The Dramatic Effect of the End of Act 3 in Arthur Miller's The Crucible

The Dramatic Effect of the End of Act 3 in Arthur Miller's The Crucible

As act three opens a beacon of hope has arrived for John Procter and

his accused wife Goody Procter. This hope arrives in the form of Mary

Warren who has finally broken from Abigail's relentless grip, and she

has agreed to give evidence that the girls are all lying and are

playing a horrible and horrific game commanded by Abigail. This as a

result fills the audience with the hope that finally justice may

prevail, this feeling is dulled as the curtain rises to a court room

scene where Marta is being tried as a witch unfairly. Again showing

that even though there is hope the court is tough and set in its ways

,Procter will have a battle on his hands and all this starts the build

up of tension rolling.

When John Procter enters the court room in a dramatic and righteous

way with Mary snivelling at his side in an extremely shy and nervous

way, you get the feeling that Procter may have helped her reach her

decision somewhat. They are met with instant byest uproar and

opposition from all but hale who has finally started to speak up for

what he thinks is right. All this makes you feel angry at there

blatant disregard of logic and knowledge and the thought of such

injustice. Then Mary starts to give her testimony that all the girls

are under the influence of Abigail's spell if you will, and that she

was pretending all alone and there is no witch craft in Salem. Almost

as soon as Mary opens her mouth Danforth starts to fire off a barrage

of bullish and one sided questions, who seems to have already made up

his mind about the out come of this trial. He is also very good at...

... middle of paper ...

...t of Lucifer, I see his filthy face!

And it is my face and your face Danforth", this is an effective way to

undermine the court because he stats that he is also at fault because

he did not speak up earlier and Danforth is at fault for not listening

to reason. He also makes the connection between a fire and the current

situation because like a fire the situation is growing out of control

and no one can control it not even the judges.

All of these events end in the hanging of John Procter and after this

the trials started to burn them selves out , especially after Hale who

was the authority on witchcraft denounced the proceedings. Then

Abigail fled and was believed to have become a prostitute, so even

though Procter didn't succeed in the way that was intended he did stop

the witch burning scandal and his wife did live.