‘No, it is not the same! What others say and what I sign to is not the same!’
The audience is on tenterhooks, hoping he will sign (or perhaps not, in some cases).
Another main element to The Crucible, which engrosses the audience, is the technique of dramatic irony. In The Crucible’s case, dramatic irony is where the audience is aware of something in the play that not all of the characters are. In The Crucible the dramatic irony is that we know that there is no witchcraft, and that Abigail and her friends are pretending, but most of the other characters believe it, or at least take advantage of it.
Some of the characters must be left ignorant in order to form a basis to the theme of hysteria and madness, but the idea of dramatic irony is so that it creates the ironic and incredulous situations, and involves the audience more proactively as they know what is going on.
In act 1 we think that the girls’ lies will be dismissed as they seem to us so ridiculous, but in Act 2 the true impact of the situation starts to take shape as information of arrests and trials is revealed. By Act 3 the original accusations have manifested into sheer madness which we, as the audience, can see, but the characters cannot. Act 4 does not utilize the tool quite as much as by then Abigail and her peers have unofficially been exposed.
The dramatic irony concerning the presence of witchcraft helps to emphasise the theme of hysterical behaviour which, in that respect, has a larger impact on the audience and produces more interesting scenarios from the audience’s 0point of view.
Another example of dramatic irony is during Act 3 when Elizabeth Proctor is asked to explain to the court her reasons for dismissing Abigail as her servant, unaware that John had just admitted his affair with her.
This scene is perhaps the tensest in the entire play as the fate of Salem rested on Elizabeth confirming that Proctor was an adulterer. However, she lies and tells the court Proctor was not a lecher, not wanting to get him into trouble.
‘Excellency, it is a natural lie to tell’
This is said by Reverend Hale as he too is trying to stop this insanity, and the audience is also frustrated with the situation.
Which is one of the key emotions that dramatic irony provokes to sustain the audience’s attention- frustration. Our hopes that the situation will be resolved and our almost angry views to some of the characters ignorance involves us in the plot and helps to share what John Proctor and some of the other characters must be feeling.
In order to maintain the suspense and atmosphere in-between acts, Miller makes sure to end the first 3 acts with suspense and cliff-hangers and Act 4 with a big finale.
In the ultimate scenes of Act 1, the tension created throughout the start of the play reaches its climax with Abigail and the other Girls accusing various Salem citizens of witchcraft to relieve themselves of attention. Miller has chosen a fantastic way to draw the Act to an unmistakeable close but still retaining the interest of the reader; it draws the events of the night together, satisfying the reader in one element, but has at the same time unleashed a larger and more complex crisis upon Salem, rousing the inquisitive eagerness experienced right from the very start of the play.
Act 2 also ends dramatically with Elizabeth’s arrest after Abigail utilizes Mary’s poppet to frame Elizabeth. As in Act 1, it draws the night’s events to a satisfying climax with Elizabeth’s arrest, but also leaves the reader expectant of Act 3’s events with Proctor and Mary planning to expose Abigail.
‘My wife will never die for me! I will bring your guts into your mouth but that goodness will not die for me!’
This powerful sentence from Proctor gives the audience hope for Elizabeth and, at the same time, makes sure the audience knows that dramatic events are yet to come.
Additional to suspense-filled endings, Miller employs the use of time lapses in-between acts in order to maintain the pace. Between both Acts 1 and 2, and Acts 3 and 4, there is a significant time jump. This way it stops the plot from appearing too dragged out and makes sure that the suspense doesn’t die down so the audience’s interest is still at its peak.
The Crucible’s characters in themselves are very engaging for the audience. Throughout the play we become more involved with John Proctor and our interest in him grows. In the starting act he bears no particular significance to the plot but in Act 2 we learn more about him and his past as the whole act is situated at the Proctor household. In acts 3 and 4 the plot is almost wholly dedicated to developing John’s and Elizabeth’s relationship and their roles in the witch trials.
The play tends to concentrate on John’s emotions and tribulations rather than the other characters. This is an effective technique as the audience is able to explore the character of Proctor in more depth and therefore become, in a way, attached to him; we are more affected by Proctor’s actions and sympathise with him.
‘A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! And it is my face, and yours, Danforth! For them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud – God damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together!’
Proctor gives this dramatic and emotive speech at the end of Act 3. It affects the audience greatly as it sums up Proctor’s emotions at that time; frustration, anger, disbelief and incredulity.
Our emotional involvement with Proctor also makes the ending, of him being hanged, have even more of an impact; we have spent the entire play watching him achieve ‘his goodness’, that he modestly says he doesn’t deserve, and to end it so abruptly.
In Act 1 we first learn briefly of Abigail’s and John Proctor’s affair when they are left alone. They are uneasy around each other; Proctor puts on a facade but Abigail is unable to control her obvious desire for him.
‘Gah! I’d almost forgotten how strong you are, John Proctor!’
The relationship between Proctor and Abigail is elaborated upon in Act 2, and we can construct a fairly good idea of Proctor’s and Elizabeth’s relationship too.
There is natural tension between the people involved in these plot lines because of the nature of their involvement. This is a source of human interest in itself; ‘love triangles’ and affairs are something we can directly relate to for they occur not uncommonly in our own lives. We can easily become more engrossed in something that is happening around us or that we have even experienced firsthand.
Perhaps one of the largest factors which I found captured my interest is the theme of The Crucible in its entirety. The Puritan lifestyle these people lead, the mass hysteria and even the prospect of witchcraft - together they create a truly believable atmosphere which the audience can easily become caught up in; this is very important as, despite the fact it is all true, if the play does not seem so then that factor is redundant.
The Crucible is very much relevant to our lives in a more general sense; persecution and victimization have forever been a factor in modern-day life. As an audience, we can empathise with the accused as we too may have experienced a similar situation.
The reason the atmosphere and charachters were created so effectively was because of Miller’s ability to keep the plot unpredictable; there is never a moment when things have all been worked out, even at the ending. This is achieved by details and information released gradually, giving the reader more motivation to continue. If everything is told simply, quickly and without suspense it is hard for the reader to truly immerse themselves in the plot. In any story, you discover more as the book progresses, but it’s when you can leave the reader anticipating the next step, revelation or even a fine detail that you truly capture their interest and create an effective sense of tension like Miller has in The Crucible.
