The girls (Tituba, Susanna Walcott, Betty Parris, Mercy Lewis etc.), agree and go along with what ever Abigail orders as Abigail is the leader and controls them. Page 15 shows this when she says “let either of you breathe a word and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night”. She is also violent towards the girls and this is why the girls are terrified of her and so as she says because they know she will do it. An example of this is when “(she smashes her across the face) Shut it! Now shut it!” Obviously, she has great power over the girls to do this. Finally, Rebecca nurse has not lied nor committed any act of crime. Therefore, she remains innocent and there is no reason for anyone to accuse her. She is one of the only characters who resist the idea of witchcraft whereas Parris and the Putnam’s are desperate for the happenings to be down to the idea of witchcraft. This is slightly ironic as Parris is a Reverend and would in common circumstances, try to relate it to an act of God if the girls haven’t lived up to God’s expectations, or possibly something that revolves around that idea. Instead, he focuses on witchcraft, which is also quite hypocritical of him.
The point at which the characters in the play begin to lie, deceive and avoid the truth is in the run up to Act Three and then throughout Act Three. The build up of Act Three consists of the tension between Abigail and Proctor. Abigail’s argument is that “Tituba did it. Tituba started it all. I just went along with it.” This is hypocritical of Abigail as she says that what Tituba did was wrong, when in actual fact she was doing it as well and just as much as Tituba if not more. Abigail is blaming someone of a lower authority (by this, she knows she will be believed) to get herself out of trouble which is also incredibly self-centred especially as she knows the punishment for involvement with witchcraft is usually to be hung. Abigail said this so that the judge would feel sorry for her and let her off. I believe she chose Tituba because she is of lower authority and she is her Uncle’s slave and her Uncle would do anything to clear his family of unpleasant allegations. Therefore, in the end, it would benefit her and only her.
She continues to add that it was Elizabeth Proctor who stabbed her using her spirit. The characters in the play (most of them) believe in witchcraft and the power of the devil, they have a shared set of values and beliefs that relate to their culture. The audience will not share these values and beliefs and will have a different view. The audience will not accept that witchcraft has any power. This is actually good because it creates dramatic effect in the way that it gets the audience to think and relate to their own lives. The audience is watching from the outside looking in and judging the situation and character. It makes them hopefully realise how lucky they are to have the 20th century way of life as a pose to the 17th century. After all, this was one of Miller’s main objectives as said before as well as creating dramatic effect, which this allegation has produced. I have knowledge that Abigail said this so that Proctor wouldn’t want to be with his wife and would feel sorry for Abigail so would return to her and Elizabeth would be out of the way and hanged.
She does give away a slight hint of the truth by saying that the girls and she are all reformed people: that they turn to God and “love God”. Abigail knows that if she confesses she has done wrong for one instance only but now has returned to God, this will appear as if she is telling the truth and will then hopefully benefit her in the long run. This develops dramatic impact, as it would put the audience in the position of wanting to know more or what the judges will make of it. I believe Abigail said that the girls have returned to God because this would sway the judge’s perspective of her to a positive mode and therefore make her appear to be honest and telling the truth.
She claims that John Proctor is a liar when Proctor says, “It is a whore!” about Abigail and Abigail replies after Danforth “Mr Danforth, he is lying!” and continues to say that he is only saying things to save Elizabeth – which is a little of the truth. However, as said before, either way Proctor doesn’t really benefit from it; he faces losing his land, being found guilty for perverting the court of justice or committing adultery and only if he is believed, Elizabeth may stand a chance of not being hanged in a year’s time. This is because if they find Proctor is telling the truth about him “knowing” Abigail then they may see why Abigail would want to frame Elizabeth (to get rid of her so Abigail can be with Proctor). This is probably, in my opinion, the most dramatic part of the play because the build up to Elizabeth’s response to the allegation of Proctor committing adultery is very tense. This is a moment for winner’s and losers. The clash between John and Abigail must produce a definite outcome and this creates drama. Miller did everything in the best way for this scene and it is obvious to see this. It does inflict dramatic impact and irony as John Proctor said his wife cannot lie and yet, she did and that backfired on him.
