QUESTION #2: Was John Proctor essentially a good man? Yes, Proctor was a good man in his heart; he made a mistake by getting involved with Abigail, but when she came back to him hoping to rekindle the flame between them, he turned down the chance for another sexual liaison with a woman much younger than his wife. When the community began to turn hysterical, Proctor was a voice of reason. He advised the arriving "expert" Hale that no children were "afflicted" with witchcraft. Proctor was very candid with his wife in confessing that he had an affair with Abigail. And when he and Abigail later fought, it was just part of the insane atmosphere of accusations and reprisals and guilt; the whole town was in turmoil, so Proctor's action cannot be absolutely held against him. In the effort to clear his wife's name, Proctor shows that he has a good heart, he is not perfect and in the trial he confesses; "I...am...not...that...pure!"

QUESTION #3: Select another character in the film. I select Abigail, an orphan, one of the accused, who was only doing the provocative things a youthful person would do. She is thrown to the wolves and accused by many of the villagers; yes, she has weaknesses, but she is really only a pawn in the game that is being played. She has passion for a man who once loved her, and who can blame her for that? She is a scapegoat, but she also is an accuser, and so her frailty and lack of backbone actually become endearing qualities, compared with the hate and rage. She is like the innocent teen who gets in with the wrong crowd, but she can't extract herself from the terrible situation she has found herself in.

QUESTION #4:

In political campaigns, such as were witnessed in America in 2004, those candidates who did not support the executive branch's administering of the "war on terrorism" had their patriotism challenged. Former Senator Tom Daschle was hounded by attack ads that questioned his patriotism; Daschle had questioned some of the spending and the strategies of the Bush Administration, and the Republican Party spend millions on attack ads in his home state when he was running for re-election. He was defeated, a victim of a different kind of witch-hunt. A hunt for those who aren't patriotic enough to support the president no matter what.
QUESTION #5: My reaction: The beginning of the film when the girls are doing their dancing in the forest, deviates very dramatically from the original play, and was apparently designed for filmgoers who did not see the original play. The way the movie portrays the girls, as silly frivolous teens sneaking out of the house to play pseudo-wicked games, in a way takes the gloss off of Arthur Miller's play. Movies have a perfect right to deviate from the original books or plays they were derived from, but in this case it seems the film has taken liberties with the story that stretch credulity. But there is so much chaos, and so many people charge each other in search for a scapegoat. Judge Danforth's court is simply not believable, since his court is interrupted so many times and drifts from one scene to another, from one new charge to another. It is as if he needs to find victims, needs to identify guilty members of the community - even if there are none - in order to keep his job with the government.