Creating Tension and Drama in the Courtroom in The Crucible

Creating Tension and Drama in the Courtroom in The Crucible

The crucible is about a mass hysteria which led to the 1692 Salem

witchcraft trials. A group of young girls are caught dancing in the

woods and are suspected to of been calling out to the devil. Strange

things begin to happen around the local village which are then

suspected to be the work of the devil. Everyone in the village is to

appear in court and faced with a death sentence. This fantastic and

extremely tense play is written by Arthur Miller.

Throughout Act Three Danforth; the deputy governor, who is in his

sixties and plays an important part, is introduced. He is very

sophisticated and respectful. Danforth plays the part of a very loyal

man in which he makes antagonising decisions. However he is a very

strong character and has his own opinions without being easily

persuaded. Danforth has high expectations of both himself and his

people.

’ I judge nothing of no one’

This tells the audience what Danforth’s character is like; a strong

and noble man, and he will be looked upon as loyal man who has pride

in which he can make his mind up for himself without listening to what

others have to say.

During Act Three Mary Warren plays a main part of a quiet girl who is

made to confess by John Proctor that they girls are faking it and

being over powered by the devil. Mary Warren who works for the

Proctors has a good reputation. She has never done wrong, and is a

hard working quiet girl. Mary is forced into court by Proctor to

confess the truth. She speaks short words which shows fear.

‘ it were pretence sir’ ‘ aye, sir.’

Mary’s weakness causes tension as she is a weak character being forced

to speak out by Proctor. Proctor mainly speaks...

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...tly leaving

the reader in suspense. My favourite scene was when Elizabeth was

called into the court to justify Proctors accusation of lechery

against Abigail. It gave the reader an unsure feeling of what the turn

out would be like and what was going to happen next, this created more

tension in this particular scene. I thought the ending was good and

Act 3 was a fantastic build up for this dramatic ending.

I think Miller’s intention of scene 3 being so dramatic was to build

of for the ending which was not what I would have expected to of been

like. This is good because it makes the reader want to read on.

Miller was definatly successful in writing this play, he gave me the

message, of what it was like back then, very strict and strong about

there beliefs and witch craft. I think people would have definatly

learnt from this story which is very strong.