How Does Arthur Miller Create Tension In The Crucible

In the excerpt from The Crucible, the scene begins in an empty room of the Proctor house. Arthur Miller paints Elizabeth as an angelic figure when she “is heard softly singing to the children.” Eventually Proctor enters, exhausted after a day of planting. He halts by the fireplace and “swings a pot out of the fire…he lifts out the ladle and tastes.” Unsatisfied, he “takes a pinch of salt, and drops it into the pot.” He needs more flavor, perhaps in both the soup and his own marriage. The tension between husband and wife is clear; there is an abundance of small talk, with little to no extended interest. “Are you well today?” asks Proctor, answered by Elizabeth with a mere, “I am.” Even so, John makes multiple attempts to break the silence,

such as “I think we’ll see green fields soon. It’s warm as blood beneath the clods.” “With good feeling he does and looks up at the sky through the open doorway.” The open sky acts as a beacon of hope; the marriage can be mended. He mentions lilacs, which are usually symbols of the first emotion of love. “Lilacs have a purple smell. Lilac is the smell of nightfall, I think.” John is trying to restore the amiable nature of their relationship.
In the movie adaptation, Elizabeth’s clothes are a monotone brown, identical to her surroundings. In contrast, her husband wears a dark blue shirt, which serves as a visual for the differences between them. The camera angle shifts between each end of the table, showing the distance between husband and wife. Not only is the table endlessly long, but plates of food cover it, a suggestion to the fruit of temptation John has figuratively eaten. Additionally, a barrier is created, much like the one in the relationship. John has committed adultery, and so has gone against the Puritan way. The gaping fireplace with a minuscule fire at the back of the room acts as a nod to his motive; there is little passion in his marriage. John’s placement so close to the fire adds to the director’s decision to hint at his more lustful desires. In both the movie and book, the artist decides to let actions speak for themselves, and uses details to enhance the mood of the scene. Either way, they are able to communicate that marriage to an adulterer is trying on one’s mental state.