Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible

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Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible Throughout the play “the Crucible,” we see the many different sides of Abigail Williams’ character. Arthur Miller has created an interesting and complex character with various personality traits, and her controlling and manipulative nature becomes evident for the audience during the very first scene. Abigail is first introduced as “seventeen, a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan…”, already the audience is made to feel sorry for her as we find out that she has no parents. Also, because we are told she is full of “apprehension and worry,” leads us to like her because she appears genuinely concerned for the well-being of her cousin. Already, before she has even begun to speak, we have an opinion of Abigail, we are attracted to her by her actions and because of her distressing background we feel sympathy for her. Soon, we find out Abigail and Betty were discovered dancing in the forest by Parris, which is an action linked to witchcraft. This could be an indication that Abigail is not what at first she might seem, although the dancing could have been harmless. Abigail seems to be innocent when she replies to Parris’ question with, “uncle, we did dance….ill be whipped if I must be.” She realises she has done wrong and is prepared to be punished, the audience still believe she is harmless at this stage. A little further on, we are led to question the character of Abigail again. She has been continually defiant throughout this scene, and is constantly denying the truth. Parris, her uncle, questions her saying, “your name in the town-it is entirely white, is it not?” Abigail is h... ... middle of paper ... ...he hysteria linked to witchcraft around 1692. Miller also wrote the play as a way of making his political comment through the events in Salem. In his opinion, witchcraft was wrong in Salem and communism was wrong in America, this was going on around the time when Miller wrote the play, in 1950. Sociology is an important theme throughout the play. Abigail is almost a hypocrite, she has so many different sides to her character. She has the ability to control, overrule and manipulate, and as an audience we can see throughout the play she is constantly showing her ability to dissemble, to get into the minds of those around her, and influence their actions. Miller has been successful in creating a character that has the power to deceive everyone, and her domineering nature is portrayed continually throughout the play.

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