Act Three
Literary Devices
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Opening to the act is incredibly descriptive- Miller has specifically said how the
meeting house is meant to be- significance- perhaps this room will hold the fate of
many.
Stage Directions – very precise in this Act. Miller perhaps knew specifically how
each character would respond and didn’t want it up to interpretation when being
performed.
Plosive- ‘where my beast are bedded’
The lack of emotive and figurative language isn't really seen until the last few
moments of Act Three. Proctor has given up on his quest to persuade Salem, he
finds that he can either confess or stand his ground, he chooses to do the latter. It
is taken by the community that he has confessed and the audience may agree
when he starts saying ‘God is dead!’ and ‘I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his dirty
face!’
LINGUISTIC dEVICES
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Interrogatives- majority of this scene is made up with these, they are used mostly
to gain information or sometimes used to confirm their beliefs. Mostly closed
question which doesn’t give much room for explanation
Repetition – uses to emphasis a point ‘But Proof, sir, proof’
False Starts – used to waste time or can show uncertainty and nervousness in a
character Mary Warren: ‘I – [she looks about as though searching for the passion
to faint.] I – have no sense of it now, I –’
Declaratives- often used by Danforth to assert his authority and so that the
community is clear where he stands
Adjacency Pairs- many due to the setting of a courtroom where the main talking
structure would be to question and answer
Characters of interest
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Giles Corey - he is disrespectful in this scene to everybody including Danforth -‘I
am asked the question and am old enough to answer it’- interrupt Parris (this is part of Giles character profile- he cares little for public opinion). We see a
change in his character in this scene from the town joke to a very vulnerable,
sensitive old man. The stage directions Miller uses to describe Giles are very
childlike ‘beginning to plead’, ‘beginning to weep’, ‘through helpless sobs’, ‘covers
his face ashamed’. The relationship that Giles has with Danforth in this scene is
very much like headmaster punishing a naughty pupil: Danforth: ‘Now be gone!’,
Giles: ‘They be tellin’ lies…’
Judge Danforth – he has a higher status than everybody else, most refer to him as
‘Your Excellency’ and ‘sir’ . He is an assertive, authorative figure that uses
imperatives ‘now sit you down’ and interrogatives ‘Have you ever seen the Devil?’
which help him hold the floor, he frequently interrupts other and uses derogatory
impersonal words when referring to other ‘who is this man?’, ‘you are a foolish old
man’ and ‘woman’.
Rhetorical Devices
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Metaphor- Danforth: ‘we burn a hot fire here; it melts down all concealment’
Proctor: ‘ when you know in all your black hearts that this is fraud’
Personification- Giles: ‘she has been strivin’ with her soul all week’, Danforth:
‘…the entire contention of the state in these trials is that the voice of heaven is
speaking through….’
Danforth: ‘… there is a moving plot to topple Christ in the country!’
Figurative Language- Proctor: I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! And it
is my face, and yours, Danforth! For them that quail to bring men out of ignorance,
as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts
that this be fraud- God dams our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn
together!’
Used very little throughout this Act as many of the sentences are short and precise
to avoid confusion, which could lead to trouble and to assert a characters belief
Themes, ideas & CONTEXT
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Fear- Mary Warren, when she realises that Proctor has lost his case she turns sides
out of fear ‘ [pointing at Proctor] You’re the Devil’s man!’. Hale & Danforth talk of
fear but have opposing opinions on what fear is in relation to Salem Hale: …’There
is a prodigious fear of this court in the country-’ Danforth: ‘ Reproach me not with
the fear of the country; there is fear in the country because there is a moving plot
to topple Christ in the country!’- Hale knows the truth but Danforth believes what
people force themselves to fear in case of persecution
Shame- Giles that he has brought the accusation of witchcraft to his wife and now
she is condemned ‘He covers his face, ashamed’. Proctor has finally admitted to
having ‘known’ Abigail, this is a struggle, he doesn’t feel ashamed for himself but
that he has dishonoured Elizabeth and that the whole town now knows ‘his voice
about to break and his shame great’. Parris when it is revealed that he knew about
the girls dancing in the woods, Abigail has done wrong and this may affect his
standing in the community and may bring accusations to him Danforth: ‘but she
danced?’ Parris: ‘[unwillingly] Aye, sir.’
Religion- the law is based upon the Bible, to go up against the law is to go against
the Bible and therefore God.
CONTINUED…
• Proof- the evidence that Danforth asks for is ‘proof’ but they don’t realise
that they are supporting their arguments with the idea that there is no
proof except the word of the girls- Danforth: ‘But witchcraft is ipso facto,
on its face and by its nature, an invisible crime, is it not?’ and Parris: ‘We
are here, Your Honour, precisely to discover what no one has seen.’
• This Act in which it is played out in a courtroom, we see what Miller may
have compared the Communism trials to. How you would have been
asked to defend yourself but most of the Jury/the judge would have
already condemned you as guilty.
• The way in which Proctor reacts at the end of Act Three may have been
what Miller secretly felt like in his society. That he was supressed, and
couldn’t fully explore himself and that anyway he tried to redeem himself
that society had already labelled him as guilty.