Judgement and Forgiveness in ‘The Dressmaker’ and ‘The Crucible’

Posted on October 21, 2020

This Resource is for Victorian VCE Year 12 Mainstream English Students
studying the comparative texts ‘The Dressmaker’ by Rosalie Ham and ‘The
Crucible’ by Arthur Miller. The Essay includes a full Introduction and a colour-
coded Body Paragraph 1 that shows clearly a Topic Sentence / Transitional
Sentence from Text 1 to Text 2 and a Link to Topic Sentence
Prompt Quotes: ‘The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you’ (The Crucible =
Elizabeth Proctor speaking to John about his infidelity). (Act 2 p.55)
‘It is a black thing – a weight … it makes itself invisible then creeps back when I feel
safest’ (The Dressmaker Tilly Dunnage reflecting on her guilt over Stewart
Pettyman’s death). (p.184)

 Prompt: Compare how The Dressmaker and The Crucible examine the role of
judgement and forgiveness.
Define words: Judgement = Assessment of guilt, morality Formal judgement – court
Public judgement/personal
Forgiveness = To make amends, atone, you might seek forgiveness from
others/yourself

Questions to ask yourself: Who are judged in each text?

The Dressmaker
Judged = Tilly Dunnage – by herself and the community / Molly Dunnage / Everyone
in the town faces scrutiny, but it is not always done overtly/openly

Judges = Sgt Farrat – local law enforcement / Mr Almanac and Beula Harridene (self-
appointed) / The town all judge one another

The Crucible
Judged = Firstly it is those with little power, Tituba, Sarah Good (later no one is safe
from judgement) / Proctor – by himself and Elizabeth / Hale – judges his own actions

Judges = The court/church combined / The girls who first cry witchcraft / The town all
judge one another

Introduction
In the fictional town of Dungatar, people live their lives in the ‘full glare’ of public
scrutiny and mistrust of each other’s intentions. The characters in Rosalie Ham’s
novel, ‘The Dressmaker’, face constant, inter-personal judgement. Interestingly,
however, it is not the sole law enforcement officer, Sergeant Farrat, who generally
deals out punitive justice, when rules or expectations are broken. Instead, it is
individuals within the local community that impose social order upon one another. We
see a similar environment of public suspicion in Arthur Miller’s allegorical play ‘The
Crucible’. The town of Salem is rife with private grievances that manifest in public
accusations. The power of the church and legal systems combine in Salem to exact
punishment and grant forgiveness in the eyes of God. Both texts explore the
relationship between judgement, punishment and forgiveness. Readers learn how the
judgement of others impacts upon individuals’ reputations and sense of self-worth,
punishment in itself. Both Miller and Ham employ their central protagonists to show
how difficult it is to forgive ourselves. Elizabeth Proctor’s words to John, ‘the
magistrate sits in your heart that judges you’, illustrate an idea that is central to each
text; ultimately the judgment of others can never outweigh the impact of one’s own
personal judgment.
Sample Comparative Text Body Paragraph Colour-Coded
Body Paragraph 1 – focus = Judgement within small insular communities
(Topic Sentence) Both the Dressmaker and The Crucible explore the relationship
between judgement, punishment and forgiveness.  (Text 1) In the insular and
conservative towns of Salem and Dungatar, people exist under the watchful eye of the
community.  In the fictional town of Dungatar, people live their lives in the ‘full glare’
of public scrutiny and mistrust of each other’s intentions.  This is illustrated in the
characters in Ham’s novel who face constant inter-personal judgement.  When Tilly
Dunnage (formerly Myrtle) makes her ill-fated return home, the town collectively
gasps, all turning to the hill, prophetic fire emanating from the chimney.  The news of
her arrival literally spreads like wildfire, with Beula Harridene running between the
‘housewives on their nature strips’ and venomously spitting, ‘she’s back’.  The
tyranny of time and distance has done little to quell the flames of judgment.  In the
eyes of the community, Myrtle will always be a ‘bastard murderer’ and her mother a
‘loose woman and hag’.  The townspeople refuse any compassion or forgiveness to the
Dunnage women, crucifying them as eternal outcasts.  (Transitional Sentence)
Readers learn how the judgement of others impacts upon individuals’
reputations and sense of self-worth, punishment in itself, as the central
protagonists in both texts show how difficult it is to forgive themselves.  (Text 2)
There is a similar environment of public suspicion in Miller’s allegorical play with the
town of Salem rife with private grievances that manifest in public accusations.  The
power of the church and legal systems combines in Salem to exact punishment and
grant forgiveness only in the eyes of God.  In Salem the community operates in a
similar manner to Dungatar, alive with whispered speculation.  In the opening scene,
Reverend Parris asks Abigail if her name is ‘entirely white’, suggesting that he is
aware his niece’s reputation has been tarnished by her dismissal from the Proctor
household.  Abigail and the Dunnage women are perceived by others as promiscuous
and suffer condemnation.  A point of difference is that Ham presents the plight of the
‘soiled’ woman in a sympathetic light, while Miller withholds sympathy from the
female antagonist.  Ham compels readers to question the unfair judgement such
characters receive.  We see in both Miller and Ham’s text that the public often act as
self-appointed judge and jury, particularly against women.  (Link to Topic +
similarity or difference) It is true in both Salem and Dungatar that once an
individual has been marked as an outcast, it is almost impossible to bend the
opinion of the ‘stiff necked’ community in favour of that character.

