Pragmatic Analysis of the Dialogues in Arthur Miller’s Drama “The Crucible”

Abstract

Ever since its publication in 1953, The Crucible has attracted much attention for its tragic theme and vivid characterization. Reviews on The Crucible have been numerous and various in approaches. The present study mainly adopts pragmatic theories as its analytic approaches and analyzes the dialogues in The Crucible. It intends to find out how characters achieve their communicative purposes when they produce their utterances. Moreover, it is expected that this study may help shed some light on the pragmatic approach to the interpretation of drama. In this study, 16 fragments of dialogues are taken as the data for analysis. This study applies the Speech Acts Theory, the turn-control strategies, the Cooperative Principle, the Politeness Principle and the methods of Critical Discourse Analysis in data analysis. The turn-control strategies could help us learn how and why the character yields or claims a turn, and help us understand the communicative strategies of the participants. In a drama, dialogues between the characters are important ways of completing certain speech acts. The analysis of the dialogues may help us understand the real intentions of the characters. The present study carries implications for English teaching, the appreciation of drama and daily communication. Teaching turn-control strategies to students can help them communicate more successfully. The study of the theories and methods of Critical Discourse Analysis may improve students’ critical language awareness. The application of pragmatic theories to the appreciation of drama contributes to the revelation of the real intentions of characters, and helps us understand how the playwright displays the story, portrays the characters and expresses his /her intentions through various language skills.

Keywords: Key words: Pragmatic Analysis; Speech Acts; Turn-control Strategies; Critical Discourse Analysis Arthur Miller, The Crucible .

DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/61-06

Publication date:October 31^st 2019