The Crucible Vocab Quiz

Question 1

Theocracy

Answer 1

Govvernment by divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided (church officials).

Question 2

Autocracy

Answer 2

A government with one supreme power over the people.

Question 3

Puritanism

Answer 3

Practices of the Puritans (English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices) characterized by extreme or excessive strictness in matters of morals and religion.

Question 4

Blasphemy

Answer 4

profane talk; the act or offense of speaking sacrilegiously

Question 5

Hypocrisy

Answer 5

the practice of pretending to have moral standards or beliefs contradicted by one’s behavior

Question 6

Tragedy

Answer 6

a play dealing with tragic events and involving the downfall of a heroic but flawed character

Question 7

Scapegoating

Answer 7

one that bears the blame for others; one that is the object or irrational hostility

Question 8

Herd Mentality

Answer 8

the tendency for people’s behavior or beliefs to conform to those of the group to which they belong.

Question 9

Authorial Intent

Answer 9

Authors write a text for a variety of reasons, sometimes to get a theme across or sometimes to teach a moral. It is important to understand authorial intent, or what the author’s purpose for writing a text is, in order to better understand the text and all its components. So how do we do this? Sometimes the author directly states their intent, making it explicit or clearly and directly stated; this is rare in fiction. In most fiction, the authorial intent will be implicit, meaning it is implied but not clearly stated.

Question 10

Allegory

Answer 10

is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons and actions in a narrative are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed or envy. Thus an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.

Question 11

Theme

Answer 11

THE MAIN IDEA THE AUTHOR IS TRYING TO EXPRESS. In literature, the theme is more obliquely presented and rarely presented at all; readers abstract it from the details of characters and action that compose the story.

Question 12

External Conflict

Answer 12

opposition between two characters, between two groups of people, or between the protagonist and a larger problem such as forces of nature, ideas, social codes, and so on.

Question 13

Internal conflict

Answer 13

opposition taking place within a single character, so that the character is struggling with two competing desires, or struggling with a desire that’s blocked by a belief or personal obligation that the character has to follow

Question 14

Symbol

Answer 14

an object or action that stands for something beyond itself

Question 15

Paradox

Answer 15

a situation or phrase that appears to be contradictory but which contains a truth worth considering

Question 16

Stage direction

Answer 16

An instruction in the text of a play, especially one indicating the movement, position, or tone of an actor, or the sound effects and lighting.

Question 17

Fatal Flaw

Answer 17

A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero. Example: Othello’s jealousy and too trusting nature is his tragic flaw.