In Act Three Opportunities Constantly Arise for the Whole Problem of the Play to Be Cleared Up Satisfactorily, but These Are Always Frustrated.”

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“In Act three opportunities constantly arise for the whole problem of the play to be cleared up satisfactorily, but these are always frustrated.” Show how this Act is one of interruptions and explanations which are tragically delayed. The Keynote of Act III is confusion. It opens noisily with the ejection of Corey from the courtroom; it ends like its predecessors on a tempestuous climax of hysteria. The quarrelling and argument that separates these two events are more continuous than in the other acts, no less bitter, but in some respects more rational, less emotional but theatrically very compelling. If the audience was ever in doubt, they now realise that the outcome must be tragic. The hope and disappointment pattern of the previous scene is repeated but with more far-reaching implications: opportunities constantly arise for the whole problem to be cleared up satisfactorily, but these are always frustrated with ever more serious consequences. However, the opportunities are lost, not as a result of deliberate wickedness, but by accident. Thus, the act is indeed one of interruptions, of explanations tragically delayed. In the court Judge Danforth is trying to conduct an inquiry, but he is constantly distracted from one problem to another by chance. The first example of this arises when her husband, Giles, who claims "I have evidence for the court" ... ", interrupts Martha's trial “Thomas Putman is reaching out for land." Giles is distracted by Parris efforts to denounce him as "contentious" and by his own sense of guilt at contributing to his wife's situation by commenting on her reading habits. Giles is, in turn, interrupted by Francis Nurse who tells Danforth that he has" proof for your eyes... that the girls are frauds". Before Francis can elaborate on this claim he is interrupted by the arrival of Proctor and Mary Warrren into the anti-room outside the

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