Imagine you are Directing Essay

Introduction I intend to study the Crucible by Arthur Miller. I will be looking at act 3, through the eyes of a director. The character I will mainly be focusing on is Abigail Williams, a late teen who had committed adultery with the well thought of, John Proctor. The play was written in 1952 and was an allegory of the political state of America under the supervision of Senator Joseph McCarthy. The play was set in 1692 in a god-fearing, puritan village that was isolated in the east of Massachusetts. This play is based upon the Salem witchcraft trials, two centuries before the book was written and therefore the location of the play was thought of to be masking the anti-communist message it was portraying. The basis of the play is of a group of young female teens that had danced in the woods within the hours of darkness. Yet because of the beliefs that these acts were closely related to witchcraft, the readings of the bible would instruct them to hang all those who participated. Yet to avoid their own prosecution the blame was passed to many innocent people, including a West Indian slave, who because of her colour and belief in spells was an easy target and another was the wife of John Proctor. John himself then becomes the main suspicion of practicing witchcraft after the tables are turned once again. He was asked to give names of those he knows of having connections with the devil to save his own life, he refused to answer their questions as did Miller when he was summoned before McCarthy’s ‘House Un-American Activities Committee. This was very similar to the condition of America around the early 1950’s when the country was in a situation of corruption. Many innocent people had come to a gritty end, after ‘scapegoats’ that were part of McCarthy’s ‘House Un-American Activities Committee’, could prove them guilty on the flimsiest of evidence. Stage Design I have chosen the below layout because I believe it gives the best possible chance for all of the characters to be seen and heard clearly throughout this act. Dramatic Techniques As a director the dramatic techniques of Miller Display complete essay 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.