Conflict in Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’

Set in Salem, Massachusetts, Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’ was written in 1952, the play which successfully portrays the witch trials in 1962 as an allegory for the prosecution of communists. The play contains many conflicts set to tear apart or destroy the small community of Salem, and to cause havoc with neighboring towns. Arthur Miller gives the reader a chance to experience the dangers of hysteria in a community through the conflicts experienced by his characters in a puritan society. Conflict is a strong disagreement between people or groups that often leads to strong arguments. Various elements of the plot are woven together in such a way that we are often left on a mini cliff-hanger, wondering what will happen next, which creates tension. Writer’s craft is the writer’s use of techniques to create an effect on the reader.

The opening of the play immediately grips the audience. Betty Parris is lying motionless on a bed, Reverend Parris is kneeling next to her praying, but he conveys no sense of religious calm and faith. He is weeping and desperate. He cries out “Oh my God! God help me!” and he is very disturbed. When Tituba the household slave, enters Parris is in a state of “fury” and yells “Out of here! Out of my sight!” then is “overcome with sobs”. Miller is careful to specify in the stage directions just how the actor should deliver the lines and what type of emotions the character is holding. The opening is powerful and dramatic. Within a few short lines we also hear that Betty's illness may be due to “unnatural causes” A frightening expression in the context of the period, and one which scares Reverend Parris. The tension increases for the audience when Parris seems to want a cover up of the truth. “Go directly home and speak nothing of unnatural causes”.

Tension in the play is strongly expressed