Crucible Fashion -- Puritanism Meets 1950's

Here are some fashion sketches of costumes designed for the 2006 production of The Crucible at Indiana University. Here's the explanation:

Kathryn Garlick’s costumes work with the silhouettes of the period of the Salem witch trials, but they are not specifically of the period itself. The silhouette of the New England dresses, for instance, show up in fashion designs of the 1950's and other eras. The men’s clothing, too, varies and does not reflect any one period, while still suggesting the tone and style of the dress in 1690. The design attempts both to reflect the period of the play, while helping to move the characters and their actions beyond the specific historical moment. Like the scenic design and like the play itself, the costumes try to support the idea that the theatrical experience may work as metaphor, that the experience of The Crucible may tell multiple stories simultaneously, as poetry performed.

Click here to view all the character fashion plates. Your judgment?

The Village -- A Review

Now that you've seen the movie and had a bit of time to consider its themes, here's a balanced review from The National Review from 2004, at the time The Village was released in theaters. An excerpt:

The Village's greatest strength is a moral core that never devolves into moralistic propaganda.

Shyamalan poses questions about the human response to evil and loss then allows the audience to come its own conclusions. His themes are incredibly relevant to the dilemmas we face today: Should we confront the things that threaten us and try to defeat them, or should we retreat, sacrificing even truth if it is necessary to enjoy a precious, if tenuous, peace? Should we ignore real menaces we can't control in favor of imagined ones we can?

Shyamalan doesn't paint his villagers motivations as right or wrong, and his reticence to make an allegory of his tale may leave some viewers frustrated. But it will also leave them thinking more deeply about the issues than if they were force-fed a lesson. Already, critics are reviewing The Village through their own political lenses, and it is to Shyamalan's credit that both the left and right could make credible arguments that the film falls in their favor. [ read whole review ]

Your thoughts on the movie, its relevance to The Crucible and Irving's stories?

Crucible Test -- Key

For a limited time, I'm making available the answer key for the multiple choice section of the Crucible test in PDF form, so you can check your answers and see which ones you missed (if any).

That PDF is available by clicking here.
[Update: The answer key is now offline.]

At the same time, for something a bit offbeat (and silly), but still related, have a look at this:
The Crucible 3-Minute Cartoon

Or if you'd like to see Giles Correy say, "More weight!"
Giles Corey Death Scene

Crucible -- Character Sketches

Here's an excellent resource that I highly recommend: The "Deeper Roots Project" provides helpful character sketches of Abigail, Reverend Hale, and Reverend Parris, using The Crucible movie for visual illustration. Having a look through these would be helpful for preparing for next week's test as well as for producing the play.

Abigail Williams -- part 1

Abigail Williams -- part 2

Reverend Hale -- part 1

Reverend Hale -- part 2

Reverend Samuel Parris

You may be able to find a few other episodes from the Deeper Roots Project.

Puritans Made Things Painful (For Those who Broke the Rules)

Pillory stocks, used for public humiliation

As I mentioned in class, most of the punishments used by the Puritans of Massachusetts -- stocks, whippings, and hangings -- were public, with the punishment serving to shame the lawbreaker and remind the public that to disagree with the state's decisions is to disagree with God's laws and will. That being said, public punishment was not a product of the Puritan age, but it played a large part in the village life of the Massachusetts Bay colony. We'll see this up close when we study The Scarlet Letter next month.

For now, here are a few examples of public punishments in use during the late 17th century -- in both Massachusetts and in Europe.

The Shrew's Fiddle

The barrel pillory

Here's an excellent article on the subject from The Salem News, published in 2004:

Punishments in 17th-century Massachusetts were diverse, creative, and often cruel. They ranged from simple fines to maiming to burning at the stake, although the latter was never used in Essex County. Instead, locals convicted of murder, like Dorothy Talby of Salem who capped a career of deviant behavior by killing her daughter, met their respective ends on the gallows.

The pillory and stocks mentioned by Hawthorne, along with the whipping post, were fixtures in many local communities until they were outlawed in Massachusetts in 1813. The pillory could be a most uncomfortable instrument. The criminal's neck was placed in a stretched position in a hole between two pieces of hinged wood (in extreme cases, the offender's ears might be nailed to the pillory frame). Two smaller openings trapped the miscreant's hands, preventing him or her from warding off the rotten eggs or other foodstuffs thrown by onlookers.

