Prereading Crucible Stuff

The Crucible

Pre-reading Anticipation Guide

Name:____________________________

These statements relate to some common themes that occur in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible.  Because many of the statements are multifaceted and debatable, the agree/disagree line is supposed to provide a sliding scale; you don’t have to completely agree or disagree, but can place yourself somewhere in the middle.

1.)    Secrets are private information between people that should never be told.
Agree --------------------------------------------------------------------Disagree

2.)    It is better to keep silent than to lie.
Agree --------------------------------------------------------------------Disagree

3.)    In most cases, the court will find the truth concerning someone’s guilt or innocence.

Agree --------------------------------------------------------------------Disagree

4.)    Most people are courageous.
Agree --------------------------------------------------------------------Disagree

5.)    Even bad people have some good in them.
Agree --------------------------------------------------------------------Disagree

6.)    White lies, or small lies, don’t really matter.  It is the big lies that are the most sinful.
Agree --------------------------------------------------------------------Disagree

7.)    People who admit they desire someone else’s husband or wife should be punished.

Agree --------------------------------------------------------------------Disagree

 

8.)    It’s okay to cheat on your spouse if you are not in love.

Agree --------------------------------------------------------------------Disagree

9.)                        It’s a sin to let someone else take the blame for something you have done.

Agree --------------------------------------------------------------------Disagree

**Use the back of this sheet to explain two of your answers in complete sentences with specific examples for support (personal, from the news, from another class, from another work of literature, etc.).

Name: _______________________
After looking through the anticipation guides, I noticed that many of you wrote that a small white lie is just as bad as a big lie; we should strive to be honest in all situations.  Because lying is an important theme in The Crucible, I thought we should examine this further.

We live in a society that condones lying in many situations.  According to “The Queen of Courtesy” Marjabell Young Stewart, author of The New Etiquette: Real Manners for Real People in Real Situations:

“Socially, lies are sometimes regrettably necessary.  Each of us must decide for himself or herself how much is acceptable and under what circumstances.

            “White lies, as small social lies are dubbed, are told to spare the feelings of another.  You have told a white lie when a friend asks you how you like her new—and as far as you can tell, perfectly unattractive—dress, and you respond be telling her she looks great in it.  A more honest white lie is to tell her that the color or fit or style is flattering without commenting on the dress overall.  At the other end of the scale is plain and often painful truth: “I think that dress looks awful on you.  Is it too late to take it back and get something else?”  The value of such honesty should be weighed on two levels: the degree to which it will hurt a friend and one’s conscious, and possibly even subconscious, motives that will surely hurt another person.”

Consider the age-old question (very similar to the one above): “Do these pants make my butt look big?”  More often than not, if someone is asking the answer is simply “yes.”  But isn’t your relationship to that person just as much, if not more, important to the answer than how the pants fit (or how large their butt actually is)?  Honestly consider (and write) your response to the question for the following people (assume the pants are quite unattractive):

a.)        A close friend (you’ve known each other since kindergarten)

b.)        Some one that you don’t know that well but are romantically interested in

c.)        Someone you just met, and for some reason is comfortable asking you this kind of personal question (your brother’s girlfriend’s sister’s friend)

d.)        Someone you consider cocky and not that pleasant

Why does your answer change (assuming it does)?  If the goal is complete honesty, shouldn’t it stay the same?  Even if some answers are different, can they all be equally honest?  Do the words “honest” and “appropriate” go hand-in-hand?