At the beginning of Act 1, the scene is set, leaving the audience to question the reality of the situation. Revd Parris discovers that his daughter, Betty Parris, is lying on her bed inert. He also discovers that his daughter and other girls of the village, led by his slave Tituba, have been dancing naked in the woods conjuring spirits. The doctor is called and cannot find anything physically wrong with Betty and that seeing as this happened in the woods, where it is believed that it is the only place left in Salem where the devil still resides, it could be the devil possessing her. Revd Hale subsequently is called to come and see if he can find anything wrong with Betty. It is also discovered that Abigail Williams was one of the girls involved; so she is asked whether they called upon the devil in the woods. Lying through her teeth, as usual, she says that they were only dancing and denies doing anything else, but does admit that Tituba called the devil.
Act 2 takes place in the Proctor’s house. At the beginning John Proctor finds out about the court proceedings and that if the accused do not confess to witchcraft they will be hanged, he also learns that his wife Elizabeth’s name was mentioned in court that very day. Later on in Act 2, Ezekiel Cheever comes to the Proctor’s house with an arrest warrant for Elizabeth.
Miller makes Act 3 dramatic by intimidating the characters. This happens when the judge asks Elizabeth proctor to look into his eyes and nowhere else “look only at me, not at your husband. In my eyes only”. This occurs when she is asked to confirm what John has already said, and because she is not allowed to look at John to ask him what he has already said it will create tension in the audience, thus helping to make the Act more dramatic. A bit later on Abigail makes a point of there being a yellow bird on the rafters. A tropical multicoloured bird usually signifies the devil, and so this creates a scene of panic, to add to this Abigail again accuses Marry of sending out her spirit upon them and because Mary is a simple girl, she offers no defence and emotionally breaks down.
The physical environment of the forbidding courtroom would be overwhelming to John and his wife Elizabeth, because they are mere farmers they have never been in the limelight before and so this could be an intimidating factor that Miller puts his characters through. The emotional environment in the court would be quite tense as John is angry and wants to see justice and Marry would probably be very sacred as a courtroom is also an alien environment to her.
This scene ends with Marry saying that John proctor came to her by night and forcing her to do the devil’s work, and to top it all John says that “God is dead!” This comes as a shock to everyone and it results in Proctor’s hanging. The effect that this has on the audience would be devastating as we hoped for justice and right to win out. This is because, although it has been mentioned previously that John dose not go to church often and that he can only recite nine of the ten commandments – the one he forgets being “Thou shall not commit adultery” as this is the one he has committed – he is generally portrayed as a good innocent man. Therefore, this would leave the audience in shock. This would also help keep the audience wanting to keep watching the play because this scene added to Reverend Hale denouncing and quitting the court, which would mean that Act three, would end on a very large cliffhanger.
