The Crucible - Act 3

This act is the most eventful of the four, and the act in which the most powerful events happen. The act opens with the accusation of Martha Corey who insists she is not a witch and does not know what they are. It then unfolds to the accusation against the girls, stating that they are lying. From here, the act proceeds through Danforth’s attempt to figure out the truth, ending with Elizabeth lying in order to protect her husband, or so she believes.

Mary Warren is yet again a dynamic character in this act, once she turns away from being an accuser in the court; she becomes more passive and ‘small’. But, once she returns to the side of the line, and accuses Proctor of Witchcraft, she is, yet again, more authoritative and forceful.

This act also has the most examples of rhetoric of the play. An example such as: “do you know that near four hundred are in the jails from Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature?” shows that the courts do not rely on real evidence to convict people and then say they are correct because they have jailed so many. This is a clear example of rhetoric, as the number of people that they have jailed does not make them any more correct or incorrect in their judgment.
In this act, the connection that this play has to McCarthyism becomes evident, with people being accused for all manner of reasons, being threatened with death, unless they name others.

Another important part of this act is that although Elizabeth proctor supposedly cannot lie, she lies to save her husband’s face. Lying and telling the truth over the consequences is an important part of the play, and comes out here.