How does Miller create tension in "the Crucible"? Analyse two episodes and evaluate Miller's success.

Vicki Harris 10z

How does Miller create tension in “the Crucible”?

Analyse two episodes and evaluate Miller’s success.

Written by Arthur Miller in the early 1950’s, “The Crucible” notes the story of the quiet town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. As the play progresses, a major witch hunt takes place after a group of young girls claim to have danced with the Devil. Although the play is fictional, Miller based it on real people and events documented in records made after the actual witch hunts took place, at around the time the play was set it.

I have chosen to analyse the conversation in Act 1, between Abigail and John where she attempts to entice him back to her, however John is adamant he will not be drawn in by her charms and appears to not be tempted. I shall also analyse the section of Act 4 where John Proctor ‘confesses’ to partaking in witchcraft, but then changes his mind after realising he values his morals more than his life.

The first episode begins with Betty in bead and, after supposedly dancing with the Devil; she is in an apparent trance-like sleep. At the same time, John and Abigail are talking about their affair, something that took place before the play began. In this extract, Miller uses a variety of techniques to create tension on stage and in the audience.

One such technique is the way in which variations are created in language; this creates a mix of emotions from the audience. Take, for example, Abigail’s line of “Give me a word John, a soft word” where she appears to be attempting to seduce John. In this part of the play we see how Abigail can manipulate how she speaks to, in a way, toy with John’s emotions, however it is likely that at this point in the play the audience will be aware of how young Abigail actually is, and will therefore realise she is embarrassing herself. Although this isn’t creating high levels of immense tension, the embarrassment the audience is provoked to feel due to Abigail’s actions is likely to leave them feeling highly uncomfortable in the situation causing a tense atmosphere to be created. In contrast to Abigail’s approach, John talks more as a father, giving a very patronising response, which begins with him calling her “child”, thus furthering the embarrassment felt.

Another technique used in this section of the play is the contrast between how Abigail appears towards John and how she appears towards her Uncle Parris slightly earlier on in the play. To Parris, Abigail seems to be the angelic niece who made the simple mistake of dancing in the woods. However, when she talks to John she says things such as “I am waiting for you every night” and “I know you, John. I know you.”. Both of these examples show how Abigail can change from being an innocent little girl to an apparently seductive young woman. After watching this episode, the audience are undoubtedly aware of how Abigail attempts to manipulate people, and shows how the character is likely to progress, using her ‘skills’ in manipulation to full advantage. The feeling that something is waiting to happen may cause unrest in the audience, which would build up tension levels slightly.

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The pace of speaking varies a lot in this small section. We see Abigail’s ‘seductive’ speech, alongside John showing remorse for the situation that has arisen saying “I never give you hope to wait for me”. This is calm, and clear – John is not interested. He sees being open and honest, stating how he feels in the plainest English imaginable as the best way to prevent this conversation ever developing again. This would keep tension levels low, creating a feeling in the audience that they want Abigail to understand, and see nothing can happen. However, when this is obviously not the case, John begins to lose his composed presence and when Abigail begins crying, the volume of the conversation increases. This, in itself, will cause an increase in tension. Following this emotional outburst, Abigail pleads with John, running to him and crying “pity me, pity me!”. Such a change in a once strong and grown up character, along with the urgency with which the lines are delivered will create huge tension and, probably more embarrassment felt for Abigail.

This is a particularly emotional part of the play, which relies far more upon vocal talents than any physical contact to create the tension we feel when watching it. There is, however, one point in this episode where John grabs Abigail and whilst shaking her shouts “Do you look for a whippin’?”. By this point in the conversation the audience are likely to be in the belief that John Proctor has effectively ‘lost it’ and needs to find a way to make Abigail understand, whatever that way may be. Following John grabbing Abigail, the audience see violence as one way of this conversation finishing which will obviously raise the tension levels considerably.

Dramatic irony is an underlying key to creating effective tension in a play. In this case, the audience will have had to be extremely observant to notice that Betty was never actually in a trance, and so it may be that she was awake for the entire conversation concerning Abigail and John’s previous affair. This technique is very effective at creating tension as it brings the audience closer to the characters.

The sudden ‘entrance’ of Betty when she wakes up from the apparent trance adds much more tension to the scene, as it is such a change to the conversation it followed. The shrill scream from Betty would cause shock throughout the audience, creating almost fear. The ending of my chosen episode is Parris’ entrance, which, due to the sheer urgency of it, would cause tension levels to stay high. The sudden change in conversation from Abigail and John to the rush surrounding Betty waking up is a sharp turning point and ideal way of leaving the situation between Abigail and John unresolved. The audience would probably presume the same sort of scenario, or something that has grown from what happened here, would be played out at a later point in the story.

This episode uses mainly vocal techniques, volume, language, and pace, to create variations in tension. There is also a single, carefully placed, moment of harsh physical contact that helps in creating a huge surge in tension in the last moments of the episode.

