Hey guys, how are you?
We’re in lockdown and if you're watching this all the way in the future once lockdown
has finished then good for you, but as of right now I am filming at home in my pajamas,
but I am so excited to be delivering to you The Crucible and The Dressmaker.
I know that is a new text pair and there aren’t that many resources available for it, but
LSG has got your back, so you know you’ve got some quality content coming towards your
way.
I will be making sure we publish videos for you based on themes, which is what we’re
covering today, but also an essay topic breakdown, character comparisons, so those will come
sometime in the future, but I will tell you more about sort of what content is going on
with The Crucible and The Dressmaker as we go throughout this video.
So let's talk about themes.
Now as I start diving into some of these themes, we’re going to be looking at convergent
and divergent themes.
And if you’re not familiar with the convergent divergent strategy that I’ve come up with
here at LSG, then make sure you get familiar with it because it’s something that will
really help you to look at your text form, or look at your texts, from a unique angle
and you’ll sort of move out of that comparative rut, where it is just the typical way of comparing
and really sort of open you up to more possibilities on how you can compare, and with more possibilities
comes a better essay discussion, and with a better essay discussion comes better marks.
So get your hands on ‘How to Write a Killer Comparative’ and get familiar with that
strategy there, then you’ll find that you’re going to be able to have a greater appreciation
of what we’re doing in this video.
So, let’s get into it.
Let’s start off with convergent themes.
Both The Crucible and The Dressmaker talk extensively about class.
By class, what I mean is Class: the economic and social divisions which determine where
people sit in society.
For instance, we could say that the British Royals are ‘upper class’, whilst people
living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to get by are ‘lower class’.
Ultimately, both The Crucible and The Dressmaker are set in classist societies where there
is no opportunity for social advancement.
Whilst Thomas Putnam steals the land of poor Salemites accused of witchcraft, the McSwineys
are left to live in absolute poverty and never leave the ‘tip’ where they have lived
for generations.
Dungatar and Salem view this social division as a ‘given’ and reject the idea that
there is anything wrong with certain people living a life of suffering so others can have
lives of wealth and pleasure.
As such, for both Salem and Dungatar, the very idea that anyone could move between the
classes and make a better life for themselves is inherently dangerous.
What we can see here is that class shapes the way communities deal with crisis.
Anything that overturns class is dangerous because it challenges the social order – meaning
that individuals such as Reverend Parris for The Crucible, or Councillor Pettyman for The
Dressmaker may lose all their power and authority.
For The Crucible, it’s precisely why the witchcraft crisis is so threatening, as the
Salemites are prepared to replace Reverend Parris and deny his authority.
Although Abigail and the group of girls thus single-handedly overturn Salem’s class structures
and replace it with their own tyranny, Parris’ original intention was to use their power
to reinforce his authority.
In The Dressmaker, Tilly is threatening because she doesn’t neatly fit into Dungatar’s
class structure.
Having travelled the outside world, she represents a worldly mindset and breadth of experiences
which they know they cannot match.
For this theme, there’s a DIVERGENCE of ideas too and this is clear because the way
that class is expressed and enforced in both texts is vastly different.
For The Crucible, it’s all about religion – Reverend Parris’ assertion that all
Christians must be loyal to him ensures the class structure remains intact.
More than that, to challenge him would be to challenge God, which also guides Danforth
in executing those who don’t follow his will.
In the case of The Dressmaker, there’s no central authority who imposes class on Dungatar.
Rather, the people do it themselves; putting people back in their place through rumour
and suspicion.
However, by creating extravagant, expensive dresses for the townspeople, Tilly inadvertently
provides people with another way to express class.
Let’s now move onto the theme of isolated communities.
CONVERGENT: looking at the convergent part of the strategy, the setting forms an essential
thematic element of The Crucible and The Dressmaker.
Both communities are thoroughly isolated, and, in colloquial terms, live in the ‘middle
of nowhere’.
If we look at the DIVERGENT aspects of this theme, we can see that what’s starkly different
between the texts is how this isolation shapes the respective communities’ self-image.
For Salem, its citizens adopt a mindset of religious and cultural superiority – believing
that their faith, dedication to hard work, and unity under God makes them the most blessed
people in the world.
Individuals as diverse as Rebecca Nurse and Thomas Putnam perceive Salem to be a genuinely
incredible place.
They see Salem as the first battleground between God and the Devil in the Americas, and as
such construct a grand narrative in which they are God’s soldiers protecting his kingdom.
Even the name ‘Salem’ references ‘Jerusalem’, revealing that the Salemites see themselves
as the second coming of Christ, and the fulfilment of the Bible’s promises.
Not much of the same can be said for The Dressmaker.
Dungatar lacks the same religious context, and the very name of ‘Dungatar’ references
‘dung’, or beetle poop.
The next part of the name is 'tar', a sticky substance, creating the impression that Dungatar's
people are stuck in their disgusting ways.
The townspeople of Dungatar are acutely aware of their own inadequacy, and that is why they
fight so hard to remain isolated from the outside world.
Tilly is therefore a threat because she challenges their isolation and forces the men and women
of Dungatar to reconsider why their community has shunned progress for so long.
In short, she makes a once-isolated people realise that fear, paranoia, division, and
superstition is no way to run a town, and brings them to acknowledge the terribly harmful
impacts of their own hatred.
On top of that, because Salem is literally the only Christian, European settlement for
miles, it is simply impossible for them to even think about alternatives to their way
of life.
They are completely isolated, and thus all of their problems come from ‘within’ and
are a result of their own division.
For Dungatar, it’s a mix of societal issues on the inside being made worse by the arrival
of people from the outside.
The township is isolated, but unlike Salem, it at least has contact with the outside world.
All Tilly does, therefore, is to show the people of Dungatar an alternative to their
way of life.
But, for a community used to the way they have lived for decades, it ultimately contributes
to its destruction.
So far in this video we have talked about isolated communities and social class, but
in LSG’s ‘The Crucible and The Dressmaker’ study guide we also dive deeper into fear,
paranoia and suffering, and also order and stability, and patriarchal gender norms as
well.
I’d highly recommend the study guide for you guys.
I am so proud of what we’ve accomplished in it.
I worked with Jordan, who is one of LSG’s amazing tutors.
He achieved a study score of 50 in English.
He got the premier’s award for English as well, so you know he’s at the top of his
game, he’s at the top of the 50 study scorers who got the 50.
So we worked really hard on making sure that what is in this study guide isn’t just more
stuff for you to read, but has actually got practical, meaningful advice for you that
you can directly take into your essays.
That’s why we’ve also included five essays in there for you- all brainstormed and broken
down just like how I do it on this channel- but we then take that one step further and
provide you a completed essay full of annotations so you know exactly what to do and what not
to do as well.
If you want to find out more, you can download a free sample of the study guide on my website
to see if it’s right for you.
If you like these kind of videos, make sure you thumbs up so I know what I should be focusing
on when I create content for this channel.
Thanks so much for watching, bye!