Why is Act 3 of The Crucible described as the most dramatic?

I think that a case can be made for any of the acts
containing drama.  The first act with the accusations being flung around at its end is
extremely dramatic as it sets everything in the drama in motion.  The second act's drama
lies in the tension between Elizabeth and John, and her arrest, with Hale being both
helper and agent of resistance.  The final act is powerful in Proctor's evolution before
the audience's eyes. This play contains drama everywhere.

I
think that the primary reason why Act III can be seen as the most dramatic is because it
represents the "showdown."  In all such moments where there is a showdown of sorts
between protagonist and antagonist, drama is present.  Act II closes with Proctor
screaming about how everyone is "naked" in the "icy winds" of judgment and how if
Abigail is going to pursue her accusations, he will proceed to expose her as a fraud,
even if that means he will suffer as a result.  It also ends with Mary Warren weeping
that she "cannot" face Abigail and accuse her.  It is within this framework where the
reader recognizes that one way or another, this drama will unfold.  In Act III, the
tension rises also because of the configuration of how the courtroom operates.  Danforth
and Herrick are convinced in the authenticity of the court procedures and in what they
do.  Along with the accusations and the defense lobbied by their loved ones, this adds
to the tension.

The idea that those who are brought in
front of the courtroom must follow court procedure in order to clear their names helps
to add drama.  Those accused must disavow that they were ever witches, confess their
love for accepted religion, and then, in order to prove their faith, accuse others for
crimes they may or may not have committed.  It is not merely good enough to declare
innocence in such a setting.  One must declare, repent, convert, and then accuse in one
setting.  This, in its own configuration, is dramatic because it involves so much in
terms of conflict.  Giles Corey is thrown in jail because of his refusal to follow such
a code.  Francis Nurse sees the 91 people whose names he sought in defense of his wife
and Proctor's wife all become suspects.  Proctor himself cannot bring himself to admit
that Parris is a religious man, nor can he stand to see Abigail and her crew tear down
Mary.  His intense reactions to her testimony in this legal setting only add to this
drama.

This, of course, bring the height of the drama to
the forefront in Abigail Williams.  Interestingly enough, she does not appear much in
the play, but she is the catalyst for everything in it.  Abigail's presence is
dramatic.  When she fakes seeing the devil in the courtroom, mocks Mary, gets the other
girls to mock her, and then play innocent, there is drama present.  When she threatens
to leave the courtroom and then portray herself as a victim, something that Danforth
believes, to an extent, and John derides, calling her a "whore" repeatedly, drama is
present.  The moment of intense drama has to come when the triangle of John, Abigail,
and Elizabeth is constructed, where the wife can only see the backs of her husband and
his lover.  In an instant, she lies to protect the name of her husband, a name that he
himself has already sullied in the attempt to bring down Abigail.  In this, there is
drama.  With the en of the act, Proctor has declared God to be dead, and there is
intensity all around.  That's fairly dramatic.