Language in the Play

Miller uses language to give the play an historic feel while still making it understandable for a modern audience. It is important that he creates a sense of the time in which these people live, in large part due to the simplicity of the staging of the play.

His methods: 1. Old fashioned forms of address  Goody, Good wife, Mister

2. Unusual verb forms  He have his goodness now instead of He has…  I am thirty-three times in court rather than I have been in court thirty-three times

3. Use of archaisms (words which are no longer in use)  Poppet for doll

4. Biblical references  I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face.  You are pulling Heaven down and raising up a whore

5. Use of imagery  His eyes were like coals and his fingers claw my neck  Lilacs have a purple smell  Life is God’s most precious gift