Monday, January 4, 2010

Literary Analysis: Abigail in The Crucible, examined by a modern-day teenage girl

The assignment was:
Literary analysis of a main character in The Crucible, examining their conflicts, motivations, significant actions/decisions, changes and discoveries.

From a student's essay:
“Abigail has a lot of motivations and decisions to do with what she does. For example, John motivated her sexually, from having the affair.” The student goes on to say, “It made her fall in love with him, so that love motivated her to plan the killing of Elizabeth.”

I am especially fascinated by “John motivated her sexually." The way the sentence is constructed, the significance of the adverb... Also, it’s an interesting analysis/projection of the sequence of events in this relationship between a farmer and his housemaid in 17th c. Salem. By a 21st c. teenage girl.

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