The Crucible Act 2 Passage Analysis

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The fourth act of the play begins with a transition from the tragic atmosphere of the first half of the play to the more comic second half of the play. Time is personified as a narrator who informs the audience that sixteen years have passed since the day of the trial, “Impute it not a crime/To me or my swift passage, that I slide/O'er sixteen years and leave the growth untried” (4. 1. 4-7). Time apologises for the large passage of time between the trial and the current time in the play, referring to his own passage as “my swift passage”. He asks that the audience forgive him for not depicting what happens in the intervening passage, “Impute it not a crime…that I…leave the growth untried”. Furthermore, Time sets the scene by stating that the