Not only this but the judges had to introduce a third party, Elizabeth, because if they didn’t, the judges response would be biased as they would have no proof and would merely be going on what one participant says to sway their decision. Therefore, introducing Elizabeth would mean whatever answer she gives will then be two against one. Elizabeth lies and says Proctor hasn’t committed adultery and by doing this she assumed it would benefit Proctor and get him out of trouble as she thought it was Abigail who confessed the affair. Abigail lied and denied the allegation of the two of them having an affair as she had lied up until this point so far. Therefore there would be no point in backing out now and if she did agree to it, they may then think that Abigail would have a reason to frame Elizabeth and as a consequence she may be convicted. The fact that John Proctor and his wife are told to stand centre stage and face in opposite directions, or allowed to speak when Danforth tells them, is both physically and emotionally dramatic.
Despite all the above, Abigail persists that God is on her side. And basically, by this she is speaking on behalf of God. I think she said this because it shows that whatever she has done cannot be that bad if God is on her side. However, the majority of the audience and I know that this is ridiculous. Therefore the real theory in Abigail’s mind would be that by saying this, the judges would think that she is telling the truth and that if she isn’t, then God can forgive her, so why shouldn’t they? She knows too, that whatever she says, the girls will back her up. An example of this is when she says, “A wind, a cold wind, has come. (Her eyes fall on Mary Warren.)” Then its almost like it’s an instant reaction for the girls to act on it and back her up: Mercy says, “(shivering) Your Honour, I freeze!” and then “(through chattering teeth) Mary, do you send this shadow on me?” Suzanna also replies “I freeze, I freeze!” All of these quotes suggest that they are scared of what Abigail may do to them if they do not back her up. Abigail is then left with a lot going for her and so it doesn’t surprise me that the judges appear to be on the girls side throughout the court case. The fact that she is winning her way and lying through the skin of her teeth to see that Elizabeth is guilty would annoy any husband so I can now see another reason as to why Proctor would want to have her reputation crushed by confessing the affair.
On the other hand, John has a lot going for him, too. One reason siding to his argument is that Elizabeth is truly innocent, she did not injure Abigail at all. Although it maybe biased, her husband has said “In her life, sir, she have never lied. There are them that cannot sing, and them that cannot weep – my wife cannot lie. I have paid much to learn it, sir.” But he said this in confidence; he thought his wife would not be able to lie and he thought it might save her and punish Abigail.
More so in Proctor’s defence, to most of the points Abigail puts forward, Proctor has an answer for. Proctor can say that Abigail framed Elizabeth, as she wants revenge because she was put out of the Proctor household. His wife and him, so that it is two over one, could say this to back up his theory Abigail is lying and it would benefit him and his wife on the count that if the judges believe him over Abigail, then she might possibly be caught out.
Another option is the one that he chose and that was to confess to the affair and show that Abigail is a “whore”. This isn’t quite the best option as adultery is a crime and is forbidden in the Christian religion. However, he could take this risk and plead that it was at a misfortunate time, has not gone back to her since and realises he has done wrong; it worked for Abigail when she confessed to conjuring spirits but has now returned to God. He could also have had his wife back him up, which he did, just not in the way he had hoped as she thought she was covering for him by lying. Proctor said, “She only thought to save my name” but only Hale believed him. Therefore, this rebounded back at him and failed.
Proctor uses Mary Warren in his wife’s defence by stating that Elizabeth has never kept poppets since she were a child and “Mary Warren confesses it was her poppet.” He did this to clear his wife of allegations that she stabbed Abigail. Whether it worked or not, I am unsure as Danforth’s attention was diverted to laughter during prayer from Abigail. Therefore, I am unsure whether this was entirely useful.
