Examine how Miller creates dramatic tension Essay

Examine how Miller creates dramatic tension in the ‘yellow bird’ scene of The Crucible and consider how an audience might react Arthur Miller’s play, ‘The Crucible’, is set in Massachusetts in 1692, where mass hysteria led to the Salem witchcraft trials. The same kind of situation occurred in the1950s resulting in the Anti-Communist frenzy of that time known as McCarthyism. In my essay I intend to examine how Miller creates tension in the Yellow Bird scene by using dramatic effects to engage the audience in the play and keep them engrossed, involved and on the edge of their seats. At the beginning of act three, the mood is set by the stage directions and descriptions. It says, â€Å"the room is empty but for sunlight pouring in through two high windows in the black wall. † It gives the impression of solemnity and depression, and also makes the small room seem claustrophobic so the girls have nowhere to escape. This reflects the stifling society and the situation that the girls have got themselves into. The scene starts after Elizabeth has just lied to the court in order to protect her husband, which is a quiet scene. When the court starts accusing the Proctors, Hale stands up and shifts the blame on to Abigail, as he is the only person except for John Proctor who can see what is going on, apart from the audience who would now start to become a little frustrated. Abigail then creates a diversion by screaming and looking up towards the rafters. The stage directions say, â€Å"with a weird, wild, chilling cry, screams up to the ceiling. † She knows that she is in danger of the truth being exposed and tries to divert the attention from herself. Everyone is now staring at Abigail, the characters and audience not knowing what is going on. Gradually, the other girls join in as they understand what Abigail is doing and they put on a very convincing act to Danforth and the audience, which is very frustrating, as we know that she is guilty and now trying to get away with it. A yellow bird is mentioned and the girls pretend that they can see it on the beams and behind the rafters, while Proctor shouts that there is no yellow bird. Abigail starts to talk to the bird, to ask why it has come, to keep up the pretence of the dramatic situation. Mary’s name is mentioned, Abigail pretending that Mary is possessing the yellow bird as the devil and she screams, â€Å"My face? My face† to the ceiling, making it seem that she is the victim. Mary immediately springs to her feet and protests in shock, pleading Abigail to stop with the deception and to tell the truth. Abigail says that she cannot stop because it is God’s work that she does and this creates even more frustration and hatred towards Abigail from the audience because we know that Mary is innocent and Abigail is such a convincing liar. The other girls pick on the a trance and Mary gets more and more agitated as she cannot defend herself against the large cluster of girls in hysteria. They act like bullies, ganging up on her because she is weak and the tension builds up, as Mary gets more and more distressed. The girls start mimicking Mary, which is a typical playground-bullying device, which is guaranteed to undermine her. Abigail targeted her as she chose to confess and she will do anything to get her way, as she is frightened that Mary would reveal the truth. They then advance further to imitating Mary’s actions – stamping feet and shaking fists, strengthening the tension, and maddening the audience even more with aggravation. When the other girls copy Mary Warren’s actions, there is a lot of movement involved, which intensifies the frustration that the audience are feeling and the girls cannot go back on their decision to follow Abigail as they are all trapped in their own deceit. The audience are unsure whether Mary will give in or not as she is so weak and we already know how manipulating Abigail is. Mary protests and eventually weakens and starts whimpering like a wounded animal as she is overwhelmed by the conviction that she was being possessed by the devil in the form of the yellow bird Abigail conjured up. Danforth bullies Mary into speaking, â€Å"Speak! Will you speak! † and Proctor and Hale try to reveal the truth as the voice of sense. The whole scene climaxes with Mary out screaming all the other girls in pure desperation of them imitating her. This makes all the girls stop in astonishment creating a silence, which contrasts the noisiness with the quietness. Mary goes over to Abigail, who gives a look of triumph, as she finally succeeds in what she set out to do, by manipulating the situation to her advantage. Proctor loses his temper as Mary sides with the other girls in order to get herself out of the troubling situation and she claims John Proctor is the ‘Devils Man’. The audience are in dismay, as we know that Proctor is one of the only decent men and that he is in fact innocent. The scene ends with Proctor losing his temper and chaos starts as Hale tries to make Danforth see sense that Proctor is blameless and Abigail is the malicious one. Hale leaves the court and the scene ends with Danforth shouting to him to come back, leaving a cliffhanger into Act 4. Danforth became hysterical towards the end as a result of the chaos occurring. The continued action through the scene keeps the audience on the edges of their seats and feeling like they are part of the play, which keeps them interested and involved, because they are feeling the emotion and distress as Proctor and Hale are so they feel as though they are going through the dramatic situation with them. The vast amount of action keeps the scene moving and there is always something happening as when ever the situation is diverted, Abigail steps in and takes the Yellow bird to another level. The short, sharp sentences during the scene also contribute largely to the tension building up and everyone is cutting over each other’s sentences, which creates the idea of more chaotic occurrence. The negative words that are used by Abigail and against her create a negative atmosphere, for example. â€Å"I cannot stop! She sees nothing, mustn’t, never, don’t don’t. † Also John Proctor makes references to biblical allusions to stick with religion on the good side to help him get people to believe his innocence, â€Å"God damns all liars†, and â€Å"Angel Raphael† even though he is the one person least likely to be involved in organised religion. Watching this scene made me frustrated and agitated as the situation becomes so out of hand as Abigail puts on such a brilliant act to ensure that the attention is not on Proctor and Hale who are trying to reveal that she was behind all the accusations right from the beginning. This is also how I feel an audience would react as I reacted in that way every time Abigail took the situation to another level and manipulating everyone until she reaches her target of getting Mary Warren on her side and against John Proctor. I really enjoyed the play even though it was a sad ending.