A drama by Arthur Miller Essay

The Crucible is a drama by Arthur Miller wrote in the 1950’s. It tells the tail of a village in America, Salem. This is overcome with mass hysteria witchcraft trials. In the opening scene of the film, Act 1, the director chooses to go straight to one of the main characters, Abigail. She is the center of the group of girls and the scene moves straight to forest where the girls are dancing. There is spooky music playing in the background. They start to chant and partake in the practice of witchcraft. Abigail whispers to Tituba (the servant of Rev. Paris and we then find out later that she want John Proctor to fall in love with her. Abigail picks up the chicken and uses it to put a spell on John. The background is dark and with witchcraft, chanting and music all builds up tension very well. In the original play you do not see the witch craft practiced at the beginning. Instead Author Miller chooses to go stright to a young girl affected by the witch craft Betty (the Rev. Paris daughter) who appears to be in a comma. This is due the girls getting cauter while practicing there witch craft. We find out that Rev. Paris saw the girl in the forest dancing, this called them all to freak out and run around like headless chickens and it scared Betty so much that she was now in a comma. Paris say â€Å"†¦ my daughter and my niece I discovered dancing like heathen in the forest†¦ † Abby denies they were doing witchcraft, she says they where just dancing when her uncle, the Rev. Paris, came along and frightened them Betty fainted. In the play Arthur Miller’s introduction is calm but the film has a spooky, eerie and dramatic feeling. Abby is very dominant over the other girls and has a lot of control over them. She is the main character and one of the oldest so she has the most control over them. She seems to sense the girl’s weakness and uses this to her advantage by making them copy her when she wants. Tituba become more powerful with every one surrounding her listen to her every word of what happened in the forest which make her feel more important and less like a slave. In Act 2 in the pace of the play stat to build up as the sentences become small and I found my self read much quicker which seemed to keep me in suspense building tension. We find out that Abbey has an affair with John Proctor and that his wife knows about this some thing you would not expect from a Nobel man like John. All this seemed to make Abbey a stronger character which may seem odd as Abbey started out as an innocent girl having a bit of fun in the forest. Mary Warren enters the Proctor’s house suddenly. The sight of here make john Proctor furious. It is very dramatic when he grabs her and shakes her and shouts â€Å"I’ll whip you if you do not dare leave this house again. † But the tension drops as Mary Warren goes limp in his grip and claims to be sick. Proctor’s anger is draining and Mary’s staye is emphasized when she give the limp rag doll to Elizabeth Proctor. The tension rises very dramatically when proctor finds the needle in the rag doll.