Recommended: read whole article

Horrid Bushes of Vanity

Increase Mather (left) and Cotton Mather (right) disagreed on wigs.

Soulofdiscretion asked if anyone has yet discovered whether the wild hairdo from Cotton Mather's is his own or a wig. Reading through "A History of Wigs" I came across an entry regarding 17th century Puritan views on the subject claiming that the Puritans believed that wigs were "horrid bushes of vanity." In fact, Cotton Mather's father (Increase Mather) is credited with coining this phrase. Yet it seems that Cotton, perhaps on account of his Christian name, rebelled against his father's parochial view on men's wig fashion. Excerpt:

The seventeenth century was one of dramatic change for men. Though the Puritan Parliament faction (called “Roundheads” for their short, somber haircuts) railed against wigs, and some Puritan pastors even refused to allow anyone wearing a wig into the church, this century saw the widespread use of wigs for men for the first time since the days of the ancient Egyptians... In the New World, despite protests from Puritan ministers such as Increase Mather (President of Harvard University), the wig craze spread. While Mather argued that wigs were “horrid bushes of vanity,” his son Cotton and many clergy adopted the fashion. Wigs were also popular in the South, and wealthy plantation owners and bricklayers alike wore them. Even slaves who could not afford authentic wigs made wigs from cotton wool and goat hair.

There you have it. Mystery solved. Cotton Mather ushered in the "wig craze" for Puritan ministers. Now, just for trivia's sake, did you know that King Louis XIII's baldness was the reason for the wearing of powdered white wigs so popular with America's founding fathers:

French King Louis XIII wore a wig to conceal his baldness, and when French King Louis XIV’s hair started to thin when he was 35, he shaved his head and wore a large wig. As a compliment to the Sun King, all his courtiers began to wear yellow wigs. Later, in old age, Louis wore an enormous wig, thickly covered with perfumed and white powder. Men and women (who were more likely to wear extensions), both old and young began to copy him as looking old became “in.”

read full entry...

Crucible: Flying Betty Scene

Winona Ryder as Abigail

Here's a clip from the movie adaptation of The Crucible. It dramatizes the scene we read today on pages 18-19 between Abigail, Mary Warren, Mercy, and flying Betty. Winona Ryder's performance of Abigail quite captures the girl's more despicable qualities. Cleopatra and Gabby can correct me, but it seems the girls' dress is on the too colorful side. I believe they were in reality more drab.

WATCH: View the three-minute film clip on Youtube

Who Was Cotton Mather?

Mather's Old North Church, Boston

From University of Missouri:

Cotton Mather, the minister of Boston's Old North church, was a true believer in witchcraft. In 1688, he had investigated the strange behavior of four children of a Boston mason named John Goodwin. The children had been complaining of sudden pains and crying out together in chorus. He concluded that witchcraft, specifically that practiced by an Irish washerwoman named Mary Glover, was responsible for the children's problems. He presented his findings and conclusions in one of the best known of his 382 works, "Memorable Providences." Mather's experience caused him to vow that to "never use but one grain of patience with any man that shall go to impose upon me a Denial of Devils, or of Witches."

Mather's Old North Church, interior

As it happened, three of the five judges appointed to the court of oyer and terminer that would hear the Salem witchcraft trials were friends of Mather and members of his church. Mather wrote a letter to one of the three judges, John Richards, suggesting how they might approach evidentiary issues at the upcoming trials. In particular, Mather urged the judges to consider spectral evidence, giving it such weight as"it will bear," and to consider the confessions of witches the best evidence of all. As the trials progressed, and growing numbers of person confessed to being witches, Mather became firmly convinced that "an Army of Devils is horribly broke in upon the place which is our center."

read on...

Salem Witch Trials -- Resouces

Map of Salem, 1692

In preparation for reading and studying Arthur Miller's Crucible, you'll be researching an assigned topic pertaining either to Miller, Puritanism, Witchcraft trials, 17th century New England, or McCarthyism. You may find the following sites helpful:

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive
Includes historical maps, trial transcripts, original trial documents, biographies of notable people, etc.

Famous American Trials, Salem 1692
Includes loads of documents about the accusations, the trials, and the evidence as well as extensive background information about Salem and a history of witchcraft persecutions prior to Salem

The Cotton Mather Home Page
About all things Cotton Mather -- writings, biographies, pictures

Fire and Ice: On Puritanism
Puritan writings, history, and biographies