The second episode takes place in Act 4, where John Proctor says he will confess to dealing with the Devil in order to save his life, only to revoke this confession when he realises he would rather die with a clear conscience than live thanks to a false declaration of guilt.

This is the climax of the entire play and, as such, contains many techniques to subtly create tension. The main technique, evident throughout the confession episode, is dramatic irony. We see John Proctor, a seemingly strong character who is very stuck to his morals, prepared to give a confession in order to save his life, when we know that he and all the other people accused of witchcraft are actually innocent. This means that the whole way through this part of the play, tension is felt because the audience are aware of the massive injustice taking place on the stage, however they have no powers to stop it.

The pace of speech in the film is relatively fast, however varies at points. When Danforth is asking John questions to make his confession watertight, he says, “Did you see the Devil?” to which John replies with “I did.” Danforth’s next question is “Did he bid you to do his work upon the earth” and John’s reply is “He did”. This conversation continues and, as it is spoken, the questions would be with immense force, but slow and well enunciated in order for John to fully understand the question. John appears relatively calm at this point, and so his answers would be slow and determined. This would cause a steady build up of tension, as one would expect that after several of these types of questions the person under suspicion would lose control. When sitting in the audience, a likely reaction to the slow pace of speech would be apprehension – waiting for things to blow up.

Over the last part of the conversation, the pace picks up immensely, with the person talking not even having chance to finish before being interrupted by someone who thinks what they have to say is more important. The latter of the two mainly being John, whose impatience with Danforth is obvious by this point in the play. We see how he interrupts Danforth in the following examples:
Danforth: Mr. Proctor, I must have –

Proctor: No, no, I have signed it.
…

Danforth: You have not con –

Proctor: I have confessed myself!

…

Danforth: I do not wish to –

Proctor: I have three children…

All of the above examples show how John is not willing to listen to what Danforth has to say, he is adamant he does not want his name known in the village as the one who confessed. John knows he is letting a lot of people’s belief in him down, he knows that the village view him highly, in that he sticks to his belief and morals even in the most extreme of cases. Now, however, John is weak. He has confessed to something he did not do, and the audience are aware that he is extremely unhappy about the situation he has been forced into. The interrupting and constant increase in pace shows very plainly that John is beginning to tire of what is happening and will be unable to control his temper – of which we have already seen evidence of – for much longer, which heightens the tension created.

As the conversation progresses and the judges become aware that the confession is a lie, John becomes emotional and gives a speech about how he should be allowed to keep his name, as he has given them what they want. Throughout the speech which begins “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life…” his voice is likely to get closer and closer to breaking, until he fights back tears in order to get the last line of “leave me my name!” to the audience. On hearing a grown man reduced to this, the audience would feel a huge amount of sympathy for the character once deemed a harsh adulterer. This is the part of the play that would have the audience on the ‘edge of their seats’, so to speak, creating much tension and emotion throughout the theatre.

The final part of this episode is where John “tears the paper and crumples it, and he is weeping in fury, but erect” (quoted from the stage directions). This, on stage, in complete silence, would be a huge turning point for the character of John Proctor. The tension created by hearing the paper crumple would be mixed with an immense feeling of relief because John has realised that he values truth above all else.

In this episode, the pace of the conversation is an important key in creating tension, along with a sort of demanding tone of voice from John. This could be played out with almost no physical movement or contact, as it does not rely at all upon this to create the tension.

As a complete play, “the Crucible” is very hard hitting, showing how a tiny thing, such as a few girls in the woods, can be blown up out of all proportions and resulting in many people losing their lives. This story was based around true events in 1692, a real witch hunt, where real people were hunted down and killed for no other reason than they were suspected of practicing witch craft – black magic or white magic, it didn’t matter, they were witches nonetheless. The story also mirrors the goings on of the time it was first written and performed. In the 1950’s, communism was seen as a major problem in the USA, so much so that a man called Joseph McCarthy complied a list of over 200 people he claimed must be got rid of, for the sake of the future of the USA. These people were communists, and Arthur Miller saw writing this play as a good way of provoking peoples thoughts on the matter. He hoped it would make them see that these things didn’t exist – at least the threat from them didn’t – and he hoped people would watch his play, go home and see the similarities between what went on in Salem in 1692 and what was going on in the present day of early day 1950’s. Miller wanted people to make a stand against the people trying to ‘dispose’ of the communists and saw writing a play as a good way of getting an otherwise difficult to explain point across.

To conclude, Miller uses many techniques, ranging from simple variations in volume, interrupting lines and changing the pace of a conversation to more obvious things such as physical contact in order to create, maintain and vary tension levels. I think Arthur Miller has used a good mixture of different techniques, some subtle, some more blatant, to create a play, and in particular the two episodes I have chosen, in which I can feel the tension. Surely, the best way that I can evaluate his success is upon how much tension I felt when watching the play, and that was a great amount.