The Crucible: 'Choose what you think is the most dramatic scene in the play. How is the drama reated? And how does it fit into the play as a whole?'

‘Choose what you think is the most dramatic scene in the play. How is the drama reated? And how does it fit into the play as a whole?

The scene I have chosen as the most dramatic in the play starts slightly before Elizabeth Proctor enters the court. Before this, John Proctor has forcefully convinced Mary, his servant, to tell Danforth and Hathorne that the girls are all faking being taken by others souls sent out by the devil, and in court they are lying when the feel cold winds or see things. Proctor has also confessed that he had an affair with Abigail Williams and in response to this Danforth brought Elizabeth into the court. In the build-up to this scene, the audience is told Elizabeth would never lie so as Danforth questions her, there is a huge rush of fear for her and her husband’s lives. This scene is the pivotal point of the play, at this point everything depends on Elizabeth telling the truth and when she doesn’t chaos ensues. This scene changes everything that the audience think and feel.

Set in the small blande meeting house of the tiny village furnished with simple chairs and a long bench down one side of the room, the setting at the start of this scene is simple and blande so as to give a backdrop to the play but not to distract from the drama of the scene. The setting of this scene is juxtaposing the drama and putting it into conrast with the blande countryside of 1950s America. The simpleness of the backdrop to this scene draws the audiences attention to the dramaticness and fatefullness of what is going to happen because of Elizabeths first ever lie, the audience feel a huge let down when she lies as they have been told in the build up to this scene that she has never lied and never would, so when she lies and the stage errupts into chaos the audience feel the same disappointment that John does.

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Miller uses detailed stage directions throughout the play, they provide the cators with ways to behave, move and even how to portray emotions. ‘ blanched, in horror, turning to Abigail…' this helps to give the audience a more clear insight into how each character feels. The stage directions almost become a story, they provide information about each character’s background. When stage directions are read they provide the narrative to the whole story which helps create drama as it fills in the story. Miller uses interruptions to cause tention between different characters and to develop a sense of urgency and emotion throughout the play ‘ELIZABETH: He - DANFORTH: Look at me!’ danforth wants to stick to the rules and will interrupt anybody who doesn’t do just that. Miller also uses repetition to build the tention and drama of the scene ‘ I’m here, I’m here!’ whilst still giving a sense of increased hysteria. Miller uses the repetition and detailed stage directions to create character empathy which helps draw the audience into the play.

The drama in this scene is exaggerrated by tone of voice for instance when Elizabeth speaks faintly and stutters ‘ She – dissatisfied me. (pause) And my husband.’ it promopts the audience to feel the same fear she is experiencing. In contrast when Abigail speaks confidentally and influences many ‘What look do you give me?’ the audience begin to suspect that she is being over confident in order to hide something and so they begin to doubt her which is evidentally what is also happening on stage. Miller uses biblical language to provide the character with passion and credibility for their actions ‘…remember the angel Raphael – do that which is good and…’ motives are given weight when supported by holy or diaboloic references. Millers uses devilish language ‘Tituba made us’ as the girls discover, you can always pass the blame onto someone else if u disguise you own fear and guilt with diabolic references which then prompt others’ fear to make them believe that someone else was to blame.

Drama is built by changes in the ways characters interact with each other: Danforth begins to doubt Abigail ‘…they are both gone?!’ this indicates a shift of attitude for characters and uncertainty in their relationships. The way Danforth controls Elizabeth without actually touching her ‘ Look at me!’ shows how scared she and other characters are of him and how much power he actually has over everybody in the village. Abigail’s power over the girls is shown by her giving them clues to their afflictions ‘…why do you come, yellow bird?’ this shows how the power shift between characters can build drama. This portrays dramatic irony because the audience can anticipate how the characters interaction will change.

The audience feel intensified drama due to the irony of them knowing what is going to happen, when and to which characters, the audience know what every character knows and what others don’t. the audinece anticipate that elizabeth will tell the truth and everybody hope for resolution, then when she lies to try and save her husbands and her own face around the village, everybody feels let down by the fact that she lied. The audience also feel frustated as they can see Abigail and the girls lying but all onstage are totally taken in by their lies. The audience feels empathy with Mary but also feel desperate for her to expose the girls that are lying. By the end of this scene the audience are sat in horrified anticipation of the next course of action, tempted not to watch but forced to anyway.

This scene is a major scene of the whole play, it shows how fear can cause many people to do rach things without thinking before carrying them out. This scene alters the whole play, it is the pivotal point where it changes from a harmless joke on Abigail’s part to a dangerous game, risking many lives. At the start abigail had turned the village against the more respected women of the community, then when she realises that shes turned John Proctor against her, which was one of the last things she wanted, she makes the rash decision and turns the whole village against him. Miller wrote this scene to portray what he thought about the witchhunts and the McCarthyism era in America at the time.

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