you never saw no spirits, Mary, were never threatened or afflicted by any manifest of the Devil or the Devil’s agents.
gleam
The gleam makes Hathorne seem evil, and this is supported by the fact that he's gleaming at a victory in an argument against a young girl, which would prove that the accused are witches.
Hathorne, with a gleam of victory: And yet, when people accused of witchery confronted you in court, you would faint, saying their spirits came out of their bodies and choked you--
deception
Is it possible, child, that the spirits you have seen are illusion only, some deception that may cross your mind when--
hysterical
With a hysterical cry Mary Warren starts to run.
slovenly
Were she slovenly? Lazy? What disturbance did she cause?
fancy
I came to think he fancied her.
awed
But Abigail, pointing with fear, is now raising up her frightened eyes, her awed face, toward the ceiling--the girls are doing the same--and now Hathorne, Hale, Putnam, Cheever, Herrick, and Danforth do the same.
transfixed
She is transfixed--with all the girls, she is whimpering open-mouthed, agape at the ceiling.
unperturbed
The Latin "turbare" means "to throw into disorder"--as the source of the disorder, Abigail is not perturbed by the disturbances in the court. Unperturbed in the face of Mary's pleading, Abigail puts on a show that is meant to convince her observers she sees a harmful spirit, but actually emphasizes to the audience how coldly she can turn on someone who goes against her.
Abigail, unperturbed, continuing to the “bird”: Oh, Mary, this is a black art to change your shape.
mimic
Abigail, now staring full front as though hypnotized, and mimicking the exact tone of Mary Warren’s cry: She sees nothin’!
confounded
Mary Warren, utterly confounded, and becoming overwhelmed by Abigail’s--and the girls’ utter conviction, starts to whimper, hands half raised, powerless, and all the girls begin whimpering exactly as she does.
unintelligible
Mary utters something unintelligible, staring at Abigail, who keeps watching the “bird” above.
allegiance
Will you confess yourself befouled with Hell, or do you keep that black allegiance yet?
quail
Compare with "flinch" in the list for Act 2--earlier when Hale was pleading with Francis not to flinch, he still had faith in the justice of the court. But here, as Proctor laughs insanely and accuses everyone, including himself, of quailing and failing to call the court out for encouraging fraud, Hale does not flinch at the outburst, because he agrees.
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!
denounce
Hale, starting across to the door: I denounce these proceedings!

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