In the Crucible, Arthur Miller uses diction to express the different personalities of the different characters. Diction is just word choice used in a writing piece. Arthur Miller uses different kinds of diction in his writing of the Crucible. He used legalistic precision, metaphors, similes, and other types figurative language. The use of his diction had an affect on his writing, it showed differences in characters, expressed their personalities, and it had an effect on character responses. Diction has an effect on character responses. The different characters had different relationships with each other and diction was used to show what one thought about the other. One example would be John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth. John was already
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Quietly--she suddenly lost all faith in him, Do as you wish then. She starts to turn.
JOHN. Woman! She turns to him. I’ll not have your suspicion anymore. (Miller 1124)
In response to Elizabeth, John gets angry and then in response to John, Elizabeth loses faith. Diction helps show that through this conversation. The use of legalistic precision helps reveal the honesty that is shared between the both of them. When Elizabeth was being suspicious of John, John got angry in response. Therefore John got angry because of the words that Elizabeth chose to say. Diction had an effect on character response here. The use of diction helped differentiate the characters. The different characters all had a similar way of thinking and responding. The use of diction helped differentiate them. In Act 1 there is a conversation with several of the girls that were accused of being witches when they were caught dancing in the woods. Abigail and the girls are in Betty’s room talking as Mary Warren comes to join them.
MARY WARREN. What’ll we do? The village is out! I just come from the farm; the whole country’s talkin’ witchcraft! They’ll be callin’ us witches, Abby!
MERCY. Pointing and looking at MARY WARREN She means to tell, I know
Quietly--she suddenly lost all faith in him, Do as you wish then. She starts to turn.
JOHN. Woman! She turns to him. I’ll not have your suspicion anymore. (Miller 1124)
In response to Elizabeth, John gets angry and then in response to John, Elizabeth loses faith. Diction helps show that through this conversation. The use of legalistic precision helps reveal the honesty that is shared between the both of them. When Elizabeth was being suspicious of John, John got angry in response. Therefore John got angry because of the words that Elizabeth chose to say. Diction had an effect on character response here. The use of diction helped differentiate the characters. The different characters all had a similar way of thinking and responding. The use of diction helped differentiate them. In Act 1 there is a conversation with several of the girls that were accused of being witches when they were caught dancing in the woods. Abigail and the girls are in Betty’s room talking as Mary Warren comes to join them.
MARY WARREN. What’ll we do? The village is out! I just come from the farm; the whole country’s talkin’ witchcraft! They’ll be callin’ us witches, Abby!
MERCY. Pointing and looking at MARY WARREN She means to tell, I know