The Crucible by Arthur Miller Scene 1 Kay play's Tituba

Introduction

Arthur Miller was an American playwright who was born in 1915. He grew up in New York to a Jewish family. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1938 where he began to distinguish himself as a playwright. His first plays were Honors at Dawn (1936) and No Villain (1937) which won the University of Michigan Hopwood Awards. His Death of a Salesman won the Pulitzer prize in 1949. Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953 during the McCarthy period when Americans were accusing each other of Pro-Communist beliefs. Many of Millers friends were being attacked as communists and in 1956, Miller himself was brought before the House of Un-American Activities Committee where he was found guilty of beliefs in communism. The verdict was reversed in 1957 in an appeals court. Miller married Marylin Monroe in 1956 but divorced her in 1961.

The Crucible is set against the backdrop of the mad witch hunts of the Salem witch trials in the late 17th century. It is about a town, after accusations from a few girls, which begins a mad hunt for witches that did not exist. Many townspeople were hanged on charges of witchcraft. Miller brings out the absurdity of the incident with the theme of truth and righteousness. The theme is conveyed through the struggles of Millers main character, John Proctor.

Act one begins with Reverend Parris praying over her daughter, Betty Parris, who lies unconscious on her bed. Through conversations between Reverend Parris and his niece Abigail Williams, and between several girls, the audience learns that these girls, including Abigail and Betty, were engaged in occultic activities in the forest lead by Tituba, Parris slave from Barbados. Parris caught them and jumped from a bush startling the girls. Betty fainted and had not recovered. During this session, Abigail drank chicken blood to kill Elizabeth Proctor. She tells the girls that she will kill anyone who mutters a word about what happened. The townspeople do not know exactly what the girls were doing but there are rumors of witchcraft.
John Proctor enters the room where Betty lies faint. Abigail is still in there and she tries to seduce him. Proctor is a farmer who has had an affair with Abigail a while ago, but now he wants to forget it.
Reverend John Hale is summoned to look upon Betty and the research the incident. He is an expert in occultic phenomena and he is eager to show his knowledge. He questions Abigail who accuses Tituba as being a witch. Tituba, afraid of being hanged, confesses faith in God and accuses Goody Good and Goody Osborne of witchcraft. Abigail and Betty, who has woken up, claim to have been bewitched and confess faith in God. They name several other people whom they claim they saw with the Devil.

Category:

Entertainment

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• 2009
• 08
• 08
• 00h38m45s
• The
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[Kyriaki1977]

True but can you do any better? :-)

[youthetube4]

Terrible terrible terrible performance by tituba.. ruined the charachter!

[Kyriaki1977]

@youthetube4

I think Tituba's performance was spot on actually. It seems to me like you do not know the play very well.

[Kyriaki1977]

True... 

[ShawnaLouv]

thanks for successfully butchering Tituba's would-be powerful performance....

[Kyriaki1977]

Hi :-)

What did you mean by Butchering Tituba's?

[Shoe3003]

I like the frame-rate.

[bballmax1993]

I really like this scene! Could you please tell me what pages this scene is on in the book (if you know)? I can't seem to find it.

[pinkrockstheuniverse]

That was the worst performance of tituba i have ever seen!!! you totally missed the message that you should have been potrayed!!!! BAD ACTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[youthetube4]

@ShawnaLouv agreed

[youthetube4]

@Kyriaki1977 ive performed in a professional production of this. I cringed so much having viewed this. I think Arthur Miller would cringe if he saw this. I hope for this company's sake that this was only a rehearsal.

[GailandLauren]

This was a bad performance of Tituba. She is too sassy at the start, she is meant to be scared. She does not act terrified, there is no rocking on her heels. She does not act afraid. She seems like she is simply delivering her lines. At the end, the performance is meant to be INCREDIBLY powerful, but she just sits there. The mistake on the line doesn't help. She should get up, and feel it in every pore! She should be crazed! I played Tituba in my acting peice, i should show you how it's done :)

[ShawnaLouv]

@Kyriaki1977 well whoever played Tituba had a wonderful accent, but the character is much more than just that. It seems that she put more emphasis on that, not interaction with her co-actors,thinking about how her character would think,feel and move in this situation. Characters arent real people but you have to view them as such. It sounds schizophrenic but you have to b 2 ppl at once. I think this actress focused on the accent and lost the PERSON Tituba is,and therefore lost Titubas influence