Thursday, March 12, 2015

In what portion of The Crucible does Tituba think that the devil is going to take her?

Tituba says,



" 'Take me home, Devil! Take me home!' "



at the beginning of Act 4.  This is the first time since the end of Act 1 that she has lines in the play.  At this point, the helpless Tituba has been jailed up with Sarah Good for the duration of the trials.  She and Sarah Good are convinced that his "majesty" (the devil) is coming for them.  Sarah Good reportedly had some psychological issues before her imprisonment, but some critics believe that the jail time stole Tituba's sanity, for she is certainly sane at the play's opening.


Miller includes this version of Tituba at the end of the play for several reasons. First, Tituba's strange behavior and changed thinking symbolize how much the town has lost because of the trial (similar to Rev. Hale's list of the town's changes in Act 3). Secondly, Tituba might believe at this point that she has "sold her soul to the devil" because she falsely accused others in order to save herself.  While most audiences understand Tituba's behavior in Act 1, it most certainly would have weighed on her conscience that innocent people were perishing in part because of what she started. Finally, after hearing about and witnessing the reign of terror in her Puritan town, Tituba might have truly believed that the devil was coming for her and others.This would be a reasonable theory for her because the town had strayed so far from what they attempted to be.

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