When John Proctor arrives on the scene Mary Warren is intimidated and he tells her to leave, the rest of the girls soon follow leaving Abigail and Proctor alone. Like Abigail John is also aggressive, especially towards Mary as at the end of act 2 he puts her in a position where she must choose between him and Abigail, and throws her to the floor where she is left in hysterics as she is being threatened by two powerful and aggressive people who are both threatening to hurt her is she doesn’t side with them “(In terror) I cannot I cannot they will turn on me –“.
Abigail starts flirting with Proctor when they are left alone but he resists and we find out that they have had an affair. Betty starts screaming again and everyone rushes in. An argument takes place between Giles Corey and Thomas Putnam, and Mr Hale arrives and examines Betty, and then questions Tituba. Under pressure she admits to witchcraft and opens herself to god. Abigail also confesses and opens herself to god followed by the girls and they start accusing members of the town of being with the devil and act 1 ends.
The next scene starts in the Proctors household and we can see how nice John is being to Elizabeth, yet there is also tension between them. They are discussing the on going trial concerning witchcraft, and start to argue about the affair with Abigail. Marry Warren comes in and Proctor is angry at her for disobeying his wife, and she announces she did not have a choice as she is an official member of the court and he starts to threaten to whip her. Marry then declares in fear that she saved Elizabeth as her name was mentioned but she said that they where not involved. She then gives Elizabeth a poppet and then goes of to bed. Hale then visits the Proctors and questions them on how religious they really are and asks John to recite the 10 commandments which he can remember all but one which is the one prohibiting adultery. Elizabeth urges John to tell Hale of what Abigail told him, that the children’s sickness has nothing to do with witchcraft, “We where dancing in the woods last night and my uncle leaped in on us. She took fright, is all”, when they where alone. Giles and Francis enter crying as their wife’s had been arrested. Ezekiel Cheever and Herrick arrive with a warrant for Elizabeth’s arrest as Abigail has been stabbed with a needle and claims Elizabeth sent out her spirit to do so, and when they search the house they find the poppet Mary Warren made and use it against Elizabeth as evidence. Proctor gets angry and rips up the warrant and refuses to let Elizabeth go, but she calmly not wants any trouble. The scene ends with John threatening Mary to tell the truth, but she pleading she can’t as Abigail will kill her. In Act 3 Proctor, Francis and Giles are trying to prove their wives innocence, and John finds out Elizabeth is pregnant.
I think that both Act 3 and Act 4 are both very dramatic. Miller deals with different themes which help add to the drama and interest different people. The theme of love is shown in many different characters and is shown in different forms by all of them. In act 2 Elizabeth and John are awkward around each other and start arguing over the affair with Abigail. We think the love and the trust is gone is gone from the marriage, as when she finds out he was left alone with Abigail she begins to question him. We wonder why they are still together and why she is protecting him even though he betrayed her, although it could be stop people feeling sorry for her and to protect her children’s feeling or it may be because she still loves him. When Elizabeth is arrested we see Johns rage and can see he still loves her dearly as he can not bear to see her taken away. Even though it did not seem like it at the start, when Elizabeth is so calm we know she still trusts John as she believes him when he says “I will bring you home. I will bring you soon”, but we are still unsure of whether she trusts him completely. In Act 3 we see Proctors desperation to get Elizabeth out, and when he confesses to lechery as an attempt to save her we can see how deep their love really is, as through out the play the importance of a name has constantly been mentions, at the start Abigail complains that Elizabeth is ruining her name “My name is good in the village!”, so it is a really dramatic moment in act 3 when John admits to lechery, as he knows he is damning his own name, which is something he has refused to do previously, as he is such a proud character who is respected by most, so it is like it is literally hurting him to do so and he breaks down when he does.”(Trembling, his life collapsing around him)”.
Throughout the play we have also been told that Elizabeth won’t lie, and assume that this is going to save everyone, but when she lies to protect John’s reputation, and we can see how much it hurts her as Miller intends for her to answer faintly and in agony of that she has to lie, so when she does, we can she how much she loves John and can she that their love is deep, strong and goes beyond physical attraction. We know even after all that as happened between, them they will still be together at the end, if they survive as the hope we had has been lost.
There are other characters in the play who also share this love, such as Rebecca and Francis nurse; Giles and Martha Corey. Both husbands do there best to free their wives, and we can see the love between Rebecca and Francis straight away as they are gentle and kind towards each other from the start, but we see Giles suspicious of his wife, and it is not until we see him crying in court, we see the love they share. Even Abigail, who is considered to be the heartless and cruel character of the play, also shows a depth of love, but it is more high school crush, and she is convinced that it is Elizabeth’s fault that they are not together “She is a cold, snivelling woman, and you bend to her!”
