It is more difficult to write a play and influence how it is interrupted. Miller is very particular with his stage directions I think this is because he had a perfect idea of how it should be performed and didn’t want any directors to interrupt it a different way. In a play the director and actors interrupt the play for the audience making it harder for the author to remain in control and the message to come through clearly. Give examples of how long or specific the stage directions are. All the main characters have a long detailed background and Miller wants them to use this to give the character more individuality.
Introduction to the play is 5 pages long, so Miller can use this to make sure the scene is set exactly how he sees it. Everything is as someone would speak and therefore has limitations. They have to use props symbolise their characters and to set the scene. Every element of the character has to be carefully selected and everything that they do means something. Hale carries books.
Hale, one of the main characters has undergone the most substantial changes. When he first appears in the play, the end of act one, he is very confident. He wants to do his best and find a witch “mark me, if the devil is in her,” betty “you will witness some frightful wonders in this room.” But by the beginning of act two he has changed, he still wants to find witches but “he is different now… guilt about his manner.” I think this is because in the time between act one and act two he has listened to so many people, innocent people be condemned of witchcraft in the court “I have signed seventy-two death warrants” I think he feels that he needs to know the people better to understand if they are innocent of witchcraft or not. Also I think when he came into the town of Salem he thought he was going to find one or two witches not seventy-two.
Hale is in every act. But every act his manner is very different. In act three he has no authority he is almost always getting cut off by Danforth and when he is listened to Danforth never takes his advice and always thinks he is undermining his power. Danforth and Hale have a power struggle all the way through act three I think this because they believe different people. Danforth believe the girls whereas Hale believes the proctors because of the difference of opinion one has to give way and it is Hale at the end of act three he storms out of the court “ I denounce these proceedings, I quit this court!” Hale has changed again he has got the courage to stand up for what he believes in but instead of trying to fight it out he walks out which suggest he is a coward.
In act four he has come back to help innocent people plead guilty and to try and save their lives. I think this is where he redeems himself from the earlier act because he has come back to stand up to the judges. “He goes among them that will hang, sir. And he prays with them. He sits with goody nurse now.” I think he is trying to save people which he now thinks are innocent. He wants people to confess even if what they are saying is lies. He wants no other people to die unnecessarily and he tries every means possible. I think from act one and act four Hale has changed for the better. He thinks that not every scrap of rumour is true and not every bit of gossip is valid. I think the changes Hale has gone through have made him a better man. He has become more caring, he wants people to confess to being witches even though he believes “it is a lie!” And that they are all innocent.
Hale adds to the dramatical effect in every scene. He adds tension in the first scene with the questioning of Tituba and then encouraging Tituba to confess and then to give names of whom she has seen with the devil. This makes Abigail shout out and confess that she has seen the devil. In act two he adds to the dramatically effective with questioning again but this time it is friendlier but all seems to do is infuriate Proctor.
“Proctor, if she is innocent, the court- if she is innocent! Why do you never wonder if parris be innocent or Abigail? Is the accuser always holy now?”
They are talking about when Elizabeth is accused of witchcraft. Every act seems to start off slowly and it builds more and more tension until the end where it is very dramatically effective. You remember the end of each act rather than the beginning.