Mary Warren also confessed that all this witchcraft is nonsense and is an act of pretence. Mary said herself that she was only pretending. She said to Danforth “That were pretence, sir” referring to their cry of witchcraft. Proctor backed her up by saying to Danforth “She only pretended to faint, Your Excellency. They’re all marvellous pretenders.” This was all very well her saying this but when put on the spot and pretend to faint like she had done when she was claiming the devil to be among them, she could not. I think Danforth requested her to do so because he could see that she had a lot of emotions preventing her from performing. These consist of the fact that she was under a lot of pressure, has no reason to faint, she’s not a hypocrite, the weight of expectation, she doesn’t see the spirits and most importantly, she has stage fright. It is obvious that with all of these pressures, no one should be expected to perform. Hence why she couldn’t. I think she admitted the girls had lied because she was fed up with the lies and could see that what Abigail was doing was wrong and would result in the death of an innocent person.
Parris attacks the innocent but defends the wicked. I know this because he says so; “I should like to question…” “She were under Tituba’s power” and “This is a trick to blind the court!” So to seek retaliation on Parris, Proctor could say that Parris knows the girls were only dancing (Abigail told him this). This he did and he did it in a revengeful manner:
Proctor “(taking it right up): Abigail leads the girls to the woods, Your Honour, and they have danced there naked-”
Parris “Your Honour, this-”
Proctor “(at once): Mr Parris discovered them himself in the dead of night! There’s the ‘child’ she is!”
This was great drama for the audience! More and more of the current goings on are unfolding all in one Act which puts to the audience a lot of drama and excitement.
The three ministers, Danforth, Hathorne and Parris differ in their ways considerably. Danforth refuses to back down or listen when he thinks he is in the right or has his own personal view on something: “you surely do not doubt my justice?” He disregards due process when it suits him. An example of this is when he says, “the pure in heart need no lawyers.” Danforth is a suspicious character and is sceptical of others around him. In response to Proctors claim of his wife being pregnant, Danforth says “We have thought it too convenient to be credited.” I noticed the suspicious and cynical language he chose. He can hardly believe it yet this is a man who appears to believe everything the girls tell him.
I ask myself are there qualities you want in a judge? The answer is yes, you expect them to look at all evidence, all claims and all perspectives to seek justice and discover truth. This creates dramatic effect, as this isn’t how you would expect a judge to react to such a claim, this isn’t a quality you would want in a judge. It is hypocritical in that he is meant to be seeking truth and justice but instead, he excuses it and pushes it aside. A further example that illustrates Danforth’s character is when he speaks to the girls: “Do you take it upon yourself to determine what this court shall believe and what it shall set aside?" In this, I can distinguish how Danforth is so concerned with his own status and importance. He is in basic terms saying to them – don’t tell me what to do! To add to this he continues to say, “Then let him submit this evidence in proper affidavit.” (A legal document) I can see from this that he emphasises the importance of rules and regulations but at the cost of truth and openness.
Finally, speaking to Francis Nurse, Danforth argues “Do you know who I am Mr Nurse? Four hundred are in the jails…Upon my signature.” Again, from this I can see this is a man full of his own self-importance and position. He seems to be saying ‘how dare you challenge me. I make the decisions here and no one else.’ He likes his powerful position as judge. He seems to like the power he possesses. This links with the question about witchcraft being used to show hypocrisy as Danforth is using the topic of witchcraft for his own personal boost. Danforth, as a judge, is meant to be finding truth and call for justice and he says that is what he is trying to do but in actual fact, he is just boosting his morale. He says you mustn’t lie, you must tell the truth but when he is faced with the truth, he excuses it.
As I said before, Parris attacks the innocent but defends the wicked. Maybe because the wicked are his family. But an example of this is when he says, “I should like to question…” “She were under Tituba’s power at that time” (referring to his niece, Abigail) and “This is a trick to blind the court.” Parris is a man prepared to undermine the truth: “they’ve come to overthrow the court, sir!” “Beware this man (Proctor), Your Excellency, this man is mischief.” And “Giles Corey sir, and a more contentious.” These are all examples of how he tries to block out the voice and views of others. Parris is also fearful over his position and status. He believes that people like Proctor want to get rid of him. Thus why he disregards anything Proctor says.
