Compare the ways in which The Crucible and The Dressmaker portray kindness PDF

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Compare the ways in which The Crucible and The Dressmaker portray divided societies...

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Kindness are not treated well Rosalie Ham and Arthur Miller both establish the glimpse of kindness through the portrayals of protagonists amidst the strict societies. In “The Dressmaker”, Ham draws the parallelism between Tilly’s act of “plac[ing] apologetic hand” even “lighter than pollen” and “Mrs. Almanac’s cold stony shoulder”. This therefore vilifies townspeople for ignoring Irma despite her physical illness, further elucidating the vicious nature of the town as they also hate common townsfolk, not only outcasts. Moreover, the term “apologetic” evokes a sense of warmth from the readers, which insinuates the spread of love from Tilly, thus, reinforcing her characterisation as caring person. Similarly, Miller’s “The Crucible” epitomises Rebecca Nurse as a representative of goodness and logic in Puritan society. Even being eminent with “great charities”, the playwright reflects her rationality through the way she thoughtfully refers the children misbehaviour as “silly seasons”. In doing so, it enables Miller to fulfill his characterisation of well-respected Rebecca who is expectedly feminine. Predominantly, both embeds the extent to which women are bounded by the gentleness, obeying the contemporary social norms. Towards the end, Tilly and Rebecca confront different tragedies but both texts display the extent in which their good hearts are failed to adapt to such conservative and violent societies. Logic is blindfolded in Salem by mass hysteria, causing Rebecca Nurse to take noble death whilst the hatred and mob mentality empower for Tilly’s destructive vengeance in the end. Therefore, Miller and Ham propel the audience to view the societies being fuelled by self-indulgence, hindering good wills....