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Examples Of Juxtaposition In The Crucible

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In Act three of The Crucible (1953), Arthur Miller expresses his frustration at the perpetual power grab under the façade of justice. Miller uses juxtaposition, dramatic irony, and selective dialogue in order to show how in the struggle of innocence, cold-hard facts are often overlooked in exchange for the promise of influence. The purpose of the act is to demonstrate that in every play for power, there must be pawns to manipulate and facts to twist in in order to remind the audience to compare with McCarthyism in Miller’s time and how in all power plays, there will always contain innocent losses. The implied ethical argument lies in the court of Salem where it would be better to accept the truth and sacrifice power, or perpetuate a lie and …show more content…

One example of this is in Act three with the interaction between Giles Corey and Judge Danforth. Corey, desperate to save his wife, arrives in court with all the evidence a judge could conceive in order to acquit the defendant. Not only is there ninety one people testifying to Rebecca Corey and Elizabeth Proctor’s good name, Mary Warren herself is also willing to admit that all displays of witchery were merely acts of hysteria. Reasonably, under all expectations of the law, Danforth would no longer have any reason to imprison Martha and Elizabeth. However, with several already condemned to hang, Danforth calculates that deciding the two are innocent would make him seem irresolute, leading to questioning of Danforth’s authority. This leads to further conflict, leaving Giles unsuccessful in his quest. Corey’s noble motive to save his wife stands in the way of Danforth’s struggle to keep a hold of his power and the contrast can be clearly seen. Miller applies juxtaposition between the two and showcases how in the struggle to maintain power, there’s always going to be innocents denied their

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