ACT II pg 51 75 Literary Devices Linguistic
- Slides: 6
ACT II pg. 51 -75 Literary Devices Linguistic Devices Dramatic Effects Rhetorical Devices
Key Moments • The audience finds out there is rinsing tension between Proctor + Elizabeth. • Hale questions Elizabeth and Proctor on their Christian upkeep. • Giles, Francis, Herrick go to Proctor’s house to arrest Elizabeth and find a puppet. • Proctor threatens Mary Warren and demands she admits the puppet is hers.
Literary Devices • Detailed stage directions in the opening of the play portray to the audience a sense of tension and mistrust between the Proctor couple: • “ He gets up, goes to her, kisses her. She receives it. With a certain disappointment, he returns to the table. ” The audience can suspect there is a cold distance relationship between both characters, the verb “receives” suggests Elizabeth didn’t reply back with a kiss too. Her cold response implies there is problems in their relationship. “A sense of their separation rises” • The couple submerge themselves in metaphorical speech by using figurative language to explain to the audience how they feel about each other “…I think to please you, and still an everlasting funeral marches around your heart” describes Elizabeth’s pessimist attitude towards her husband, the noun ‘funeral’ conveys her dying love for him. As a result the audience may begin to suspect Proctor has done something in the past which has deeply hurt his wife.
• As Hale begins to question the Proctors’ Christian upkeeps John finds himself looking for ways to prove to the Reverend he is a good Christian “I nailed the roof upon the church, I hung the door-” in consequence Hale approves this act “Oh, did you! That’s a good sign, then” Both utterances show religion was perceived in that era. The rules which set the boundaries for what was considered as a religious or non-religious acts were very vague and perhaps misunderstood. Does ‘nailing the roof on church’ really make you a good enough Christian? At the end of the play we see that those actions were meaningless as Proctor is deemed to be involved in witchcraft and hanged. • “We should be criminal to old respects and ancient friendships” Through this quote we can see Miller’s voice coming through he relates this key moment of the play with communism in America in the 60 s- How his friend gave up names of communists and friendship means nothing in hard times.
Linguistic Devices • In this scene of the play a rage of sentence types are used for different effects. For example exclamative sentences “My wife is the very brick and mortar of the church!” is used by everyone which shows how the whole town is in shock with what has happened. In addition interrogative sentences “Naught to do? ” also explain the slight confusion and disbelief towards different utterances. • Alternatively towards the end of the scene Proctor’s speech becomes heavy with interrogative sentences as this is house and the loss of control in his house (e. g. Elizabeth being arrested and him being unable to do/say anything to stop this) is not something he is used therefore he asks lots of questions to gain information and attempt to hold the floor: “Mary, how did this poppet come into my house? ”
• The common noun ‘proof’ is diligently repeated throughout the scene because it is an important word when talking about witchcraft. In this play there isn’t any solid evidence when someone attempts to prove if someone else is a witch or not. Therefore in this context I believe the word ‘proof’ becomes an abstract noun. Eventually, unlike the Salem community, the audience perhaps wonder if the evidence they have is essentially flawed and hard can be considered as the truth.
