English

‘The Crucible’ is a play in 1692 detailing the crisis of the Salem witch hunt and displays the power of
false accusations and him ulterior motives. ‘The Dressmaker’ describes the town of Dungatar, a small
town with a lot of masks and superficial people, like ‘The Crucible’, ‘The Dressmaker’ highlights the
troubles of group think, blame.

‘The Crucible’ and ‘The Dressmaker’ both demonstrate how in times of crisis peoples’ true nature is
revealed, but not when the crisis has been engineered by someone, this notion will be explored
through examples of peoples’ true nature being revealed such as Putnam and Sargent Farrat’s true
natures, through the exceptions to this prompt like Abigail and Mr Pettyman, and through the
ultimate message conveyed in the text that in times of crisis, people want someone to blame and to
suffer, even if it wasn’t their fault.

In times of crisis, people‘s true nature is revealed through the desperation and fear that results in
people doing anything they can to survive. In ‘The Crucible’, Putnam’s true nature and intentions are
revealed through Jacobs hanging, a witness reveals that “if Jacobs hang for a witch he forfeit up his
property…And there is none that Putnam with the coin to buy so great to price”. This is profound in
that it describes the awareness of other town’s people who realise Putnam’s true nature, but don’t
stand up against it, rather they let the true natures of people to play out. This contrasts ‘The
Dressmaker’ when Sergeant Farrat condemns the town for Teddy’s death, stating that if it weren’t
for their hatred Teddy would still be alive because Tilly wouldn’t have felt so excluded and then
Teddy wouldn’t have felt the need to prove his love. In times of crisis such as the hangings or
accusations the people of Salem see themselves as religiously and culturally superior to the Native
Americans and to other religious groups. Whereas the inhabitants of Dungatar are stuck in their old,
backwards ways because of the town’s toxic superficiality, this draws parallels between the two
groups who refuse to change because of their own self-beliefs of superiority, and their hidden true
natures of being intolerable and selfish, which are revealed during the times of crisis such as the
hangings and death of Teddy. This paragraph has shown the town’s peoples and individuals true
natures being revealed through the accusations and hangings of the witch trials and through the
death of Teddy.

People’s true natures are not always revealed in times of crisis particularly when the crisis has been
engineered by someone, as this means the crisis is able to be manipulated and engineered by
someone so that they may conceal their true nature and blame someone else for the crisis. Abigail’s
manipulative, bullying and insidious nature is hidden during the crisis as she partly engineers the
crisis and was able to twist facts a certain way to get the outcome she wanted. This is very similar
when compared to Stuart Pettyman in ‘The Dressmaker’ who engineers the crisis that Tilly is a
murderer in order to conceal his nature that he is a bad father and raised a bully, as well as sleeping
around with Molly when he was younger and being a coward who chose not to care for his child. As
both Abigail and Mr Pettyman were in unique positions to distort the facts, both of them were able
to conceal their true natures as manipulative and morally deficient human beings with no sympathy
for others when it could affect them. While Abigail and Pettyman’s true natures are revealed to the
reader, they are hidden from the characters in the text until the move as is Abigail’s case or until
they are found out as is Mr Pettyman’s case.

In times of crisis people want someone to blame and someone to suffer, as this provides them with
closure and signifies an end to the troubles, in ‘The Crucible’ these are those who have something
valuable that others either want or want to silence them for. In ‘The Dressmaker’ the blame is on
Tilly and her mother Molly as they had a direct involvement with the death of Mr Pettyman’s kid and
acknowledging that his child’s death is his fault is a truth that Mr Pettyman would rather cover up
and falsely persecute Tilly for than confront it himself. Paris accuses Proctor being against the church
Abigail Hughes is Elizabeth Proctor of being against the church and the town accuses Satan of trying
to bewitch the townspeople. In ‘The Crucible’ blame shifts throughout the play to different people
whereas in ‘The Dressmaker’ there’s a stark difference in that Tilly and Molly are blamed for almost
the entire time for being a murderer and killing those closest to them, a key difference between the
text is how punishments are given out by Mr Danforth and the courts in ‘The Crucible’ while in ‘The
Dressmaker’ residents of Dungatar throw rocks at Tilly’s house at night and billow her house with
smoke from the tip to punish her. Even if they don’t deserve or if it is unfair blame, people still want
someone to blame and suffer for a crisis as it gives them closure and allows them to push the crisis
deep into their minds and not be troubled by it. This is shown through Mr Pettyman, who would
rather go along with lies for over 15 years than confront the uncomfortable truth of being a bad
father and cowardly man, or through Mrs Putnam who wants someone to blame for her
miscarriages so that she can feel closure and no longer feel sad about it as it has been solved and the
person responsible has been brought to justice.

Having explored similarities and differences between ‘The Crucible’ and ‘The Dressmaker’, the
notion of blame in times of crisis has been explored to reveal the human truth that in times of crisis,
people want someone to blame and someone to suffer, regardless of whether the accused are
actually guilty or not.