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Hale travelled around the houses of the accused so he could get to know those who were being accused. But the truth is that even at this earlier stage, he was unsure about the truth of all this. When he goes to the Proctors, he tests John's Christian faith by asking him to explain why he hadn't attended church every Sunday and why his youngest child had not been baptized. His excuses was that he didn't want his child being baptized by Parris and he didn't really want to attend his services as he had plenty of work to be doing on the farm.
Hale asks John and Elizabeth to repeat their commandments, Elizabeth repeats each one of them correctly. But John forgets one- Thou must not commit adultery.
John tries to convince Hale that the girl's story is all just pretence to cover up the activities that happened in the woods. Hale begins to realise that he may be fooled by the innocence of the girl's youth. Giles Corey and Francis Nurse's wives are the next to be arrested.
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Next is Elizabeth. Cheever goes to arrest Elizabeth and is ordered to search her home for poppets. He asks Elizabeth if she has ever kept any, she replies with 'not since I was a girl'. Cheever then sees the one that Mary had made for her. Elizabeth explains to him that Mary had only given it to her that day and she had made it whilst she was bored in court.
The Proctors weren't aware that Abigail had a needle into her stomach. Cheever lifted the clothes on the poppet to reveal its body. A needle was stuck through it in the same place as on Abigail's body.
As Elizabeth is chained and taken away, Giles (who realises now that Hale is aware this is all fraud) urges Hale to act. Although Hale appears to be a very well educated and confident man we can see his cowardice when he does not act upon his own suspicions. That night when Proctor is left alone with Mary, he tells her that she must explain to the court how the poppet came to be there and why the needle was stuck in to it. Mary weeps, she wants to help but is scared as Abigail has threatened to kill her and charge lechery on Proctor.
Abigail is an 18 year old slave. As a child she witnessed the death of her parents by Indians and was then taken into service at the Proctors house. Whilst working for the Proctors Abigail had an affair with John whilst his wife Elizabeth was ill. As soon as Elizabeth found out about the affair, she threw Abigail out of her house and onto the high road. Abigail then went to work for her uncle, Parris. As the play goes on and more lies are told, we realise just how scheming and selfish she is. She loves the new found attention and power that she has amongst the girls whom she controls physiologically. She is fully aware of the power that she now has- she can, and does, name those who she does not like and has them accused of witchcraft.
She is still in love with John Proctor even though her clearly states he no longer wants anything to do with her, 'I will cut off my hand before I reach for you again'. John Proctor is a hard working family man, he owns and works on his farm. He has and demands respect from others in the village, and is generally a well thought of man. As Herrick describes in court 'I have known this man all my life. It is a good man.' He not only thinks of himself and his wife, but also about his friends and their wives. He presents the court with a list of people who believe that some of the women being accused are the 'saintliest women in Salem', 'The people signing it declare their good opinion of Rebecca, my wife and Martha Corey.'
John's wife, Elizabeth is a very strong, loving and kind Christian. She believes that she runs a good Christian household, follows her religious duties and lives according to her beliefs. Her love for her husband is so strong that she forgives him for committing lechery and goes against her religion by lying to the court to try to protect his name. In the final scene of the play she tells John that she blames herself for him committing adultery - 'if I had not kept such a cold house' The majority of the characters are very self absorbed- they are more concerned about their reputation and name then they are about their family, friends and neighbours welfare.
Nicholas Hytner makes good use of the way the characters are shot in the courtroom scenes. Those who are together in believing the same thing or fighting for the same cause are filmed together, those who speak out on their own are shot on there own. A great example of this is shown with Hale. Originally he is in the same shot as the rest of the members of court, but then as he signs more death warrants and begins to question his actions he is shown alone or between those being accused or questioned and the members of court.
Seeing the characters in groups, pairs or individually in shots shows more clearly than the text does who is against, together, or in agreement with whom. Most of the courtroom shots were filmed at eye level- as if the viewer were there looking at the characters face to face. This created the feeling of all attention being on the person questioned, and highlighted the importance of the things that they said as there were no distractions for the viewer to look elsewhere other than at the characters face.
The way that Elizabeth was shown in between her husband and Abigail when the court asked her to confess if, to her knowledge, John had committed adultery. When Danforth begins questioning her about this, he asks why Abigail was no longer the Proctors servant. 'She dissatisfied me' is Elizabeth's unconvincing reply. At this time, the camera is showing Abigail and Proctor with Elizabeth further back in between them so she appears small.
This shows that Abigail and Proctor were both depending on Elizabeth's answer to prove one of them to be a liar. As Danforth's questions begin to get closer to the truth, the camera gets closer to Elizabeth's face so that when Danforth asks 'To your knowledge has John Proctor ever committed the crime of lechery?' the camera is showing only Elizabeth's startled face. After moment's hesitation, she faintly answers 'No, sir.' The camera then zooms out to show Abigail and Proctor with Elizabeth still in the middle until she is taken away. Individual shots, especially close-ups, build intensity.
The setting in the courtroom created an excellent atmosphere, it was dark and gloomy with rays of sun entering the dull room from a small window. The atmosphere between the people was just as dark and depressing as the courtroom itself, with the ray of light perhaps trying to resemble the small amount of truth, honesty and dignity left in the village. Although I did enjoy reading the book, I much prefer the film because it makes the story line much clearer and makes it more exciting and interesting by using camera shots and setting to add more interest to the play and to make it more appealable to others. The story is a shocking insight into history; It's hard to believe that it is actually a true story.
Committing Adultery in a Play The Crucible. (2020, Jun 01). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/committing-adultery-in-a-play-the-crucible-essay
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