The latter part of Act 3 in his play The Crucible The Crucible Essay Example for Free

The latter part of Act 3 in his play The Crucible The Crucible Essay The Crucible is a very enthralling play to read and especially to watch. The way that Miller is able to build up his characters and put them into such exaggerated situations in The Crucible is breathtaking. He has the ability to illustrate what might naturally happen in situations such as this, showing us periods within the whole scenario where things calm down, or reach a climax. He is a magician of the greatest kind, using words and stage directions to perform his feats of trickery rather than illusion. Act 3 of the play is undoubtedly a climax and the setting of the scene introduces us to a much more sinister turn of events than might be expected in another setting. According to Millers own stage direction the Act is set in the vestry room of the Salem meeting house, described as a solemn and heavy room. Hence the atmosphere and setting are perfect in creating a feeling of extreme McCarthyism, a period where accusations were thrown out left and right in the American government, each participant in the fight not willing to take the punch, but diverting it to another contestant when it gets too close. All this time I think the one controlling it all, the referee of the match, the manager of all the teams if you will, is Abigail. This play is set in Salem, a time in the seventeen or eighteen hundreds, when most racial and religious minorities had moved to the new America. This play in particular focuses in a small Puritan town where religion is held at the forefront of society. In this time acts of God and of the devil were, wholly believed, and in this small town a group of young girls played on this immense superstition for their own gains. That is where the story is set, the girls blamed people they disliked of witchcraft and hundreds of people were burned on false accusations. But this play was in fact written as a reflection of the earlier part of this century, where a senator by the name of Joseph McCarthy played on the American peoples fears of communism to rise to fame. He, like the girls, told the government that he had a list of communists present in the American government, in Hollywood and in most walks of life. He ruined thousands of peoples livelihoods, but never had any evidence against anyone. This terrible time in the 1920s to 40s is what Miller wants to really reflect upon in his play.