How Does Miller achieve emotional intensity at the end of Act one and the beginning of Act two.

The characters in The Crucible are constructed to create emotion and empathy. The first character who has the power to evoke emotions is Abigail, who uses people to get herself out of trouble and to gain power. One example of her blaming somebody else is 'I never called him! Tituba, Tituba...' She also blames several other women of being witches. She says 'I saw Bridget Bishop with the devil'. Whether she wants to get revenge on these women or if she just uses it for power is unclear. It is clear however, that the audience is encouraged to feel resentful towards her due to the way she treats others, and blames others to get out of trouble. In Act One, the audience feels empathy for Tituba her Barbadian accent shows that she is an easy target, lacking the social status of the other character. Her accent is shown in 'I love me Betty!' This may be one of the reasons why she is used as a scapegoat and people such as Reverend Parris and Abigail use her to gain power and respect. She is most likely used like this because she is seemingly weak in their society and cannot up rise against them. The way she is so frightened only adds to our feelings of empathy for her. Her weakness is drawn metaphorically by the way she 'looks up into his face' showing her position in society. She is frightened and desperate by the way 'she is rocking on her knees, sobbing in terror' her weakness, desperation and feelings of fear all add to our sorrow and empathy for her.

In the beginning of Act Two there is an uncomfortable silence with an awkward feeling, which evokes different emotions from the previous act. Elizabeth is seems wary of John and constantly tries to impress him. This is shown when she says 'I hurt my heart out to strip her, poor rabbit' and 'I took great care she's tender?' Her nervousness around him is shown by stage directions such as, 'it is as though she would speak but cannot' and we get 'a sense of their separation'. This makes us sombre at the fact that she really cares and loves John although the feelings may not be mutual. This also gives us background that is necessary for later emotional intensity at the end of the play. At this stage we are encouraged to feel sympathy for Elizabeth and long for their relationship to work out. John in this scene appears to be aggressive which may aggravate the audience and although he later redeems himself by dying for his wife, it allows the audience to see that he is not perfect, hence making him easier to relate with. The aggressiveness is shown by 'angering', 'with a violent undertone' and 'with solemn warning'. He also 'laughs bitterly' at her. Although later in the play we find him to be a highly dignified, thoughtful and caring man in this scene we are led to believe he is not. The beliefs we hold about these characters and our feelings towards them, as well as the characters emotions lead to the overall development of emotional intensity, due to Miller's use of interesting and thought provoking characters.

Miller used many dramatic techniques to increase the emotional intensity at the end of Act One. Firstly, many juxtaposing images throughout the act engage the audience, emphasise emotion and create an overall interesting montage. In and amongst the constant reporting of witches by Abigail and her allies we see 'Parris shouting a prayer of thanksgiving' and in the heated argument between Parris and Tituba, Hale says 'Look at her god given innocence; her soul so tender.' Juxtaposition is used to allow emotion to be exaggerated at certain times hence making the play as a whole more emotive. Violence and graphic images are utilised many times throughout the Act, firstly when Abigail 'shaking betty' shouts at her. Another example is when Putnam says 'this woman must be hanged!' and when Abigail says 'she makes me drink blood' which is emotive and creates hatred towards the characters issuing the violence. At the end of the scene there is rhythm and repetition of 'I saw' and 'with the devil!' These phrases are repeated several times with different names in a hysterical, dramatic way building tension up to the climax, where it is released on 'the curtain' going down. It is obvious to the audience how dramatic and hysterical the characters involved are through the stage direction 'on their ecstatic cries'. This involvement of the characters is powerful and evokes deep emotion. Through the constant use of dire interrogation techniques, Tituba becomes overwhelmed she is asked so many questions again and again, while being threatened. One example of a repetitive question is 'who came to you with the devil? Two? Three? Four? How many?' These questions overwhelm her, the audience notice changes in her physicality, an example of this is 'She raises her eyes' the audience may find this emotional. Miller uses many literary and dramatic devices in order to achieve emotional intensity at the end of one.

Miller also uses many dramatic devices to attain emotional intensity at the beginning of Act Two. The use of short sentences and many pauses allow the audience to speculate about the state of John and Elizabeth's relationship and wonder why it has turned out this way. Two examples of short lines are 'I am' and 'aye' an example of the pauses is 'he eats, she watches'. The pauses and short lines allow the lines to have time to sink in therefore potentially creating more emotion, but also making us sad at their separation. The use of Elizabeth and John having an argument creates tension and the way Elizabeth 'hurt and very coldly' says 'good then let you think on it' before 'she stands and starts to walk out of the room'. It is clear from the beginning of the scene these characters are withholding information about the nature of their separation, this causes the audience to come to some upsetting and hasty conclusions. Miller's use of dramatic devices in Act Two helps the play achieve its emotional intensity.

The play has a few themes throughout which repeat themselves. Firstly power is a large theme of the play constantly being bought up. In fact the one thing all the characters have in common is there lust for power, Reverend Parris uses the witch trials to gain power and respect. Abigail and her allies work for the court in order to get power, this is shown when Elizabeth says 'she raises up her chin like the daughter of a prince and says to me I must go to Salem Goody Proctor; I am an official of the court!' This shows she is working for the court in order to gain power. Elizabeth would like to have power over Proctor. Power is often exploited in the western world, The Crucible shows that people made this same mistake in Salem. Power is an extremely sensitive theme able to evoke deep emotions. The second theme is hysteria, the girls are completely hysterical at the end of Act one this is linked to power as some think that the use of hysteria can help gain power. The hysteria moves the audience and keeps them deeply involved in the play. The final theme is dignity, which has been lost throughout the play up until the last part of the play where proctor gains a great deal of respect, and dignity. In Act one Tituba has her dignity stolen, from her as does Abigail and the other girls. In Act Two John loses his dignity when he refuses to tell the court about Abigail. Themes play a major part in maintaining emotional intensity at the end of Act One and the beginning of Act Two.

It is clear that The Crucible is emotionally intense at the end of Act One and beginning of Act Two. Miller creates this intensity by employing dramatic techniques and drawing upon contextual significance to present two intense, but contrasting scenes. Even though the original audience would have found it emotional on different scales, it is obvious that all audiences would find it emotionally intense to some extent. Miller achieved emotional intensity by his use of dramatic techniques, interesting characters, allegorical significance and emotive themes.