Hello, I'm prepping for exams and am looking for some advice on improving my essays for lit. I'm in year 11, and this is a previous version of this essay I wrote back in semester 1 exams. It was on Arthur Miller's The Crucible, and I got 73% on it. I would really appreciate some feedback or advice on improving it!
Arthur Miller’s famed tragic play The Crucible uses particular forms of dialogue to represent power differences between characters with positions in the court and the church and those who do not. The Crucible is set in 15th century puritan America and follows a small town that falls apart due to town-wide hysteria after a series of townspeople are accused of witchcraft. The play focuses particularly on how the church and court accuse and prosecute various people in the town, operating on a ‘he-said-she-said’ basis. Through the dialogue in the play, power differences between townsfolk who posses power through class, the court, or the church – particularly in the characters of Proctor, Danforth, and Parris respectively – and those who do not possess power - namely Mary Warren and, to a certain extent, Parris’ niece Abigail – are shown through a repeated synecdoche, contrasting diction between characters with differing levels of power, and rhetorical questions.
In dialogue between Reverend Parris and his niece Abigail, the synecdoche of one’s “name” as their personhood and reputation are used by Parris to assert his power over Abigail, both as a member of the church and as an adult. He implies that her “name in the town…is [not] entirely white”, and that her standing is in question. Parris attempts to make Abigail doubt both his opinion of her and her reputation through this statement. Abigail reflects this back, using the same synecdoche to assert that she will “not have it said [her] name is soiled”. Abigail uses this to assert both her own good standing, and her refusal to be overpowered by Parris. The same synecdoche is used again, this time by Proctor as he refuses to publicly admit having an affair. He stands in defiance against both the priests who beg him to confess and the court who threatens him with hanging, “God sees [his] name…[and] knows how black [his] sins are”. Proctor reclaims power from the court by refusing to “give up” his name and reclaims from the church what he believes God truly needs from him, that “God does not need [his] name”.
Between the characters of Mary Warren and Judge Danforth, there is a contrast in the diction used in their respective dialogue. Mary Warren, coming from a position due to her class, age, and gender, drops the ‘g’ from words, such as when she is seen “sewin’” in the courtroom gallery, or when she is “workin’” as Proctor’s servant. In contrast, Danforth, a character with a position of great power in the court, does not. For example, when he accuses those who began the with trials of “pretending”, or when he asserts he is not “judging” another for their actions. This small choice in diction brings extra attention to the harsh power differences and divides that exist within the world of the play.
Rhetorical questions are frequently used through The Crucible to depict characters with systemic power asserting that power over others. In act one, Proctor establishes the power he has over Mary by asking her if he “forbid [she] leave the house…?”, showing the control he has over where she goes and what she does, tacking the threat that he questions “why [he] shall…pay [her]” for her disobedience. Later, in act three, Danforth also uses rhetorical questioning to assert his power as a member of the court, questioning if one of the townspeople “know who [he is]”, and if they “know that four hundred are in the jails…on [his] signature?”. Danforth’s questioning is intended to embarrass or instill fear in someone whom he views to be below him in some way, due to class and social standing.
Overall, dialogue in The Crucible represents the power differences between characters who possess systemic power and those who do not as a recurring struggle through synecdoche, contrasting diction and rhetorical questions.
Thanks!