Parris “I am not blind; there is a fraction and party”
Proctor “Against you?”
Putnam “Against him and all authority”
From this I notice that Putnam always supports Parris. Parris is a man of God and meant to uphold the truth but doesn’t. This is hypocritical as he says you must worship God and only be with God and love God, be truthful and honest yet he hid the fact that he saw the girls dancing in the woods from the court and all he talks about is the Devil, Hell and Satan. Parris is also a man who feels slighted (insulted/wronged): “You people seem not to comprehend that…a minister is not to be so lightly crossed contradicted.” When Giles tries to argue his case to save his wife, Parris says of Giles…’and a more contentious’…This is a deliberate attempt to make Giles appear a trouble maker and therefore dismiss anything he says – this is called deformation of character. He is labelling Giles. Parris is a man of God who lies, withholds the truth and is only concerned with money. In my personal opinion, I believe Parris is the biggest hypocrite; When Herrick, as his duty, indirectly says Proctor isn’t a good Christian as he would much rather plough his fields, Parris steps up and agrees and claims that Proctor isn’t a good Christian. Parris is frightened how this ordeal may affect his job and does not want to be linked to witchcraft (house/niece/daughter). This is hypocritical, as Parris is the one who isn’t a good Christian; Parris is the one who talks the opposite of God and lies.
Hathorne is the third judge and I would say the most quiet. Like Danforth, all he wants is success and above all, to keep his reputation. When Hathorne says, “Arrest him, Excellency!” about Giles, this shows that he is not prepared to listen to both sides unless they have to. Hathorne is deeply aware of the issues at stake: “He charges contemplation of murder.” This shows that he does have an understanding into the consequences faced.
So according to the current events, Parris appears very weary of anything anyone says, he doesn’t have a lot of faith or trust in people. He is scared that the whole scenario will affect him job and status wise. Danforth however appears to be strictly focused on power and status. If anyone gives him a hint of a challenge, he reminds them exactly who he is, the power he has and what his job is. Hathorne is much the same as Parris yet a little more low-sounding. He appears to have the same frame of mind as Parris in that he doesn’t like the truth so only hears what he wants to hear and this is because he feels it will reflect on his status. They all say don’t break the law, tell the truth but don’t want to know it, they don’t touch upon it themselves therefore there isn’t one judge out of the three that isn’t in it for some kind of personal reason. If they don’t want to hear the truth there is no justice. They are all hypocrites as they are meant to be honest people and they tell people to be honest when they aren’t honest themselves and even when they are faced with the truth they don’t want to hear it. Basically, they all manipulate the situation to get the solution they want.
The issues I have to bare in mind is that is it better to do the right thing which might jeopardise your status and reputation or tell lies to keep your status? Baring in mind, taking the second option would be hypocritical. The job of a judge is to stand for justice – based on truth or lies. Proctor, Mary, Francis and Giles are all telling the truth but the judges outlaw that and any truth they try to expose, the court overrules. The judges are prepared to lean towards the idea that the children aren’t lying. They are more interested in their position of society etc. thus making them useless judges and hypocrites. The people that you would expect to stand for truth and justice actually accept lies and deception. An example of this is when Elizabeth tries to protect Proctor and says that he has not committed adultery. Despite Hale and Proctor saying that it is a natural lie, Danforth disregards this:
Proctor “She only thought to save my name!”
Hale “Excellency, it is a natural lie to tell: I beg you, stop now before another is condemned! I may shut my conscience to it no more – private vengeance is working through this testimony! From the beginning this man has struck me true. By my oath to Heaven, I believe him now, and pray you call back his wife before we-”
Danforth “She spoke nothing of lechery, and this man has lied!”
