The Crucible Lesson Plan

What three types of text do we see in Act One? What are their functions?

The first are stage directions (in italics in most editions): these explain what is happening onstage, or give actors advice on ways to deliver lines. The second, dialogue: the actual words that the characters speak onstage and that the audience hears. The third, narrative: this gives backstory to the action happening onstage and illuminates the motives and biographies of certain characters. Ask students why they think Miller chose to include narrative in this play when it is rarely used in other plays. Discussion may touch on the complicated history of the Salem witch trials or actors'/readers'...