In the next part of the scene Abigail accuses Mary Warren of sending the yellow bird upon them to hurt them. This shocks Mary, as she is innocent so she cries out in a horrified and confused manner. Mary Warren starts to get impatient because no one will listen to her point of view. The girls start to wind her up by repeating what she is saying. I directed the girls to speak in a soft-echoed tone of voice. This is because this would frustrate Mary even more and make her more angry and upset. I also positioned the girls to face Mary and stare at her, this was to build up even more frustration within not only Mary but the audience as well, as they know that she is innocent. I wanted Mary to appear more upset and emphasize the emotion building up inside her.
The girls pursue in acting in this way until Mary breaks down in tears and is weeping and pleading. This brings more emotion to the scene, and I wanted Mary to come across weak and scared. Danforth is asking questions but isn’t getting the answers he wants, so I made him lose control at points and show much impatience to make the scene more dramatic. Proctor becomes even angrier and sounds violent because no one will listen to him either. He knows he has real difficulties with controlling rage because he is so frustrated, while the girls are still repeating “Mary Warren”.
This makes a scene full of mixed emotions; anger, frustration, depression and a bit spooky. Eventually the girls voices become louder this makes Mary not weaker but angrier and Mary cries out loudly. I thought because Mary is now appearing stronger the girls would be furious, so I made them repeat their teasing of her in a cold bitter tone of voice. I wanted to demonstrate group power as shown by the girls and how it effects one single person.
As every one is shouting and screaming at each other, they become more and more furious. This emphasizes the frustration within the scene. For example Danforth starts speaking louder and far more sternly because he wants to be heard and he is trying to maintain his authority.
Eventually the girls dominate Mary so much she gives in and confesses. This is a real shock, so the tones of voices are lowered because the girls have got their own way. When Mary accuses Proctor, the confusion and the shouting return because he is angry and knows that now no one will believe him.
During this part of the scene Danforth calms down and speaks in a more patient tone of vice this is because he is relived because things are starting to make sense, although it is a lie. The next part of the scene is when Mary Warren cries out that she loves God. I thought this part of the scene was practically highly charged and I emphasized this by directing Mary to break down in tears once again. Hale and Proctor become more distressed and more aggressive through out the end of the scene because they know the girls are lying and this is particularly damning for them. Hale gets for frustrated he quits the court leaving Danforth even more confused and impatient as he is scared that he may lose his authority.
