In act one of 'The Crucible' Arthur Miller uses many dramatic techniques in order to emphasize the events that he is describing and to suggest there relevance to us today. One technique that he often uses is that he stops the main dialogue and has an intermission which is almost always entirely factual. These intermissions often describe different characters or events that are happening in the play. They serve a number of purposes, first of all to set the scene and to give you an idea of what these people are like and their background. For example...
enclosed and mistrustful the people in this society were but also how they were actually very human. For example with John Proctor we see someone who has made mistakes and has done stupid things like to cheat on his wife with Abigail. However isn't it normal and human to make mistakes? So although we look at his character and think how badly he has acted and how deceitful he has been we must also realize that we also make bad mistakes even though they might not be quite as bad as the one John Proctor made.