Essay about Dramatic Irony

Dramatic irony is an underlying key to creating effective tension in a play. In this case, the audience will have had to be extremely observant to notice that Betty was never actually in a trance, and so it may be that she was awake for the entire conversation concerning Abigail and John's previous affair. This technique is very effective at creating tension as it brings the audience closer to the characters.

The sudden 'entrance' of Betty when she wakes up from the apparent trance adds much more tension to the scene, as it is such a change to the conversation it followed.

The shrill scream from Betty would cause shock throughout the audience, creating almost fear. The ending of my chosen episode is Parris' entrance, which, due to the sheer urgency of it, would cause tension levels to stay high. The sudden change in conversation from Abigail and John to the rush surrounding Betty waking up is a sharp turning point and ideal way of leaving the situation between Abigail and John unresolved.

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The audience would probably presume the same sort of scenario, or something that has grown from what happened here, would be played out at a later point in the story.

This episode uses mainly vocal techniques, volume, language, and pace, to create variations in tension. There is also a single, carefully placed, moment of harsh physical contact that helps in creating a huge surge in tension in the last moments of the episode. The second episode takes place in Act 4, where John Proctor says he will confess to dealing with the Devil in order to save his life, only to revoke this confession when he realises he would rather die with a clear conscience than live thanks to a false declaration of guilt.

This is the climax of the entire play and, as such, contains many techniques to subtly create tension. The main technique, evident throughout the confession episode, is dramatic irony. We see John Proctor, a seemingly strong character who is very stuck to his morals, prepared to give a confession in order to save his life, when we know that he and all the other people accused of witchcraft are actually innocent. This means that the whole way through this part of the play, tension is felt because the audience are aware of the massive injustice taking place on the stage, however they have no powers to stop it.

The pace of speech in the film is relatively fast, however varies at points. When Danforth is asking John questions to make his confession watertight, he says, "Did you see the Devil?" to which John replies with "I did." Danforth's next question is "Did he bid you to do his work upon the earth" and John's reply is "He did". This conversation continues and, as it is spoken, the questions would be with immense force, but slow and well enunciated in order for John to fully understand the question. John appears relatively calm at this point, and so his answers would be slow and determined.

This would cause a steady build up of tension, as one would expect that after several of these types of questions the person under suspicion would lose control. When sitting in the audience, a likely reaction to the slow pace of speech would be apprehension - waiting for things to blow up. Over the last part of the conversation, the pace picks up immensely, with the person talking not even having chance to finish before being interrupted by someone who thinks what they have to say is more important. The latter of the two mainly being John, whose impatience with Danforth is obvious by this point in the play. We see how he interrupts Danforth in the following examples:

Danforth: Mr. Proctor, I must have - Proctor: No, no, I have signed it. Danforth: You have not con - Proctor: I have confessed myself! ... Danforth: I do not wish to - Proctor: I have three children... All of the above examples show how John is not willing to listen to what Danforth has to say, he is adamant he does not want his name known in the village as the one who confessed. John knows he is letting a lot of people's belief in him down, he knows that the village view him highly, in that he sticks to his belief and morals even in the most extreme of cases.

Now, however, John is weak. He has confessed to something he did not do, and the audience are aware that he is extremely unhappy about the situation he has been forced into. The interrupting and constant increase in pace shows very plainly that John is beginning to tire of what is happening and will be unable to control his temper - of which we have already seen evidence of - for much longer, which heightens the tension created.

As the conversation progresses and the judges become aware that the confession is a lie, John becomes emotional and gives a speech about how he should be allowed to keep his name, as he has given them what they want. Throughout the speech which begins "Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life..." his voice is likely to get closer and closer to breaking, until he fights back tears in order to get the last line of "leave me my name!" to the audience. On hearing a grown man reduced to this, the audience would feel a huge amount of sympathy for the character once deemed a harsh adulterer. This is the part of the play that would have the audience on the 'edge of their seats', so to speak, creating much tension and emotion throughout the theatre.