“In what ways does Miller succeed in making the moment when Proctor tears up his confession particularly dramatic?”
Miller succeeds in making the moment when Proctor tears up his confession particularly dramatic by making the situation that Proctor is in an outwardly simple decision, though his life depends on it Miller adds a certain irony to the situation, however as Danforth claims (after Proctor says he will confess, but the confession is a lie) that he ‘will not deal in lies’, when in fact, he has been dealing in lies through the entire play. Following the hard decision between living with a bad name or being murdered with a good one, Proctor destroys his confession which leaves the characters who are present, and the audience, in shock. Proctor has accepted his fate and decides to have his good name over his life. The stage directions play a large part in creating a dramatic atmosphere in the play also, where Proctor’s directions are “His breast heaving,” (showing heavy breathing), “his eyes staring,” (perhaps assuming a state of anger, if not concentration), “weeping in fury” (I think that this part of the stage direction shows Proctor’s raw anger, where the term ‘weeping’ is used to show how amazingly enraged he is at that point in the play).
