The Crucible Group

Question:

kharmen
kharmen
Teacher
High School - 9th Grade

What is the role of gossip in the trials? How does Miller use gossip to implicate the whole town in the events of the witch trials?

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Posted by kharmen on Wednesday March 18, 2009 at 11:45 PM and tagged with gossip, the crucible.

Answers:

  1. dneshan
    dneshan Teacher
    High School - 11th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    The most important way in which gossip plays a role in the trials is that it creates the mass hysteria that continues to promote the trials until the judges finally realize what has been going on (that the girls were really lying) – although this realization does not take place until after the events of the play.  The people of the town spread information from one to another and scare each other with the thoughts that real witches and the devil are going to take over Salem if those who might be witches are not killed in order to free Salem of Satan’s power.  One example of this gossip and how Miller uses gosip to implicate that the entire town is involved first occurs in Act 1 when Giles Corey tells Rev. Hale, upon his arrival, that Martha Corey, his wife, possesses strange books which keep him from saying his prayers and just give him an eerie feeling.  Word of these books spreads around Salem village, and in Act 3 the reader finds out that one of the residents of Salem has used the information about these books to accuse Martha Corey of witchcraft. 

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/crucible

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    Posted by dneshan on Thursday March 19, 2009 at 7:04 AM