What Happened To Giles Corey

This sample essay on What Happened To Giles Corey provides important aspects of the issue and arguments for and against as well as the needed facts. Read on this essay’s introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

‘It has been argued that Act three is the dramatic climax of ‘The Crucible’. Discuss how far you agree with this argument. ‘ In my opinion Act three is the dramatic climax of ‘The Crucible’ but Act four also includes some very dramatic moments so could be considered as another dramatic climax to the play.

In this essay I shall tell you why Act three is the dramatic climax and will also talk about why other acts build the tension up towards this climax. Miller uses allegory as he makes the audience think that he is only writing about 1692 Salem but he is also writing about, although not referring to the 1940s McCarthyism.

In Acts one and two Miller creates dramatic tension and suspends the audience.

Miller tries to give his views on witchcraft through John Proctor, as Proctor has very strong views on this subject. He tries to say that he believes there is no such thing as witchcraft and hates communism. The Acts in ‘The Crucible’ follow a four part dramatic structure founded by a man called Gustav Freytag. The four parts are: exposition, Rising action, climax (turning point) and the falling action.

These are split over the four acts and in each of the acts I will show you how these work with that particular act.

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Act one, is known as the exposition, which contains the inciting moment, the event that occurs which changes everything that happens then on. John Proctor, the protagonist, is introduced in this act as a “quick witted, sharp tongued man who is fiercely independent. ” There are lots feuds established in the first act, and the first act just sets the general scene, building up to the dramatic climax.

Who Was Giles Corey

Some of these feuds include, Abigail and Proctor, and Francis nurse and Thomas Putnam. The feud that affects the protagonist the most is his feud with Abigail Williams. The beginning of the Act starts of extremely quiet with Reverend Parris praying silently in the room on the bedside of Betty, his daughter. These is an extremely quiet beginning with a sense of sadness and confusion as the audience feel that this is a sad scene but also are confused about what exactly is going.

There are numerous points of slight dramatic climax, which lead up to the inciting moment. Some of these are: when Abigail is questioned by Parris, when Proctor confronts Mary and when Tituba is questioned, this all builds up to the inciting moment. The incident which completely changes the outcome of the play, the inciting moment, comes right at the end of the play when the girls begin to make confessions about who they saw with the devil that night when they were all dancing in the woods.

This Act establishes the characters and their objectives well. It shows that Reverend Hale’s objective is to find out the truth about what happened, Abigail’s objective was to save herself no matter what the outcome was on others, Reverend Parris’s objective was to save his own name as the Reverend of Salem by sticking up for Abigail so that he would not look bad if she were convicted as Abigail is his niece and Proctor’s objective is also to find out the truth, without uncovering his hidden sin, his affair with Abigail Williams.

In Act two we now move on to the rising action. The “basic conflict of the false accusations” in Proctors eyes, between him and Abigail becomes complicated as more conflicts interfere, including obstacles, “which frustrate Proctor’s attempt to reach his goal” of proving Abigail wrong about the witch-hunt. One of these secondary conflicts are, Proctor’s troubles with Elizabeth, when she is taken away as Abigail has accused her of witchcraft. There is lots of suspicion at the beginning of the act as there is a sense tat Abigail is in the room.

Elizabeth begins to get suspicious; she cannot take her eyes off of John. “She sits and watches him taste it” this shows Elizabeth is questioning her trust for Proctor as once again we are told “He eats. She watches him. ” This is immediately after the first time, and then finally once again we are told “She is watching him from the table” all this watching is within the first section of the first scene in Act two, the beginning is extremely calm, but all of Elizabeth’s suspicion through watching him erupts soon after.

This sense of suspicion suggests that their relationship is not as strong as it is made out to be. Miller juxtaposes the calm beginning of the act, when Proctor arrives home and has dinner, with the hysterical ending, when Elizabeth is taken away after being convicted by Abigail Williams as a witch. The setting, lighting and sound effects all create dramatic tension, as the lighting, a fireplace suggests peaceful surroundings towards the beginning of the act but towards the end the fire signifies hatred and anger.

The setting of the dinner table and the kitchen shows that it is a normal home at the beginning of the Act but towards the end this is not the case as it is not normal that Elizabeth is convicted of being a witch. And finally the sound effects, like the door being knocked on when Herrick arrives with the warrant for Elizabeth’s arrest, it suspends the audience leaving them wandering, what will happen next? Who is at the door? How will it link in with what is happening at the moment? This all leads up to the third Act of ‘The Crucible’, which is known as the climax (turning point).

This is where here is a sudden change of events due to a bad decision by the protagonist. Miller manipulates the audiences response in this act by not showing them what is happening in the courtroom in the first scene. He does this because this is the only act which starts off hysterically, as all of the other acts start of calm and end hysterically, but this act starts off hysterically and ends also hysterically. There are many parts of the Act that could be considered as the dramatic climax but these are all just scenes that create tension building up to the dramatic climax.

Some of these are, when at the beginning Giles Corey bursts into the courtroom claiming that he has evidence that would make his wife, Martha Corey is innocent, and when Mary Warren admits that her and all the other girls were “pretending to be afflicted by witchcraft”, and when Mary warren cannot faint when she was told to, also when Abigail and the other girls accuse Mary of setting a spirit upon them and finally towards the end of the act when Mary confesses that Proctor was the devils man.