Techniques in the Crucible

Dramatic Techniques

• Juxtaposition: This is an effective technique as it highlights differences instead of similarities. As a result this reveals to the audience the characters that do not belong.

• The young people in general are juxtaposed with the older people. The audience notes that the young people have no status within the community. For example, Elizabeth has status, she has control over Mary Warren and is referred to as Goody Proctor, a sign of respect. Abigail tries to turn this on its head by having an affair with Proctor and succeeds in doing so through her manipulations and accusations.

• Rebecca is juxtaposed with Parris - she is presented as good and he is presented as bad. Miller constantly highlights the difference in character between Rebecca and Parris. Even if the final scene when Rebecca is being executed, Parris protests but it is more of a way of saving himself, evident in the line: “You cannot hang this sort. There is danger for me”.

• Abigail and Elizabeth are juxtaposed. Abigail wants John for lust and status. She deserts him when she realises there is nothing for her. Elizabeth, despite John’s wrong doing, is devoted and prepared to lie for him.

• The audience sees Elizabeth’s concern for Proctor as true love, because it is juxtaposed to Abigail’s false ‘love’. It is Abigail who took Proctor’s ‘goodness’ away, but Elizabeth who lets him have it back: “He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him!”

• Lighting and Sound Devices: Miller is very specific about light and sound effects on stage, with light seeming to symbolise belonging and the truth throughout the play.

• There is hope of belonging through the light, even though the audience sees that belonging is disintegrating as the play proceeds.

• Miller uses symbolism in the final act when he allows