As Mary is first questioned, she appears to lose the ability to speak, and how can she possibly win an argument without speech and persuasion? The gap with the absence of Mary Warren’s answers immediately becomes saturated with tension as the audience are left wondering whether she will go through with her accusation; they realise that Mary may know that agreeing with Abigail’s testimony, saying that Proctor forced her to come to court on his wife’s behalf might well be easier on her, giving her less time in jail and less grievous consequences entirely. At this point, Mary knows that she will be facing incarceration for lying either way. Proctor’s attempt to ease the situation by making what should be Mary’s statement, ‘she saw no spirits,’ relieves some of the build-up of tension, simply by breaking the silence. Danforth is surprised by this revelation; he is acknowledging that this could be true as by admitting this, she will go to jail, which surely she would not do unless it were for a genuine cause. However, the hope is short lived as Mary’s speech is mumbled; ‘It were pretence, Sir,’ so much so that Danforth responds with, ‘I cannot hear you.’ The audience are thinking that she is too weak and nervous for the story to possibly end well; they desire her to be confident, speaking with clarity and fluidity, hence making her story more believable. Mary continues to use short declarative sentences;’ Aye, Sir,’ reflecting her anxiety, yet Danforth could choose to interpret this as being due to her being untruthful, as he doesn’t want to be proved wrong as he has already sentenced many to death on the grounds of witchcraft, and that would ruin his reputation, and the audience know it. Miller makes you feel sympathetic towards Mary, especially when Danforth is bombarding her with questions; ‘Ah, and the other girls? Susanna Walcott, and the others? They are also pretending?’ I think the audience can easily imagine what that amount of pressure must feel like, and once more, doubt the chance of a positive outcome when she, as such a feeble character, is in such a tense situation; will she crumble under the pressure? Perhaps the audience shouldn’t feel sorry for Mary, as not only was she forced into court by Proctor, proving she would happily let others die to avoid challenging Abigail, and it is partially her fault for not initially standing up to Abigail; if she’d have admitted to exactly what the girls had been doing, and why, the witchcraft hysteria could have been prevented. Danforth should not be using exclusively interrogative sentences like he is, as it is his job to listen to both sides without bias, and make a judgement. It is quite ironic that he is sentencing so many to death, particularly with no evidence, as it is against his religion to kill; seemingly, his reputation is the only thing of importance.
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