Explore the Ways in Which Miller Uses the Theme of Love in the Crucible

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Act three consists of the trials and tribulations of the key protagonists elevating the key themes to prominence in the court scenario. The themes of love and concealment are presented to the audience through Arthur Millers use of language and literary techniques. The truth is hidden and the characters true motives are unclear although the entirety of the act is spent in a desperate attempt to expose the truth. Love is used as a weapon to conceal the truth throughout Act Three. The stage directions of the crucible convey many emotions and actions. The stage directions directed towards Giles are incredibly emotive; ‘beginning to plead’, ‘beginning to weep’, ‘mystified’. All of these stage directions show that Giles is slowly losing control of his emotions due to his wife being questioned. Within what Giles is saying there are lots of interruptions, this shows that he is unable to speak fluently, this could be due to him losing control of his emotions. However this shows his love and devotion for his wife as he is not able to control his emotions shown by the stage directions. Moreover Danforth is the character who talks the most within this scene, this shows that he is very authoritative and controls the conversation and he is also the person who is of a higher status which is shown by Giles referring to him as “your excellency”. Furthermore this shows that Danforth is a very prominent character. The structure in the relevant pages (76-85) shows the theme of love indirectly through the way the conversation between the characters is presented. At the beginning of the scene the characters voices can only be heard, this encourages the audience to listen more intently to what’s being said, by doing this Arthur Miller insures that the weight of the words is more important than the actions. The emotion that is portrayed when Martha Corey insists that ‘I do not hurt
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