The second way the build up of slow tension is shown by the faked attacks. Again Abigail and the girls are they reason for these ‘faked attacks.’ They pretend that Mary has sent a spirit onto them. By doing this they are trying to turn Mary against Proctor and getting Mary to side with the girls, which they finally do. Straight away Abigail goes ‘a cold wind has come’ and accuse Mary. This creates tension and pressure on Mary once again. This is ironic because the girls at this point know what’s exactly happening. This is evident Mary goes ‘Lord save me!’ and Danforth replies ‘you send your spirit out?’ The attacks show that she was put under a lot of pier pressure to side with the girls and by doing this it lead to Mary changing her decision.
The third way slow tension is built up through out the scene is by Proctor’s confession and the dramatic irony of Elizabeth’s ‘natural lie.’ Her husband finds it hard to admit to lechery. His shame of the officials of being ‘blinded’ by the girls is shown through Proctor’s voice. But Proctor does a brave thing and because he confesses, because it’s his wife he really wants to save. He is telling the truth because he has already ruined his good name and has nothing to lose now. This shows us that the lengths these people tried to go to clear their name but didn’t succeed.
Then Danforth brings his wife n to prove and back up everything he has said. This again may suggest that he doesn’t believe everything that Proctor has told the court this is when there is a climax and things get a little out of control. All emotions run wild. Danforth seems to be calling the shots now. In the film we see Elizabeth stuttering and can’t get the words out of her mouth. This maybe because she doesn’t want to say anything wrong that may harm Proctor.
It’s all very tense at the moment this is where we will find out what happens and Danforth asks ‘is your husband a lecher?’ and the tension is broken by Elizabeth replying ‘no sir’ the people are shocked and astonished and Danforth has her removed from the court. The irony here is that she knew everything about it but yet she said no to save her husbands name and the story now is concluded. The forth way in which the slow build up of tension throughout the scene emphasises the emotional trauma suffered by the victims of both Salem and McCarthy is by the build up of mass hysteria to a hectic climax at the end of act 3. Mary again is the victim because she told the court the girls were fake.
Abigail then pretends that she is talking to a ‘yellow bird.; In coincidence the yellow bird is Mary and has come to attack her. The only way Mary is going to stop Abigail is by siding with her and this exactly what Abigail wants. Then we see the girls mimicking Mary. ‘I’m here, I’m here!’ The impression we get is that Mary is now the devil and once again Danforth has sided with the girls by saying ‘Have you compacted with the devil.’ This shows that Abigail has used her power and got Danforth on her side. All the above shows how much pressure is being put on her and the innocent people. Mary couldn’t withstand the pressure being put on her so she decided to go with the girls when she says that Proctor is ‘the devils man.’ It shows how one’s decision can be influence by pressure.
The final way in which slow build up of tension throughout the scene emphasises on emotional trauma suffered by the victims of both Salem and McCarthy is by Proctors damning lines at the end of the scene. Proctor is outraged and loses it completely. He says in a damning way ‘I say- I say- God is dead!’ The people in the courtroom would have been in shock now. Their minds we made up that Proctor was most probably the devil now.
But on the other hand Proctor nothing and nothing to lose he had lost everything, his name, his dignity and his wife. So now Proctor is faced with naming names or face being hanged. The dilemma here is that Proctor is now defenceless his only hope was Mary but she had decided to side with the girls and now might as well give up rather then getting other people into trouble. This shows how naming names was so powerful that Proctor could have stopped him from getting himself hanged and got someone else hanged. But he didn’t.
Having considered the dramatic nature of this scene, I believe it criticises Salem’s authority and of McCarthy trials. It shows how corrupt the courts were and they simply wanted to send down as many people as they wanted. The innocent characters are being forced and pressurised to ‘name names’ or else be hanged. The damning lines show how much people would do to jus clear there names but the courts weren’t prepared to listen. It shows a little rumour has ripped apart society and this will be hard to fix back together. It also shows the emotions and love between the characters and how far they would go to save there loved ones.