Abigail also introduces a theme of revenge, as throughout the play she is trying to get rid of Elizabeth thinking that John will be hers if she does so when the question of witch craft arises, it seems to be the perfect opportunity to be rid of her. Abigail is very envious of Elizabeth and feels that she is unworthy of John, and that she would be a much better suited for him, but John does not feel the same way “I will cut of my hand before I reach for you again” which shows his regret and that there is no going back. Proctor probably only had the affair due to the strains on his marriage as Elizabeth was ill and kept a “cold house”, and Abigail is young and is “strikingly beautiful”, so John would have been quite flattered when he learned she liked him, and as he is a passionate man, he probably just got caught up in the moment.
It is revenge and envy that caused the minor problem to spiral out of control and into suspicion and hysteria, as when John refused Abigail, she became very angry and upset and started to plot to get Elizabeth accused so she will hang, and hopes John will turn to her instead. There are also other characters in the play who want revenge on other characters that have not really done anything wrong for example Goody Putnam, a bitter and twisted woman, wants revenge on Goody Nurse, who was her midwife, as with seven of her babies dead, she wants to know why “I take it on my soul, but who else may surely tell us what person murdered my babies?”, so when the question of witchcraft arises, she thinks it is the explanation, even though the audience know it was natural occurrence that her babies where dead, but even though Rebecca Nurse is known throughout the village as a good and religious person “We have all heard of your great charities in Beverly”.
Revenge makes scene 3 dramatic because it raises the tension, as throughout the play, the village seems to split into two sides, the side with John and Elizabeth Proctor, Giles Corey etc on one side and Abigail and the girls, the Putnam’s, etc on the other. The judges and reverend Hale do not take side, although the judges seem to favour the side of Abigail to avoid looking like they have made a mistake as when Tituba and the girls confessed they believed them when they accused innocent people, and could not put it to one side when they named people in the village who had good names, e.g. Rebecca Nurse, as otherwise it would look suspicious. While Hale realises the ridiculousness of the situation and at the end quits the court and joins Proctors side as he can not bear to sign another death warrant due to overwhelming guilt. Throughout the play the play we can see him starting to break, as at the start he is ready to do his work and proud of his reputation, although when the situation starts to develop, he becomes doubtful and decides to do some investigating at the Proctors “I note that you are rarely in church on a Sabbath day”. When he learns that Rebecca Nurse is accused he is shocked and we see him starting to side with the others, and in Act 3 we can see the strain of what signing death warrants has done to him “I have signed seventy-two death warrants”, and in the end the guilt overwhelms him as he knows these people are innocent, and by the end of Act 3 he quits the court in anger, so he dose not have to be the one who signs the death warrants.
Act 3 causes us a rollercoaster of emotions, as there is a lot of tension, as we are constantly changing our minds to whether or not Proctor will succeed, which makes act 3 really dramatic, although I personally thought that act 4 was more dramatic because that is when we find out what the characters are really like. I think this is also the most emotional part of the play because of the feelings that are admitted between John and Elizabeth. At the start the only description we have had of Elizabeth is off Abigail, but think it may be just because Abigail wants John and that is why she describes her in that way. In act 2 we see her as quite a gentle motherly character “Softly singing” to her children which makes us again doubt Abigail’s description, although when we learn that she won’t forgive John and she does not anger, she appears emotion less, and continues that way and does not even cry when she is told he is to be hanged that morning. When they are left to talk she “pours out her heart”, and confesses her love for him, which convinces him to confess as he feels after betraying her he “Cannot mount the gibbet like a saint, for it is fraud”, he feels he is a broken man, which at the start of the act he was “He sits like some great bird”, this is dehumanising him, and makes us pity him and makes us think that he may not have the strength or soul to pull through. Again Miller raises the tensions here, as we think it’s finally over, but then there is a problem as he doesn’t want to right his name down on paper as it would hurt his pride and his name would be looked down on throughout the village, and decides that his name and pride is more important and he will not allow himself to be used “I am John Proctor! You will not use me!” In the end he feels he could not raise his sons and live with himself knowing he had sold his friends, and so decides to die a hero, and in away was washed of his sins as he was able to die with his pride and good name, which was one of the most important things to him.
The way the stage was set in Act 3 also adds to the drama, as we can see nothing but a light shinning “but for sunlight pouring through two high windows in the back wall”. This could represent many things, like hope, or to say that God is watching over, as religion plays a big part in the play. We can also see no characters on stage, but only hear voices of a trial that is going on and then interrupted by Giles who is then “half carried” into to the room for causing the uproar. The fact that he is crying he has evidence, raises our hopes, as the disruption makes us think the evidence must be good enough to solve the situation. Miller continues to add to the drama showing Judge Danforth to be wise and fair, but we can not be sure of which side he will take, as although he is respectful towards John etc, he does not want to look like he has been fooled by a group of young girls, so although he appears to consider all the evidence carefully, he always seems to be able to counter it, making us think that something will have to be sacrificed in order to win him over, but when that to does not work, we are left with out hope, which builds up the drama for act 4 as we are unsure of what is going to happen.