Hale “I believe him! (Pointing to Abigail.) This girl has always struck me false! She has-”
Within this text is a lot of information. It just goes to prove that truth has hit him right in the face but yet he brushes it off. It is only obvious that Elizabeth would defend her husband, any right wife would. Even Hale, a well-respected minister is telling Danforth he is wrong. I believe Danforth is avoiding the truth because if he is seen to back down and admit his decision was wrong, he will loose his status, authority and reputation. So he may very well know that Proctor is telling the truth but to save himself, he believes the mind of a young girl over an academic witchcraft detector and an honest, hard working farmer. I think that he knew Elizabeth would lie to save Proctor hence why he called her in. It is Act Three that Hale begins to doubt the girls telling the truth. He puts himself and his authority etc. on the line to save Elizabeth and Proctor. Hale wanted to protect the innocent and yet it is because of his evidence that people have been arrested. He is the one that extracted evidence from Tituba. He got the girls to ‘turn to Jesus’.
Act Three was situated in the vestry room of the Salem meeting house, now it is the anteroom of the General Court. Before anyone says anything, drama is presented to the audience in a visual way. We see the first trial being held in non-other that the village Church; A place of holy gathering for the whole village. The Church being used, as a courtroom would usually seem absurd, this shows the audience that this is no ordinary trial, and what is going to happen is very important. The room is empty; all that remains is the beaming sunlight through the two grand windows in the back wall. To the left is a door leading to outside and to the right are two doors leading into the meeting house proper where the court is being held. The light shining through the window is like the glimpses of hope that Miller presents the audience with during the scene; "The room is empty but for sunlight pouring through two high windows."
The props consist of a long meeting table in the centre with stools and an immense armchair tucked into it. There is a broad bench on the left and another to the right.
Through the partitioning wall to the right you hear a prosecutor’s voice, Judge Hathorne’s, putting forward a question and then a women’s voice, Martha Corey’s, replying.
This is the set up of Act Three. The sheer physical organisation of the stage with Danforth and Hathorne up high on a platform, seated in chairs with Parris at their side reinforces this sense of status and power. They will be literally looking down and judging Proctor, Giles and Francis. The audience would see this as intimidating for the characters. They would probably feel quite frightened and unnerved for the accused. There is an audience in the courtroom; all the children are there to see the action – truth is literally on trial. The whole ‘yellow bird’ scene is charged with suspense and dramatic irony. This means we, the audience, know something the character on stage do not, or the audience will believe one thing and the characters another. I.e. did the audience see a big yellow bird up on the beams? This is the scene we are focusing on. This is where Mary Warren and John Proctor go to challenge Abigail Williams. The scene begins just after Elizabeth has entered and given her evidence that John is not an adulterer and then Hale and Proctor plead that Danforth should bring her back as it is a natural lie to tell. Then out of no where, Abigail diverts the court rooms attention to an apparent ‘yellow bird’ up on the beam of the ceiling. She opens the scene with:
Abigail “You will not! Begone! Begone, I say!”
Danforth “What is it, child?”
Abigail does not answer; she points with fear and raises up her terrified eyes and her bewildered face towards the ceiling. The girls go along with everything Abigail does and so they also pretend they can see the bird and do the same. At this point, Hathorne, Hale, Putnam, Cheever, Herrick and Danforth are all doing alike. Danforth asks, “What’s there?” he begins to lower his eyes from the ceiling and the situation finds him scared; there is obvious tension in his voice. He, in a demanding voice, shouts “Child!” But Abigail is captivated – as well as all the girls, she is now weeping open-mouthed, aghast at the ceiling. Danforth cries out “Girls! Why do you -?” before he is cut of by Mercy pointing to the ceiling and explaining what and where the frightening object is. Proctor is frantic and wants Hale to say something. When he realises Hale is dumbfounded, he steps in himself claiming that they are all lying. Abigail began to copy everything Mary said and soon, the girls joined in, too. You can see Mary getting extremely frustrated as she says “(turning to them all hysterically and stamping her feet): Abby, stop it!” and “(screaming at the top of her lungs, and raising her fists): Stop it!” Miller has placed a very strong ray of hope in to the scene with Mary Warren's testimony. This creates a sense of relief for the audience thinking maybe finally that the girls have been beaten. Miller adds another very clever twist in toying with the audiences' feelings yet again, Abigail turning the situation back to Mary Warren.
