Crucible essay



Crucible essayHow does Arthur miller create a powerful play ? Manel Vieira branco 2/7/2013Arthur is by far one of the most influential authors of his generation he always spoke his mind and never let anybody stop him and never backed down from his believe , the book the crucible is based in the 1600s in a small new settlement in new world America . The play is a giant metaphor for America in the 1960s and the red scare which brought mass hysteria to the United States people far and wide being accused as spies and being declared communists, the government Arthur miller criticizes 1960s America using a variety of techniques all of which have a powerful impact on the audience. Throughout the play the crucible Arthur miller is very good at creating tension which is if not the main factor in mass hysteria which is what the play is about , the character which is very good in creating tension is Abigail Williams she is very manipulative and is very good at making herself seem innocent and saving her name Through the use of repetition Arthur Miller is effective in creating tension and creating emotion in the hearts of the readers, we see this when Betty proclaims “You drank blood, Abby! You drank blood didn’t tell him that!” the exclamation points are effective in flooding the reader with tension, and the repetition of the word “blood “is particularly effective because it is visually effective and the reader can image blood with great ease , furthermore the use of the word “abby!” is also effective because the character betty is directly talking to Abigail and confronting her on what she did whilst screaming which starts the begging of the mass hysteria between the girls of Salem. Throughout the play were are given the chance to explore the personality of some of the characters , this is a way to create a powerful play because there are a lot of people who can relate to the characters we can see that that Abigail changes personalities several times and this is a way that Arthur miller creates tension "Betty? Now, Betty, dear, wake up now. It's Abigail." she says this in the very start of this extract, then in the end she turns mad, we can see this when she says: "And mark this- let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it." She goes to extreme length to get what she wants and will do anything to not get in trouble and getting blamed for anything and most importantly save her name, moreover this creates tension because it is very visual and the read can really image all the things she says and can really imagine all the horrific things that Abigail is capable of doing. Another way Arthur miller creates tension is by repeating key words that creates a strong visual image in the minds of the readers “( betty springs out of the bed rushes across the window where Abigail catches her ) you drank blood ,Abby, you drank blood!” this is very effect in creating tension because repeating the words blood and you , and it is easy to paint a virtual picture in the readers head , moreover the use of the exclamation mark enhances the tension because it is meant to be loud and clearly betty is screaming in terror scared and still traumatized that she witnessed satanic rituals which in a protestant society is seen as the ultimate sin and in punishable by death . Arthur miller does not just only create tension in the lines of the characters but also Arthur miller is successful in creating tension in the stage directions, “(dragging betty back to bed and force her into it ) “ betty ! you will never say that again , you will never.. “The stage direction is affective in understanding the personality of the character whom the directions are intended too, Abigail is shown as very aggressive and using force to physically drag Betty to bed and scream at Betty in an attempt to convince her and the other girls to never talk about what happened in the forest. Through the use of punctuation Arthur miller creates tension in strong way which it is clear to the reader “ (slaps her in the face) shut it ! Shut it now! (Betty dissolves into tears) now look you all of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. “the use of exclamation mark in the begging is effective because the line is meant to be scram moreover the use of the full stop forces the reader to stop repeatedly which creates tension because it is done in a long period of time and with the exclamation point with the short sentences the tension is very apparent . Arthur miller creates a power play in many ways one of them is through emotion and also through the thought process of the many characters in the play we can see this when “Abigail, in tears: I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart! I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men! And now you bid me tear the light out of my eyes? I will not, I cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet! He turns abruptly to go out. She rushes to him. John, pity me, pity me” from the extract we can clearly see that Abigail is still madly in love with john and even though he is not she thanks him for showing her the real world the use of the word “ pretense “ is effective in illustrating Abigail’s frustration with the world around her in Salem which is a false reality you could say because the main goal in life for the people of Salem is to be good Christians and not to commit any sin which basically leads to a person having no freedom or pleasure which can be very sad , grim and depressing . Moreover this may relate to 1960s America during the time of the red scare because at the time they were many pretenses in America in relation with communism and communist because the government was only giving the people bits and pieces of information and the people were not giving the whole facts about communism only the negative sides of communism like lack of freedom in any kind , what the government did not tell the people were the positives of communism like equal right no matter of his or hers social or economic status. Arthur miller creates tension through the relationships between the characters in the play and the atmospheres that is created when the characters are in the same place at the same time. We see this when john who had an affair with Abigail Williams is eating dinner prepared by his wife Elizabeth who is still has not forgiven him “Proctor, with a grin: I mean to please you, Elizabeth. Elizabeth - it is hard to say: I know it, John. He gets up, goes to her, and kisses her. She receives it. With a certain disappointment, he returns to the table. ” the stage direction is particularly effective in creating the negative tension, when john gets up and kisses his wife and she is “disappointed” it is very obvious that she doesn’t forgive him for what he did moreover the use of the word “receives ” is also effective because it seems Elizabeth does not really what the kiss but she cannot turn away from it because she is her wife. . Moreover this may relate to 1960s America during the time of the red scare because the relationships between the people who were taught to be communized and accused , tortured and gave names to the government . The majority of these people had families and in some cases they give the names of their relatives may it be far relatives or even parents , kids , brothers and sisters to save their own which in my opinion is greatly immoral and the relationships between the family that were torn apart the relationships would never be the same . The final way that Arthur miller creates tension in the play is by the importance of somebody’s name “Proctor, with a cry of his whole soul: Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” John proctor would rather go die than his name tarnished in my opinion the name is the most influence thing in the whole play because when the very first people were accused of being witches what the local people wanted were their names, john has been put in prison, tortured and lost the trust of everybody he knows, his wife seems to be the only person who thinks he is a good person but for him it is not enough to be alive. A person’s name is the only that will last forever it is immortal , when somebody mentions you they do not merely describe you, they say your name and all these images and thought flood your brain , johns dying wish is to have his name clean and pure free from criticisms and negativity and he would gladly die for this right . . Moreover this may relate to 1960s America during the time of the red scare because a lot of people at first would not give up their names or anybody else’s and these people who did not cooperate will be “secretly” killed , and these are the people with the most courage and the smartest people at the time because they did not fall prey to the scare tactics of the American government . To conclude the Arthur miller is very good at creating tension a many ways, stylistic devices, stage direction, emotion and many more. This play is very powerful because of those factors. In my opinion the most important factor of the play and the reason why it so good is because Arthur is criticizing 1960s America and the McCarthy witch-hunt which were seen as ridicules and created so much mass hysteria it created so many POVs ( prisoners of war ) destroyed family and change the way of life in the united states forever . still do this day the American government distills fear in their citizens say that a certain type of people are bad, then it communists now terrorists , they do this so they can get a lot of money so that they can do what they want with the money and have the support of the people because they have the “ support of the people “ ................
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