You are allowed to ask Arthur Miller five questions to which he will give extended answers. These questions should bring out his intensions and the dramatic effects of the play. Write both the questions and the answers

You are a theatre critic, interviewing Arthur Miller about his play, The Crucible. You are allowed to ask him five questions to which he will give extended answers. These questions should bring out his intensions and the dramatic effects of the play. Write both the questions and the answers.

1.Me: I am here today to ask you some questions about ‘The Crucible’. My first question I would like to ask you is why did you write ‘The Crucible’?

Miller: I wrote ‘The Crucible’ as a response to the anti-communists hysteria stirred up by McCarthy in the 1950’s. People were afraid that communists would take over. This led to people being accused. These people were innocent but were constantly living in fear. If these people were found dressing, acting differently, then McCarthy would become suspicious and put them on trial. Similarly people in Salem were put on trials because they were suspected of being witches.

I felt strongly about what was happening against the accused communists, so I decided to write ‘The Crucible’ as an allegory. I used an allegory because I wanted to show people what happened or is happening is wrong. ‘The Crucible’ is a social criticism and so this is another reason for why I wrote it as an allegory.

The title refers to pots in which metals or other substances can be melted or heated up to very high temperatures, and used to extract the pure element from dross or impurities.

The heated Crucible represents the trouble stirring up in the community. The people in the community are repressed like the contents in the Crucible that are surrounded by darkness. So the heated Crucible is meant to get rid of the impurities in it, just like the theocracy of Salem, trying to get rid of evil spirits.

The fact that the community was run by religion makes the society more likely to corrupt by this I mean the society is naive as it lacks the protection needed. As a result the vulnerable people in the community would easily be hurt physically or emotionally. If the community were run by proper laws it would be less likely to corrupt and people would not feel so repressed.

In the play John Proctor is tested in a life threatening ordeal and his death at the end is nothing than betrayal of his conscience, showing us he too has come through the fire to be purified.

Overall to answer your question in a brief sentence or two I would have to say that I wrote this powerful and moving play to show people the similarities of the play and the days back in 1692. The play is relevant to certain ages as in the crucible Abigail [17] and friends were found dancing around a crucible in the woods. The witchcraft was started by Abigail and friends. These people were very young. This shows us that you can start witchcraft from an early age. As Abigail is very young and scared she is in fear of getting blamed for the incident in the woods, so she looks for someone to blame. Abigail successfully blames someone. By this she is tempted to continue for the love of her life.

2. Me: The language in the play is unusual. What made you write like this?

Miller: The play is about panic, paranoia, about people believing in things that do not exist and overacting because of that. As the play is powerful I used different ‘special’ language types that I created for the play. I wrote like this because it sets the scene of an old fashioned community. I also thought writing in a 16th century way would be very hard to understand as their language was more complex than the one in the play.

One of these ...

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2. Me: The language in the play is unusual. What made you write like this?

One of these different language types is I used double negatives. Double negatives is where two ‘no’s’ are put together. This gives a unique structured language. An example of this is when Susanna says [p6]

‘…that he cannot discover no medicine…’ or when John says [p25]

‘I never said no such thing…’

I used this because it sets a scene of an old fashioned community. Another language device I have used is archaic word phrases. I decided not to use many of these as I thought the language might get too complexed for people to understand. An example of these is; Ney – no

Ay – yes

I often used ‘poppet’ and ‘goody good’, as in those days they would use this type of language. I did this because I wanted it to be as natural as possible and without it getting too hard to understand.

The vocabulary and strange syntax I have used is based on the witchcraft trails happening so long ago [1692] that I decided to put some odd old fashioned word phrases to make the play more natural, for example,

‘ I hope you come not of business of the court’ Proctor [p59].

Strange syntax is good to portray the community but I do it in an understandable way.

Me: I have noticed you use dialect language. Why?

Miller: I use this because it is set to seem natural as people those days and nowadays speak without pronouncing their ‘g’s’ of ‘ing’s’ for example Abigail [p17]

‘John-I am waitin’.

Or Proctor [p22]

‘ I see none dyin’.

Proctor is seen from a working class background and so his language will come across more dialect than those like Mr. Putnam. Mr. Putnam is seen from a middle class background. If you were to compare the dialect language in today’s society you would find there is not much of a change, for example those who are socially deprived will speak ‘broken English’ otherwise known as ‘slang’ and those who are from a middle class background will speak posh English. I can also say those people with higher education will tend to speak posh English. Mr Putnam is one of these as he has a good educational background; he is therefore seen from a middle class background. Proctor is a farmer with no educational background this shows us he is from a working class background speaking dialect language.

This clearly states that social status is still considered to be an important factor in today’s society. So I have used dialect language because I wanted it to be natural and to set the scene of an old fashioned community.

Me: I have also noticed how your characters with authority use elaborate language. Why is this?

Miller: Well… as characters such as Danforth, Proctor, and Abigail are important I thought using elaborate language would make these individually unique. Adding to this language type is facial expressions; this makes them really show their authority when talking to different characters. For example when Proctor talks to Abigail his facial and body expressions tell us what he is really feeling,

‘[…and she dares come closer…]’ stage direction [p17]

‘[shaking her]’ stage direction [p19]

Stage directions are needed because I want my character to be acted in such depth, my message is very strong.

I can also say that when Proctor talks to Abigail he talks down to her. When I say talks down to her I mean he cuts her off at mid-speech, for example [p19] Abigail

‘…let her turn you like a-‘

Proctor,

‘Do you look for whippin’?’

As you can see John’s language has more power over Abigail’s.