This situation makes the audience pray and hope that Mary can stop Abigail, but she is too weak and in desperation Mary blames John; "He wake me every night". This causes the audience to feel helplessly sorry for John. The scene ends with great despair "his mind wild breathless", "laughs insanely". It seems that John almost turns evil.
The pace changes significantly as Abigail pretends to see Mary's spirit in the air, this is one of the highest peaks of drama in the book, all of the girls join in the commotion and this convinces Danforth further. The audience would feel the drama in the courtroom. Proctor says they are pretending, but Abigail continues as if she didn't hear John. Abigail knows that if Mary is believed, she is going to die, so she puts on this show to turn the court’s decision around. The audience is aware of this but Danforth is not, this creates tension and irony. Mary gets over powered by Abigail's strong figure, and can't seem to handle the pressure being put on her. The copying of Mary's words makes her even closer to cracking. The girl’s copy Mary's every word; there is a mass of them, but only one of her. A simple thing such as the girls repeating and chanting with one voice everything Mary Warren says creates an air of confusion and menace. This is a straightforward but effective device for disrupting the court’s procedures and generating dramatic effect. The drama for audience is that Danforth is misguided. He thinks he is doing right, but the audience knows he is not, the audience has seen more than Danforth has and for this, Miller used dramatic irony.
Tension mounts as Mary is told she will be hanged is she does not confess. The audience does not want Mary to die, as they know she is telling the truth, the tension for the audience is, are Mary's moral values stronger than her life? Is she like her Dad? We find out she is not. She confesses to lies. The judges, Hathorne and Danforth, were set to not believe Mary and Proctor anyway. The judges haven’t as yet believed a word Proctor has said and when Mary tries to stand up to the girls, she fails miserably and becomes too weak. There are only two of them, and more of the girls. The judges can see that if they change their minds and believe Mary and John, they will appear to be wrong and are frightened they will loose their status and power. Thus why they opted for the easy option of believing Abigail and the girls despite the fact that they cannot see the bird and Hale cannot detect any sign of witchcraft either.
Everything is at stake. To fail will mean at least imprisonment and at worst death. If Abigail hadn’t of drawn the court’s attention then it is possible that Proctor would have been hanged for adultery and that is the opposite of what she wanted. The point amongst the mist of confusion is to get rid of Elizabeth as Abigail thought she was in the way of her and Proctor being together. Therefore, to divert attention she claimed Mary was sending her spirit out.
In a desperate attempt to save herself, Mary pleads with Abigail to stop lying: “(on her feet with a spring, and horrified, pleading): Abby!” Then Mary and Proctor claim the girls are lying, as said before. She did this in an attempt to save herself from being hanged. Unfortunately, she was too weak and failed to sway Danforth’s decision, as Danforth believed she was sending out her spirit. In her weakness, Mary turns on Proctor. This is a big turn around when Proctor is accused of witchcraft. We, as the audience, know that this whole trial would never have started if Abigail had been so selfish to try and kill Proctor's wife. But now it has backfired on her. The irony for the viewer is that Danforth is totally oblivious to this whole ordeal being a fraud. Proctor denounces God at this point, as he says God is dead. This is a high point of drama and represents the climax of the play in terms of dramatic impact (physically exciting) as the audience sees Proctor's amazing moral strength pull through.
