Dramatic Irony In The Crucible

Miller also employs a fairly generous helping of dramatic irony, for example, when the audience knows that Proctor has admitted to lechery, but Elizabeth doesn’t. This creates frustration, helplessness and disappointment in the audience, which, on the contrary, makes the play more enjoyable and memorable, because the audience is drawn into the action. Another possible instance of dramatic irony is the setting of the play: we are told at the start of the play that we are “in the spring of the year 1692.

” This seems an ironic season to set such awful events. One reason why this play can be enjoyed even today is because it can appeal to so many different types of people. It is based on real events and real people, so historians may find it educational. Teenagers and young adults will be enthralled by the action sequences, and females tend to enjoy love stories, for example, when Abigail is flirting with Proctor, “John – I am waitin’ for you every night.

” Cultured people will revel in the artistic quality of the play, for example, the series of rapid, rhythmic entrances and exits in the first act, whilst younger viewers will be entertained by the excitement of the girls’ hysteric mimicking of Mary Warren, even if they do not understand the play. Having said that, the play is quite easy to understand, so the majority of the population would be able to understand the play at least at a simple level.

By making ‘The Crucible’ suitable for all these people, Arthur Miller has ensured that it will still be enjoyed in the 21st century. The dictionary definition of a crucible is a ‘small melting-pot’. I think that ‘The Crucible’ is an appropriate name for this play, because the heat gradually becomes more and more intense throughout the play as if the characters are in a crucible, and because the word carries overtones of witchcraft.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Crucible’, and even though it is about events that happened over 300 years ago, it still holds an uncanny relevance because, sometimes, we can see ourselves in Arthur Miller’s characters. Perhaps ‘The Crucible’ can so relevant that it helps to stop terrible tragedies like the witch hunts happening again in the future.