The Guilt of The Crucible

The crucible is a play that was written in 1953 by the American playwright Arthur
Miller. It is a exaggerate and fictionalized story about the Salem witch trials that took
place in colonial Massachusetts during 1692. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of
hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft. Many themes ran through
this play hysteria, reputation, and jealousy. However in the play guilt is the factor that
most influenced the trials. In the play the crucible guilt is the factor that consumes the
character in more than one way.
        Even before the trials began there was of guilt in the town. This guilt was secured
in John Proctor. John Proctor's guilt sprang from his affair with Abigail Williams. He
felt as though he had tainted himself in God’s eyes, his own eyes, and his wife
Elizabeth’s eyes. In this act John Proctor is speaking to Abigail Williams  he is telling
her that even though he wants to he will not be with her again because he is with  his
wife. “Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut my hand off
before I’ll ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of your mind. We never touched,
Abby… angered-at himself as well: You’ll speak nothin’ of Elizabeth!” (1270). He
even tries to have her forget this act of sin ever occurred. He is bound to his wife by
guilt, so when Abigail Williams insults his wife ,he defends her. This sin he has
committed has strained his life with guilt. The guilt is so strong that he hardly left the
house often in seven months. John Proctor did succumb to sin and commit adultery,
however, he lacks the capacity to forgive himself. Unsurprisingly, his relationship
with Elizabeth remains strained throughout the majority of the play. He resents
Elizabeth because she cannot forgive and trust him , but he is guilty of the same crime.
In fact, his own inability to forgive himself intensifies his reaction to Elizabeth's lack
of forgiveness. “Woman. I’ll not have your  suspicions any more…Spare me! You
forget nothin’ and forgive nothin’. Learn charity, woman. I have gone tiptoe in this
house all seven month since she is gone. I have not moved from there without I think
to please you, and still an everlasting funeral marches around your heart. I cannot
speak but I am doubted, every moment judged for lies, as though I come into a court
when I come in this house!..Oh, Elizabeth, your justice would freeze beer!” (1294-95).
This is proof that, even months later, Elizabeth won’t let his sins go which lets his
guilt ensue.
        In the play, when the arrests of the accused witches started. John Proctor
predicted that Reverend Hale would not be free from the guilt that will be the result of
these trials. John Proctor tells  Reverend Hale that he cannot arrest Elizabeth. “Pontius
Pilate! God will not let you wash your hand of this! ”(1309). This is alluding to the
bible. Pontius Pilate was a Roman leader who condemned Jesus to be crucified.
“When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against
Jesus to put Him to death.  And when they had bound Him, they led Him away and
delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor.” (Matthew 27:1-2). In the bible, Pontius
Pilate washed his hands after Christ had been crucified, because he was against
Christ's death. “When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an
uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. "I am
innocent of this man's blood," he said. "It is your responsibility!" (Matthew 27:24).
The washing of his hands symbolized that it was not his fault, the people chose
Christ's fate. John Proctor tells Hale he cannot wash his hands off for the arrest of
Elizabeth the way Pontius Pilate did after Christ's death.
        Reverend Hale wasn’t the only one who felt guilt in the end of the play.
Reverend Parris also felt the guilt of the trials. He was the minister of Salem’s church,
and was a power-hungry figure. Many of the townsfolk, especially John Proctor, did
not like him, and Reverend Parris was very concerned for his reputation in the
community. In the end of the play you saw a one hundred and eighty degrees character
spin.in the bennig of the play he was just some greedy minister who wanted golden
candle sticks and riches. He only cared about himself. In the end he changed by caring
about saving John Proctor. After John Proctor and many others have been arrested
Reverend Parris starts to see the fault in these trials and began to feel the guilt , to the
extent that he tried to postpone the hangings. “Excellency, I would postpone these
hangin’s for a time.” (1347). The change in his character was  most surprising when
Reverend Parris  tried his hardest to free John Proctor. “…I summoned the
congregation for John Proctor’s excommunication there were hardly thirty people
come to hear it. That speaks discontent” (1347). He tried to argue John Proctor life by
saying even when he tried to excommunicate him barely anyone in the town supported
it. Reverend Parris even seems desperate to remove his guilt by being nice to John
Proctor. “If you desire a cup of cider, Mr. Proctor, I am sure I – God may lead you
now.”  (1351). He tried to go out of his way to be nice to John Proctor even when it
wasn’t welcome. When John Proctor admits to witchcraft to survive Reverend Parris
was so relieved he said “Praise God!”.  “…I beg you let him sign it.” (1355) , “Go to
him, Goody Proctor! There is yet time!...Go to him! Proctor! Proctor!” (1358). All he
wanted was to free John Proctor to relieve his guilt, it even made him desperate .
        In The Crucible, guilt played a huge part. Guilt was a factor that affected most of
the character, it was a constant theme in the play. The guilt that characters possessed
ran the characters actions and feelings.