John’s poetic language is elaborate when he is upset, for example,

[p88] ‘…where my beasts are bedded.’ And

[p88] ‘…She’ll suck a scream to stab me…’

I have intended to use this because I wanted to show the audience John is actually right and Danforth is wrong. At the end John uses monosyllabic phrases like, [p107]

Proctor, ‘the child’

Elizabeth, ‘it grows’

Proctor, ‘there is no word of the boys?’

Elizabeth, ‘they’re well, Rebecca’s Samuel keeps them’

Proctor, ‘you have not seen them?’

I have used monosyllabic phrases as it makes Proctors words cleaner.

3. Me: I find John Proctor an amazing character how well do you think he performed the part?

Miller: Well John as you probably noticed yourself play the part extremely well. At first John was not convinced he could play the morally torn character because he knew he would be playing a large part in ‘The Crucible’. I…I can also say that the language John was given to use built his confidence up to the point where he wanted to play the part as John.

In the play John tries to be integrity, he tries to be good, tries his best to be happy in his whole life. John’s progress is for him to know himself as a good person; he has to be good in the society and cannot be separated from his community.

In act 1 John takes little interest in the outbreak of hysteria at Salem. This is because he knows the outbreak is nothing to get worried about and so says to himself I am not going to get involved. As we know John decides not to get involved because it is nothing to get worried about but also he knows that if he did the news about the affair he is having again with Abigail will come out.

At the start of the play John has no integrity as the first affair with Abigail led to bad judgements. He is ashamed about his adultery with Abigail. He is also sorry that Elizabeth will not accept his sincere apology. John knows above this he is well respected as he helped build the Church in the past.

John’s decision is not to get involved in the outbreak, but when Elizabeth gets arrested John is forced to become involved. He rises above his own fears and argues as well as he can for common sense. The evidence given for this is that John is beginning to become involved in his community and taking responsibilities. This shows people John is not just trying to save his wife but to show people his social responsibilities.

[p64]Proctor

‘I will fall like an ocean on that that court! Fear nothing, Elizabeth.’

Although John’s decision is to take full social responsibilities, he uses someone else to help him. Mary Warren is used as a witness for Elizabeth. She is used to tell the court that Abigail is to blame. As Mary’s evidence is not proved John has to know take on the full responsibilities. So he confesses he had an affair with Abigail and she’s doing this to put Elizabeth in jail so she can have me. [p91]

‘I have known her, sir. I have known her’ [trembling, his life collapsing about him].

This shows us that John is getting his integrity and taking full social responsibilities as he admits he had an affair.

John has accepted who he is and realised the faults he had made. Before he dies he has integrity, which proves to people that he was a good person, when it came to saving Elizabeth’s life. Also at the end Hale tried to get John to sign on the paper to save his life, but John proves his integrity by doing the right thing, taking his life.

So as a result John Proctor played the part extremely well, he was one who had a large part to play. His character was on integrity at first he has none and at the end he has integrity this shows people just what his character is all about.

4. Me: In all 4 acts your sets are mainly dark and claustrophobic. What made you set your acts in such ways?

Miller: ‘The Crucible’ is based on the witchcraft trails; I thought having dark claustrophobic sets would reflect the scene of an old fashioned community.

In my first act I have set it in Reverend Samuel Parris’s house. His house is very dark as it only has one narrow window on the left, with one flickering candle. All of this scenery adds to the tension going on.

In act 2 I have decided to set it mainly in John and Elizabeth’s house. Their house is very dark as it only has one door opening at the right of the fields. Having dark claustrophobic sets for this act also adds to the tension.

Act 3 is the vestry room of the Salem meeting house. The room is solemn. I have set this act as ‘not so dark’ because I felt that a court room needed a little light as a lot of people are going to be coming in and out of here. The room has two large doors leading into the meeting house.

Act 4 is set at a cell in Salem jail. At the back is a high barred window. As you can imagine this jail is very claustrophobic, as a lot of people have been accused. I have set my acts in such ways because I believe is sets the scene of an old fashioned community. I also did the acts in these ways to show fear, panic as the accusations continue throughout the play. The people in the community are repressed and so having dark claustrophobic sets symbolises there is not much freedom in the community. The lighting used in this play was meant to be limited as in the 1692’s they would have no electricity, leaving them with little light. Also the clothes used were made specially to fit the 1692’s theme. For example Abigail wore an old fashioned dress with a headscarf, people nowadays in her situation would wear the clothes of today style. You would also find the clothes would be dirty as they wore them for weeks running.

So overall I used dark claustrophobic acts to set the theme of an old fashioned community in the simplest ways possible.

5. Me: Abigail is a strong character. Why did you create her?

Miller: I created Abigail the way she is because having a character with no one to be loved by, creates tension. Abigail is an orphan who wants to get the love of her life. At one point Proctor loves Abigail for who she is, but when she tries to get John by putting wife Elizabeth in jail he simply refuses to know her.

I use characters as Abigail to represent different points.

One point being that Abigail is there to illustrate human nature. This is where she has hatred, revenge and jealousy going through her mind. Abigail hates the fact she has blown thing out of proportion, she was only supposed to cast a spell for her and Proctor to be together. She feels she needs to get revenge on people, for example Abigail wants Proctor and therefore gets revenge on Elizabeth by lying and putting her in jail. Abigail is jealous by all this and so she continues lying to relieve the jealousy.

Another point is where Abigail represents the dangers of a repressive and naïve society. What I mean by this is that Abigail has her friends involved and gets them to lie as this shows she has control over them. Her friends are naïve in the sense they do as they are told. This all reflects to the society as more and more people become involved. Abigail is in danger of losing her power. She knows she is stable and so continues to lie. She also knows that if people other than John and Elizabeth catch on that she is lying she will lose her power.

At the end Abigail looses the love of her life and many other people who trusted her. She has turned out to be a manipulative liar.