Abundance of drama Essay

She and the other girls give the names of innocent people who had nothing to do with witchcraft leaving the act with a dramatic hysterical close as all the girls try to cleanse themselves of the confrontation with Beelzebub hinting at the future prospects of the play. The act steadily builds up to when Tituba is accused at the end of the act of witchcraft. Each ingredient of the, story, which we know is hearsay, is added until it comes together and there is sufficient evidence for her to be accused by Hale. The story, which has been building, takes a turn and instead of the inquisitive nature of which it started, it becomes more action orientated and becomes a name and shame game where people are incorrectly blamed and gives a dramatic effect to the audience. This final dramatic scene of the act is placed there to end the act with a mini peak of the story and to keep the audience interested and wanting more. Act two begins with a long conversation between Proctor and his wife. They talk about the every day things but the stage directions and language Miller uses, like the scene with Proctor and Abigail, strongly projects the dramatic effect on the audience and emotions of the relationship. Proctor is not at ease with his wife, the atmosphere appears tense and uncomfortable. He attempts to make conversation, â€Å"are you well today? † which is not the sort of thing a husband would say to his wife. He tries to make her happy by complimenting her: â€Å"it’s well seasoned† and grinning. It is obvious that the atmosphere could be cut with a knife â€Å"as gently as he can† depicts that he is carefully choosing his words and trying to be a good husband but desperately trying not to bring up the affair. But it is not in vain as Goody Proctor reacts warmly to him, â€Å"blushing with pleasure†; giving an inkling that she still loves him. Though the feeling is that of betrayal and guilt there is a warm, gentle fragment of loyalty and love emancipated out of their conversation, which proves they still both feel love towards one another. Mary Warren comes in to the house-hold to discuss the events which took place in Salem earlier on and that, â€Å"Aye a proper court they have now. They’ve sent four judges out of Boston,† and that â€Å"39† women have been accused of witchcraft. She then proceeds to talk about the accused and that Mrs Proctor has been accused. This shocks them and that Rebecca nurse has also been accused, as she is a well-respected person in the Salem community and adds to the drama. Both of the women have enemies who wish to destroy them (Abigail and Mrs Putnam) and two rival factions are now clearly taking form, Goody Proctor is arrested. The home scene between Proctor and his wife is placed before she is arrested to dramatically show how innocent and plain Goody Proctor was and the contrast of her seeing John in the wrong by her being arrested, this dramatically portraits injustice. Proctor’s actions towards the arrest of his wife are dramatic as he runs out adding to the action and pace of the scene, â€Å"I will not have her chained! † The fact he will not have her chained when they are authorised to do so indicates conflict and gives drama, the use of an apostrophe shows his anger again adds gives a dramatic effect to the audiences Towards the end of the act pressure is placed on a character this time it is Mary who is being pressurised by the now fiery Proctor due his wife’s imprisonment. Proctor tries to force Mary to tell the court about the â€Å"poppet† which Mrs Proctor was arrested for, â€Å"You will tell the court how the poppet come here. † Mary claims she â€Å"cannot†, which she repeats and she begins to cry. Proctor’s language creates his mentality with the omnipotence of his language and the harsh anger which has built up inside to terrify Mary to get her to divulge her information to the court, â€Å"Aye naked! And the wind will, gods icy wind will blow! † His use of the word icy creates the chilling ominous threat to all the people who are dishonest and shows that he himself would not do it or he would be severely hypocritical. This, from what he said, is the first indication of his stern and ethical character and that Mary’s character is frail and easily manipulated both by Abigail and Proctor. Not only does the dramatic structure give the end of the act a dramatic finish but also the end of the act uses language to get across the seriousness and religious terror being brewed in Salem. Act three is set in the courtroom, the cases are being investigated and the questions and debating ensues. Mary now forced by Proctor to support Goody Proctor tells the court that she lied the day before. However she shows her weakness when she herself is blamed by Abigail, and cracks when Abigail condemns her by pretending that there is a spirit conjured by Mary, â€Å"Let me go Mr Proctor, I cannot, I cannot†. This leads to Proctor to loose his cool and condemn Abigail for doing all of this to spite him and to rid the world of his wife. He now has to admit to committing the sin of adultery: â€Å"I have known her sir! † This leads us to the turning point in the play. Proctor reveals to the court that his wife never tells a lie and that she would tell the court about his affair. By stating the truth it would obviously mean that she was telling the truth about the witchcraft and proving her innocence but would she be able to disgrace Proctors, name, which means so much to the people of the time period that the play was set. Miller’s dramatic structure brings the play to a mini climax if not the most important one by great structuring of the play; the play reaches a cross-roads. If Goody Proctor tells the truth it undermines everything that Abigail has said and shows her as a liar and everyone wrongly accused