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English Essay - Setting - Coggle Diagram
English Essay - Setting
Initial description of Parris' bedroom as a microcosm for town of Salem
Intense Religiosity
Centrality of candle in room reflects Puritans view that God's values and teachings must be central to your lives
Candle symbolizes divine presence, in John 8:12, Jesus refers to himself as the "light of the world"
Modifier "upper" reflects the Puritan desire to become closer to God, and to eventually enter the kingdom of heaven
"upper bedroom"
If light represents divine presence, then then the window reflects the Puritan view that humankind - born with the original sin of Adam and Eve - is innately barred from reaching heaven.
Solitary window in room, through which "morning sunlight streams" is barred with "leaded panes"
for every perceived sin, Puritans were forced to confess, repent, and atone
This aggressive mode of self-policing is indicated in the "exposed roof rafters, reflecting the way in which Salemites were forced to repeatedly bare their soul and self-critique in pursuit of salvation.
Ascetic room likely due to indulgence in pleasures and unnecessary items was viewed as sinful, "clean" room represents cleanness or purity of soul
Repression
"small" room and "narrow" modifiers create a semantic field of smallness, restriction, and claustrophobia
Represents the social claustrophobia and narrow range of behaviors permitted in Salem, a result of their strict religious code. No pleasures , or any practices that could be viewed as sinful were permitted.
"clean spareness" of the room is notable, indicates the ascetic lifestyle devoid of earthly pleasures which Puritans were expected to strictly adhere to
Initial Staging works to establish Salem as a site of intense religiosity and repression, in which villagers were held in place by a rigorous code of behaviour which restricted their natural urges and tendencies
Layout of courthouse (microcosm for entire Salem justice system)
Court system presents a persona of "blind and impartial justice"
Sunlight suggests both the divinely motivated mission of the court (divine radiance) and is a visual play on the idiom "in the cold light of day" in which the truth of the situation must be laid bare
1 John 1:5, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all"
"sunlight pouring through two high windows on the back wall"
Symmetry of benches seems to be symbolic of the courts attempts to balance the facts of the matter - a visual allusion to 'blind Lady Justice', who impartially considers both sides with equal weight before arriving at her decision
"plain bench at the left, another on the right"
Quickly becomes apparent that this pursuit of justice is only a 'persona', which is designed to legitimize the true motivations of the court: to grasp at and maintain power in the village
The proceedings of the court literally happen behind closed doors. The exclusion of the audience demonstrates the ways in which the justice system in Salem is opaque, as the usual transparency that we would expect from the court is withheld.
We hear a "prosecutors voice" through "a partitioning wall"