Act one of the crucible Essay

Most of the names shouted out may be random, but Abigail has a vengeance to settle. This is why Elizabeth Proctor is later called to trial. Act One doesn’t show Abigail shouting out Elizabeth Proctor’s name because it would ruin the climax when Elizabeth must go. It would make it far too obvious and the audience would be expecting it. Even though confusion runs high in this act, Miller manages to slip in a few important and easily understood facts, such as who has a grudge against who and why they bear that grudge. Some of the grudges are quite complex and are over complicated matters such as Abigail disliking Elizabeth Proctor. This grudge is quite complex because it is mixed up in the fact that Abigail is jealous of Elizabeth for being John Proctor’s wife. Others, such as Thomas Putnam’s grudge against Rebecca Nurse are quite simple. These grudges manage to affect justice later on in the play, because everybody is just out to settle a personal score. Act one is a good introduction to this. Each character adds the influence of their personality. They also bring forth their own piece of information to the story. Each character has a small, domestic story line which is eventually shown to give an extra insight into the story. Each character adds tension to the story line in the shape of what information and dramatical influence they have to give to the play. One other question is that of witchcraft. Did the girls actually do anything magic in the forest or were they just mucking around and pretending that what happened was worse than it actually was, just to get a bit of attention? There are conflicting statements about what they were doing. At the beginning Abigail is saying that all they did was dance. Then, slightly later, Mrs Putnam says that her daughter, Ruth, was trying to conjure up the spirits of her seven dead babies. Also, when Betty wakes, she talks about Abigail drinking blood and making a charm to kill Elizabeth Proctor. It is also mentioned that Tituba did some of her ‘Barbados magic’. With these different explanations, the reader and audience must rely on attitudes and behaviour to give them the answer. Mary Warren, for instance, is very nervous and this must be for a reason. Also, Abigail gets very tetchy and defensive to start with whenever witchcraft is mentioned. It is here that the phrase ‘there’s no smoke without fire’ comes into play. The girls were obviously doing something which wasn’t allowed otherwise they wouldn’t act so anxiously around the subject. The film had an interesting take on the opening sequence. Whereas in the book, the girls were supposed to have been dancing in the forest to Tituba’s songs, the film shows them performing proper black magic. They have a cauldron and are standing in a circle around it. One by one they drop a herb or some flowers into the mixture before, finally, Tituba kills a bird and puts that in as well. This was an interesting way to start the film as it makes it look as if the girls were actually dabbling in the occult. This is another example of how Miller uses confusion constructively as it makes you think about what’s really happening. This play has roots on many different levels, not least in the domestic family life – Most referred to in Act One and Act Two. It is a kind of commentary on family life, neighbourly feuds and shrouded affairs gone public. Miller’s play tells a story of guilt, regret, darkness, anger, vengeance, mass hysteria, hope, benevolence among the unscrupulous and heroism. In his lavish text Miller makes sure that there is always at least one emotion which you can relate to and that there is always a saving-grace for each character, something to make you sympathise with them-if only a little. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Arthur Miller section.