The Crucible - Form and Structure Essay -- English Literature

The Crucible - Form and Structure Arthur Miller uses various different techniques in the form and structure of ‘The Crucible’ to create suspense and maintain the audience’s interest. Of course, one of the main factors of the form and structure of the play is its genre. ‘The Crucible’ can be described as being a symbolic play, a tragedy, a political play, an historical play and a narrative play in naturalistic form. It is symbolic, political and historic as although the story revolves around the Salem witch trials, the ideas and morals behind the plot can be viewed as Miller’s criticism of McCarthyism. The play can also be seen as being narrative in a naturalistic form due to the lengthy set descriptions and stage directions followed by regular, natural yet stylised conversational prose. Obviously, the plot of ‘The Crucible’ is tragic as it ends with Miller killing off the main characters. One method Miller uses to keep the audience excited and interested is his use of high tension and climaxes. He ends each of the four acts with a climax, for example, Act Three finishes with Hale exclaiming, ‘I denounce these proceedings, I quit this court!’ as ‘he slams the door’ behind him. Climaxes such as this will always keep an audience alert and wanting to know more. Scenes like this particular one also create an engaging atmosphere and help the audience to understand extreme Puritanism more clearly. The theme of witch hunting in ‘The Crucible’ is an exciting factor which will also maintain audience interest. Miller also changes the focus of the play in each act. For instance, Miller’s main idea in Act One is ‘fear of the unknown’ which he shows through Parris’ insistence on there being ‘no unnatural cause here... ...d his wife creating tension not only by the change of space on stage, but also by adapting to a much slower dialogue with pauses. Through acting out various scenes from ‘The Crucible’, I have learnt that by ending each act with a cliff-hanger it is human nature which makes one feel like they must know more and what happens next. By forming each act as a story in itself, Miller heightens the atmosphere of mass hysteria due to this ongoing use of tension and climaxes. Miller succeeds in keeping the audience’s interest flowing despite this way of a different story in each act by using subplots, for example, the rivalry between Giles Corey and Thomas Putnam. Altogether, ‘The Crucible’ is written with an easy to follow form and structure using pace, dialogue and action to aid builds of tension and climaxes and therefore remain interesting to the audience.