Comparing 'The Crucible' with 'The Titanic' and 'The Woman in Black'

5/1/2007

Comparing ‘The Crucible’ with ‘The Titanic’ and ‘The Woman in Black’

'The Crucible' is a historical drama set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The play was presented in a minimalist style. The characters were all puritan which meant they were very simply dressed with dull colours. Living in a small village they would all be interested in each others business. The characters would all be desperate to keep their names ‘white’, some of the characters for example Ann Putnam would have also benefited from the blackening of her neighbors names. This was because if someone was condemned a witch then their land would be sold cheap. Most of the themes centre on religion. ‘The Titanic’ was a non-naturalistic, documentary drama. It was set in a music hall in present times but had flash backs to 1914 which told the story of Titanic. This is different to 'The Crucible' because the story line is very linear and unfolds to the audience in the correct sequence of events.

There is a huge contrast between characters in ‘The Titanic’. The rich first class ladies and the steerage passengers. No costumes were used so the difference in class was shown by the body language of the first class passengers much more stiff and upright and their tone of voice would be different by clearly pronouncing all of their words. The steerage passengers would be less upright and have larger movements and a rougher accent with any ‘h’s’ or ‘t’s’ dropped. In 'The Crucible' the characters are not vastly different in respects to money the difference in status of the characters was clearly shown. One example of this would have been where Danforth the judge was on stage. He is clearly a respected character who has a higher status than the others on stage. This was shown to the audience by his large strong strides across the stage that would show his confidence and power. All the characters attention was on him when he spoke. The speeches would be delivered calmly and loudly. This also would show the contrast when Proctor would be yelling passionately. This scene is similar to ‘The Titanic’ in respects to the difference in status that is shown when the steward is spoken to without politeness by the first class ladies.

‘The Titanic’ was non-naturalistic and many of the actors had multi roles and would change character on stage whereas in 'The Crucible' the actors kept their characters and they were meant to be believable to the audience. However both plays had elements of melodrama. ‘The Titanic’ used it to add humor and to highlight the stereo types of the different class and over exaggerate them to make the differences more obvious. 'The Crucible' used melodrama at the end to show the audience the passion of John Proctor and how tragic the whole play is. Where melodrama had been used ...

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‘The Woman in Black’ is a supernatural thriller set in 1940’s in London. Flash backs are used to tell the story same as in ‘The Titanic’. It is similar to 'The Crucible' because they both contain supernatural forces. 'The Crucible' and ‘The Titanic’ were both based on true events whereas ‘The Woman in Black’ is a fictional story. 'The Crucible' had many of the characters scared and hysterical but no attempts were made to make the audience feel scared. On the other hand ‘The Woman in Black’ was aiming to make to audience feel scared as well as the characters. ‘The Woman in Black’ used dim lights set to cast very long shadows on stage to create a spooky atmosphere, 'The Crucible' used white lights with a pale blue to make it eerie. It also worked well to show the tragedy of the play.

The mass hysteria in 'The Crucible' is caused by the very religious and superstitious characters who gossiped about all the events. In ‘The Woman in Black’ there is also a lot of gossip but the main character is very skeptical about the happening. The difference at the end is that there turns out to be no supernatural happenings in ‘The Crucible’ whereas in ‘The Woman in Black’ the ghost is real. In ‘'The Crucible'’ the character would have feared to be openly skeptical to witches because it could have been viewed as work of the devil. This explains Paris’s behavior at the beginning because he is so terrified of the reaction that will be caused if people start to accuse him of witch craft in his own house. It also shows why Mary Warren is so terrified when she comes on the stage. She runs and is shuffling because she is so scared of how the village will react, her eyes would be wide and her voice high pitched and a quick pace. This is comparative to ‘The Woman in Black’ where he is embarrassed to admit to being afraid or believing in ghosts.

'The Crucible' must be portrayed with great passion. If Abby’s strength over the other girls is not apparent in the first scene then the play is not believable. Abby was acted brilliantly with her strength shown in her speech to the other girls by talking slowly and emphasizing the nasty words. Her personality was portrayed well is her sudden change then to being sweet when John Proctor enters the room her tone of voice get higher and she smiles. She clearly had a good knowledge of how to get the reaction she wanted from each character, although she was never more powerful than John at any point his strong posture showed how he was in charge. ‘The Woman in Black’ is similar in that if the main character does not look believably scared then the audience will not be this was shown well in that he had lots of small little gestures and slight shaking. ‘The Titanic’ the character have to be extreme for it to work, the first class must be extremely posh and the steerage passengers extremely common. All three plays were minimalist and had vast variety of characters.

Comparing 'The Crucible' with 'The Titanic' and 'The Woman in Black'

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