Abigerl

characters that do not belong. The young group of girls are juxtaposed with the older people. The young girls are not thought to have a strong position of authority within the community. For example, Elizabeth Proctor has status over Mary Warren and Abigail when she worked for the Proctors. Abigail attempts to change this by having an affair with John Proctor and succeeds by her accusations of witchcraft in the court. Abigail and Elizabeth are also juxtaposed in their relationship with John Proctor. Abigail wanted John to up her status and for lust. Elizabeth is devoted and is also prepared to lie for him. Abigail’s intentions are selfish and Elizabeth’s selfless. Abigail wants to fit in and belong higher in the community while Elizabeth’s status is already higher in the. community Irony- the dramatic irony that Miller uses in the play, is used to heighten the audience’s awareness of the distance and tensions of the people of Salem. It shows that belonging is Salem is phony. An example of irony in this text is in Act One where the girls are alone. The audience can get a fair idea of what happened in the woods. The other characters in the play have no idea what went on. The audience can review Abigail’s behaviour with John Proctor. She lies to Proctor calling the dancing in the woods a ‘sport’, because the audience knows that she drank blood to cast a spell on Elizabeth. The ‘crying out’ of witchcraft at the end of Act One is led by Abigail and the audience is more likely to see it as an opportunistic pretence because of the earlier scenes. Because the girls do not have a high status or feel that they belong they feel that they belong with each other. Archaic language- the archaic language used in the play has an effect on the audience to belong. The audience does not live in Salem, but the themes can be used in modern society. Archaic language is old fashioned. Example of this throughout The Crucible are ‘Goody’ as an alternative for ‘Mrs’, ‘poppet’ for ‘rag doll’ and ‘trafficked’ for ‘interacted with’. There are examples on every page of the play. Miller deliberately used it to estrange the audience, so that they are reminded that it is not in their era. The language sounds ‘Biblical’ to a modern audience, so that we are reminded that it is set in a time that the Bible was the basis of everything, including law. There is no separation in day to day life and spiritual life. Figurative language- in The Crucible the use of figurative language is carried throughout the play. Figurative language is non-literal language and includes metaphors, similes, personification and symbolism. There are examples of this on every page and all characters use it. On page 20 (Act 1) Parris states ‘And I pray that you feel the weight of truth upon you’. This is a metaphor with an abstract concept. The ‘truth’ is said to have an actual ‘weight’. It symbolises the importance of truth. Truth does not actually have any weight. ‘I have seen some reddish work done at night’ said by Abigail (page 27, Act 1). ‘Red’ the colour, is used to represent blood. ‘Reddish work’ indicates that she has witnessed violence. She speaks of this image to scare the girls she is talking to. The tendency to use this language is one aspect of ‘belonging’ that is used in The Crucible. Structure-the structure of The Crucible heightens the drama in the play, plays at the feelings of the audience and mirrors the sense of belonging being ruined. Each Act starts with a small amount of tension but as it goes on, the tension rises. While things are calm there still remains a sense of tension waiting to arise. The audience can physically feel for the audience of relative calm building up to mass hysteria, then it goes calm and builds up again. When Proctor refuses to sign the confession and goes to the gallows, it is when there is no more belonging in Salem.