How does Arthur Miller gain and hold the audience's interest in The Crucible?

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How does Arthur Miller gain and hold the audience’s interest in ‘The Crucible’?

How does Arthur Miller gain and hold the audience’s interest in The Crucible?

I have been looking at the play ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller. Whilst studying this play, I have read the book and seen two different films which were different interpretations of the play. One of them was the BBC version and the other one was the Daniel Day-Lewis version.

As I have read and seen different versions of it, I have seen different ways of putting the information of witchcraft in Salem across. Although all of them were based on the same story, they all seemed to be able to hold my interest throughout.

The play is based in a little town called Salem in the Massachusetts in 1692. Although the book was written in the 1950’s, Arthur Miller knew how people reacted to witchcraft. People in those days were very religious and nearly everyone was against witchcraft.

The whole play was divided into four acts.

In act 1, straight away, it shows some form of witchcraft. This was performed by some relatively young girls. Parris, the reverend of the village had seen some girls ‘dabbling in magic and dancing.’ He saw Tituba (the servant) taking part in this magic, Abigail (his niece) Betty, Parris’ daughter and many others. Parris was very worried that people around the village would hear of what happened that night. He certainly didn’t want that to happen because if people found out that his house was the centre of witchcraft, he wouldn’t be able to be the reverend any more. Our mind is filled with all sorts of questions that we really want answered. Why were the girls performing witchcraft in the woods? What did they want to do? Will the village find out about it? What will happen to Proctor if they do?

We know that the only way to find the answer to these questions is to read on further. Arthur Miller already has us interested in the book. We already don’t want to put it down because all these questions are filling up in our mind and we want them answered!

Betty’s lying ill in the bed whilst Parris and Abigail were talking about what he saw.

They find out a bit later on that it’s not only Betty that was ill. Ruth, another girl that danced in the forest, is also lying in her bed unable to wake. Her eyes are open and yet she saw nothing.

During Act 1, Betty wakes up and doesn’t really seem to know what she’s doing. She runs to the window and tries to fly out but before she manages to, the girls that were in the room stop her and force her away from the window. She starts to cry out about everything that Abigail did that night. Abigail gets very angry with Betty and the other girls. She starts threatening them. We start to feel some hatred towards her. She says “I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.” We can only imagine what the girls would be thinking at this time. More questions are arising in our minds. We wonder if any of the girls will tell anyone what happened. Will Abigail do what she said to them?

Already, just in the first Act, we see that people at the time this play was set, were totally against witchcraft. The girls obviously knew that if anyone found out about it, they would be in a lot of trouble.

We see that there is some form of a relationship between Abigail and John Proctor, the local farmer. Although Abigail knew that Proctor has a wife, it didn’t stop her the last time something happened between them. We can see that she still flirts with him, as she says “I’d almost forgotten how strong you were John Proctor.” I can only imagine her saying this in a seductive way to try and make him come over to her. We can see that she must still have feelings for him. The audience will want to know if anything is going to happen between them. Our mind is filled with all sorts of questions already from the dilemmas that have occurred. What would happen to Abigail if anything happened between Proctor and herself? What would happen to Proctor?

Reverend Hale arrives in Salem to help with all the problems that were happening.

When Hale hears that there was a kettle in the grass where the girls were dancing, he knows instantaneously that witchcraft must have been performed that night. He starts yelling at the girls, especially Abigail to find out who called the Devil. In the end, she blamed Tituba.

Tituba said that she saw the Devil and saw 4 people with him. Abigail and Betty started yelling their names over and over again.

This Act has enabled us to see into the lives of the people living in Salem in 1692. It has showed us the cold feelings people had towards any form of witchcraft. We have had all the characters introduced to us. We already have formed our own opinions of them. We really want to see how the characters progress in themselves. We also want to see who will be found guilty as witches and who won’t.

Arthur Miller did well by making a very exciting Act 1 which would make us want to read on to Act 2. He has already held our interest so we will carry on reading.

In Act 2, it becomes apparent that Elizabeth, John’s wife has not forgiven John for what happened with Abigail, their old servant.

John tries as hard as he can to have Elizabeth’s forgiveness, but it doesn’t really seem to work. He keeps flattering her by saying lots of pleasant things to her such as commenting on her cooking “it’s well seasoned,” and he tries to make conversation with her by saying “I’ll buy George Jacob’s heifer. How would that please you?” Elizabeth just replies sounding very unenthusiastic with “Aye, it would.” It seems as though she really doesn’t care what John does at the moment because she’s still very upset and angry with him.

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Since John and Abigail’s relationship, Elizabeth fired her and hired a new servant called Mary Warren.

Although Mary is part of the group of girls, she doesn’t really want to accuse other people of being witches, but Abigail is a very forceful person who can get what she wants with most people.

Mary had a little voodoo doll that she had made. Abigail tells Mary to give it to Elizabeth to make it look as though it’s hers. Mary did as she was told and gave it to her. Elizabeth didn’t realize it was a trick so she kept ...

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