Arther Miller's Use of Literary Techniques in The Crucible

Arther Miller's, The Crucible sparked many ideas in people’s minds and speaks of topics unseen at the time. Miller wanted to give an idea of how one lie after another can escalate as a chain reaction creating anarchy throughout the village. The Crucible told the story of a village who had to struggle a great loss of people because of a young woman’s (Abigail) desire for a man married to someone else, taking advantage of the broken Puritan-Christian government system who thought witches existed. The story has repeated fearful diction, with characters on edge about if they were accused by the girls who were accused of witchcraft and if they were going to be hanged by the court’s magistrate sent to investigate the crime. Irony was used to show how a faction of people in the town actually followers of the wrong choices people made. Also in the story was the use of hyperbole statements that showed how the characters react to the events happening around them and how what they said, no matter how insignificant caused a butterfly effect. Abigail Williams, the antagonist who caused this used political manipulation on the court to get what she wants, killing everyone in her way.

Miller’s message of troubling escalation is conveyed through the use of fearful diction to describe the manipulation of the village, which enlarged the lie and problem. In Act I, Betty was pretending to be sick while Mary was blaming Abigail for her wrongdoing in the forest. Now irritated, Abigail retaliates, stating that if they “breath a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and she will come at them in the black of some terrible night, and she will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.” This means that Abigail threatens Betty and Mary with a blade so they state this calumny to Parris, instead of telling the truth of what happened in the forest. It justifies the problem because Abigail uses fear to manipulate the girls to do her bidding, creating the problem that carries on throughout the story. In Act III, the trial against the accusation of witchcraft, John told Mary Warren to testify by present her evidence against the girls that are lying. In Act III, when presenting her evidence, the girls pretended to be hurt and possessed by Mary’s soul, Abigail imitating “She sees nothing”, then Mary pleading “Abby, you mustn’t”, which all the girls responding with “Abby you mustn’t!” This delineates the event that Abigail and the rest of the girls turn on Mary, making her feel helpless by pretending that she was possessing their souls. Abigail’s manipulation is an example of fearful diction in the Crucible, shaping the context of the severity of the problem.

Arthur Miller uses irony throughout the play to how one lie after another can escalate as a chain reaction. This shaped the way the village thought of one another with the developing problem present. In Act 1, Abigail Willians is telling Hale and Parris that Tituba forced her to drink the blood. “She made me do it! She made Betty do it! She makes me drink blood!”. This quote supports how one lie can lead to another because since Abigail is lying about what really happened in the woods, and this is a prodigious lie, not a little one the girls feel as if they can do the same since she hasn’t been caught. Earlier in the play, Betty talked about Abigail’s desire to drink blood to create a charm do she can kill Goody Proctor. You can see how now she isn’t lying saying she was forced to drink it. Knowing if she says forced the people will be on her side since Tituba was a black woman with no rights back then. Later on, in the play in Act 3, Mary Warren is faced with a life or death situation. During the testimony, she is telling the truth which is going to put her to death, so the only way for life is the lie. “No, I love god; I go your way no more. I love god, I bless god. Abby, Abby, I’ll never hurt you more!'. Mary Warren is a hypocrite, she has done witchcraft but won’t admit to it because of Abigail. She sees the chaos Abigail has caused so Mary must lie for her life. So you can see a chain reaction from one lie after another. Mary Warren sees Abigail lying which makes her feel as that’s the right thing to do. The irony is shaped into the villages as a chain reaction. As one lies, others tend to do the same.

Miller uses hyperbole to show how the characters perceive and react to the events that are transpiring around them and how their exaggerated statements can cause trouble. In Act 1, Putnam was discussing the apparent sickness that the girls are going through with Reverend Parris but Mrs.Putnam believes it is the devil that is “driving’ into them, forked and hoofed” and making them ill. The quote supports the idea of words having power and being able to cause unexpected reactions because Parris later sends for Hale to come to Salem to look for signs of witchcraft. In Act 3, Danforth is questioning Abigail about the alleged poppets Goody Proctor kept while Abigail worked for her because goody proctor was accused of using poppets for witchcraft. Abigail lies to Danforth and tells him that goody proctor always kept poppets but john proctor dismisses it as a lie and says that there’s also a “ dragon with five legs in his house” but no one has noticed. John proctor is furious at how the people around him are behaving and what they're saying because to him everyone is spouting absurdity so he responds with something absurd too. The people of Salem are so used to absurd and exaggerated claims and statements that they don't see the power that their words have and the potential outcomes.

Overall, Miller powerfully manipulates the message by using fearful diction, irony, and hyperbole. He used fearful diction to convey the negative tone he needed for us the audience to understand how the manipulation of the village, which enlarged the lie and problem. Irony was to show how in the play how gullible the village was on believing lies of puritanism. While hyperbole was to show their false exaggerated statements caused chaos in the village. At the end of the play, you will see how lying isn’t the way to go because, in the end, it will cause trouble to everyone even if it wasn’t intentionally. The way Miller used not one but many rhetorical devices were to show how one lie after another can enlarge to a more serious problem creating anarchy throughout the village, killing the lives of innocence.

References

1. Budick, E. M. (1985). History and other spectres in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Modern Drama, 28(4), 535-552. (https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/50/article/498714/summary)
2. O'Neal, M. J. (1983). HISTORY, MYTH, AND NAME MAGIC IN ARTHUR MILLER'S" THE CRUCIBLE". Clio, 12(2), 111. (https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/history-myth-name-magic-arthur-millers-crucible/docview/1300286487/se-2)
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5. Pagan, N. O. (2008). Arthur Miller and the rhetoric of ethnic self-expression. Journal of American Studies, 42(1), 89-106. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/40464241)