It furthers even more when he says, "You are pulling heaven down and raising up a whore!" The audience now knows for certain that Proctor will most probably be hanged for saying such a controversial thing in a holy village. Ironically, Abigail ends up getting the exact opposite of what she hoped for; Proctor shall be hanged. This Act exposes a tremendous amount of hypocrisy. John proctor wants to protect the innocent (Mary as an example) and tell the truth but he has hidden the truth well (i.e. his affair with Abigail) so he is initially a hypocrite. Hale also wanted to protect the innocent and yet, it is because of his evidence that people have been arrested. He is the one that extracted evidence from Tituba. He got the girls to turn to ‘Jesus’. The Putnam’s say how much they love God and support Reverend Parris but they send their daughter to go speak to the dead. The Putnam’s also blame others for witchcraft but they helped start it. This is very hypocritical. Judge Hathorne and Deputy-Governor Danforth are judges, they tell people to tell the truth but they don’t touch upon it themselves, which makes them hypocrites. Parris is meant to be a man of God but he lies, withholds the truth and is only concerned with money.
This particular scene exposes hypocrisy, too. Hale is a hypocrite in this part of the play because before he was on the girls’ side, he helped the girls and extracted evidence from them but now he appears to be in disbelief of them and on Proctor’s side. So he says to the girls if you love god it will be OK (in basic terms) but then later on he is trying to get them in trouble.
Danforth is a hypocrite as deep down, I think he knows the girls are lying and pretending to see a big yellow bird but he appears to believe them as he is worried about his job, status and reputation. He thinks that if he says “don’t be foolish, there is nothing, maybe Mary, Proctor and Hale are right, I can see that now” that it will make him emerge as a not so good judge as he should have spotted it before.
Proctor is a hypocrite because he says to Mary, “God damns all liars, Mary” yet, he lied himself. He lied about the affair with Abigail. So he shouldn’t be the one to judge, he should leave that down to the judges themselves – not that they made a particularly good job of it themselves. But the point is that Proctor may appear to come across as truthful and honest because he confessed the affair and helps his friends and family but not until he had to and then he has the nerve to say this to Mary.
Parris is a hypocrite, too. Parris says to Mary “Cast the Devil out! Look him in the face! Trample him! We’ll save you, Mary, only stand fast against him and-” this makes him a hypocrite in two ways. The first is that yet again; he talks of the Devil. He is meant to be a man of God. His choice of words is not that of a Reverend’s. He says to others that you must love God etc. but all he talks about is Satan, Hell and the Devil. And secondly, he says they will help Mary but we, as the audience, know that if she did as he says, they will not help her. He just said it to persuade her to come out with it so that he will probably get paid more, his reputation will be good and his status will remain. It is like a journalist bribing a victim of a burglary “we will help you catch them’ if you tell us what happened” They don’t mean it; they just want a good story to make more money and look good. This leads back to Parris telling Mary to tell the truth, yet Parris doesn’t touch upon it himself. Thus, making him a hypocrite. The hypocrisy of the characters links in with the dramatic impact on the audience. If the audience can see this, not only is it ironic that the audience can see this and the judges who are meant to, can’t, but it is also dramatic. It would engage the audience and make them want to continue to watch the play to view the outcome.
All of the above analysis of the play is all of my evidence to the answer of the question ‘How does Miller use the concept of witchcraft for dramatic effect and to expose hypocrisy?’ I believe that I have successfully showed how all the judges, are self-contained and only feel for their self-importance. In 'The Crucible" Arthur Miller has successfully shown that the Salem society has the capacity for what started as just "dancing in the woods" to end with the deaths of innocent people. He has done this by the use of powerful and believable characterisation in a dramatic manner that had many parallels with the contemporary setting in which he was writing. He has created an atmosphere of fear and hypocrisy with an undercurrent of tension and has shown that Salem has the capacity for evil. In any society it is human flaws that cause evil and tragedy and although the Salem society has many good people within it, it is human nature at its worst that brings about its downfall. And it is this concept of witchcraft that tore apart the community; there was no sense of trust at all in the end. The audience could see the innocent but the characters could not. Hence the dramatic impact and irony of it all. For this small ‘religious and well-respected’ community, it brought out the true inner self within the characters, the audience could obviously acknowledge hypocrisy amongst the characters whether the characters themselves could see it within themselves or not. Ironically, Abigail ends up getting the exact opposite of what she hoped for. Proctor was hanged.