is released and brings about the end of court. But if she lies it means that all the people who have kept their morality and not lied will be charged. It defines the future of the factions and the play, having been built up throughout the opening acts. This is well dramatically structured to create complete unpredictability and a sense of curiosity as to how it will end. She is brought in and interrogated. Goody Proctor’s body language portraits the tension: â€Å"liking her lips to stall for time† now created in the court, as they all know this is the defining moment. She thinks about what she should say and â€Å"glances at Proctor† looks for help. In, agony, she answers the questions. Hard thought and constant silent pauses build the pressure within the room, â€Å"Is your husband a lecher? † Danforth the judge asks her. â€Å"No. † The pressure is lifted and the stomach churning feeling of the characters and audience takes over, this is summed up by the comment, â€Å"oh god! † when Goody Proctor realises what she’s done. But by lying, going against everything she stands for. She obviously forgives Proctor as she took one for him when he had committed adultery this shows the romantic drama that she loves him so much she would give up her morals for his name. Abigail then starts off again pretending to draw attention on to herself, that Mary is conjuring spirits and uses her power to create mass hysteria. Miller liberally uses exclamation marks to emphasise the shouting and adding to the general madness of the courtroom. Abigail’s actions are dramatised and create a lot of fear, â€Å"Abigail pointing with fear† and which is added to by having all the girls at once shouting. It gives a fearful representation that the girls are possessed by some sought of satanic spirit. Mary shifts the blame onto Proctor who is then accused by the court. This is dramatically used as the story declines after the climax in act three and the story needs to be built up quickly to reach the final climax. In Act four this is done by the hysteria and the fact that Proctor is now being blamed by Abigail and ironically the reason the trouble started was because she wanted him, now she is getting rid of him and achieving nothing. In Act four Proctor has an emotional talk with his wife as she tries to persuade him to confess and be released. Miller goes to work on giving the audience’s heart strings a pull using again language and stage actions to show the emotions of love and despair and create a great sense of drama using dramatic devices. Goody Proctor has forgiven him and believes; whatever, he does â€Å"it is good man that does it†, and thinks she drove him to have an affair. She states that, â€Å"John, I counted myself so plain, so poorly made no honest love could come to me! Suspicion kissed you when I did†. She thinks that there was nothing to love about her and before it was not her who kissed him but personified. This also implies that now when they talk and hold each other it is pure love for the first time in their relationship bringing a sense of romanticism to the ordeal that they’ve been through. Miller’s dramatically structure places the conversation before the final and ultimate climax to act as the calm before the storm and to increase the pressure on John and ultimately be decisive to the final sequence of events. Proctor is to be hung but because he was persuaded he confesses but all the official figures want his confession in writing. By doing this he is giving up his, name. He realises that he will die before he will give up his name and rips up his â€Å"life† which he had signed. This then brings us to the most powerful and dramatic action within the whole play in my opinion as, â€Å"His breast heaving, his eyes staring, Proctor tears up the paper and crumples it, and he is weeping in fury, but still erect. † This shows that he will not sign away his, name, showing his courage. He has thrown away his life but still stands â€Å"erect†, they’ve pushed him all the way physically and mentally but he has not fallen keeping his dignity, ethics and pride, which we know mean so much to him as does his life which is why it is so dramatic. Miller has created a twist luring the audience in with Goody Proctors persuasion, hooking them in with signing the confession but masking the fact he was to â€Å"rip up his life,† and die for what he believes and becoming a type of martyr or tragic hero. Miller’s, The Crucible, is structured to gain dramatic effect. Each act takes on the same structure and has very similar properties. The first two scenes to begin with build up information about different events, which take place off stage. All acts build up to a climax, giving away hints about the next act and each act ends with pressure being placed on a certain character. Act one it is Tituba; act two it is Mary; act three Mary and Mrs Proctor and act four John Proctor. â€Å"The Crucible† is a fitting name for the play as a crucible is a melting pot, which eventually displaces the pure from the waste. Which also happens in the play each act is a small melting pot as in act one, the different things are added by way of the story being built up and then heated. The heat in act one is Hale and overall the whole play is a melting pot. The story built up, the heat added by the way of the court and the pure displaced from the waste. The pure, being the characters that wouldn’t pass on the blame because they were too strong and would not give up their morals. The irony is that the people who deserved to be killed i. e. Abigail and Paris compared to the remorseful Proctor and the innocent Rebecca nurse. Miller created a dramatic play by incorporating dramatic language, stage directions and the play is structured in such a way that it gives the audience an abundance of drama.