Dramatic features The Crucible Essay

‘The Crucible’ is always played exactly in its historical context with Puritan clothes and sets, it is rarely updated. What dramatic features does Miller employ to ensure the play maintains its relevance for a 21st century audience? In this essay I intend to discuss how Arthur Miller ensures that his play, which is set in Salem, Massachusetts, in the late 17th century, is still appealing and pertinent to a 21st century audience. Miller wrote ‘The Crucible’ in 1953, during the zenith of the McCarthy affairs in America. In 1692, the hysteria was owing to the alleged infiltration of witches under the command of Satan, while Joseph McCarthy was concerned with the supposed infiltration of Communists into American society. In both cases there were many innocent people accused and arrested, and panic bit into both communities. The play is relevant nowadays for many reasons: because it links with the situation in Afghanistan, it is exciting to watch because of the high tension and quite fast pace throughout, it incorporates dramatic irony to make the audience part of the action, and because it can appeal to so many different types of people. The reason why the whole Salem tragedy came about was because of an ancient paradox: a paradox still thriving and very relevant today. The paradox was the balance between individual freedom and prohibitive rules. The people of Salem had a religious theocracy, which was designed to keep the community together and to prevent any disunity in the neighbourhood. In this respect, the theocracy worked well. However, all governing systems must have rules of prohibition, or they simply will not work. Evidently, in Salem, the time had come when the repressions of order became too harsh in comparison to the dangers against which the order was set. The witch-hunt was a sign of the disarray when the balance began to swivel towards more individual freedom. An example of this paradox in modern society is the war in Afghanistan. Afghanistan was ruled by a religious theocracy, under the command of the Taliban. In order for the theocracy to be effective, the Taliban imposed prohibitive rules, such as the rule that all men must wear beards. Perhaps it was excessive individual freedom that led to the September 11th tragedy. Clearly, ‘The Crucible’ is a parable for many events like the Afghanistan situation with the Taliban. Just imagine the reaction of the Taliban if a child had started playing at ‘being an American’, like in ‘The Crucible’ children play at being witches. The anger and fear generated would have been just the same, despite being separated by over three hundred years. Even though times have changed since 1692, human nature is still identical, and tragic events like these will continue to happen because of our nature. It is futile writing a play that has a very relevant message to give to its audience, if the audience doesn’t stay until the end of the play. By using a structure that builds the tension progressively through the play, Miller ensures that his audience are kept firmly on the edges of their seats. He uses a climactic curtain at the end of each act, to entice the audience back to their seats after the interval. An example of this is the ‘cliff-hanger’ at the end of the first act, when the girls are hysterically accusing other women of being with the Devil.