Abigail Williams Transformation

Ella de Beauport

Mrs. Nealis

AP Language and Composition

August 28, 2017

Adaptation vs. Stagnation

External circumstances can change people greatly but leave others completely unaffected. Fa Mu Lan from The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston is a character who represents the dynamic response. She changes remarkably in those three stages, from a shy, innocent girl to a strong warrior, to lastly becoming an affectionate mother. Contrastly, Abigail Williams from Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible demonstrates to be a static character in that she remains changeless despite the dramatic events that take place. By only looking out for herself, she maintains her manipulative, vindictive tendencies and stays selfish, as she is described to always

It is evident that Abigail is being so at the beginning of the story when she is attempting to convince John Proctor to continue their wrongful affair when she says “you loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet! John, pity me, pity me!” (Miller 24). Abigail is insulting her lover John’s wife (Elizabeth Proctor) and is trying to regain his love and affection. In writing this, Miller’s intention with the scene was to show Abigail’s fervent efforts with her words to change John’s mind. As in the beginning of the play, Abigail continues to have great selfishness and manipulative ability to get things to be done in her way. For example, later in the story, she depicts the same tendencies when Mary Warren tries to cross her or even overthrow her power. She persuades all the other girls to say her words and tries to get inside Mary’s head to make her return to their side by saying “Oh, Mary, this is black art to change your shape. No I cannot, I cannot stop my mouth; it’s God’s work I do” (Miller 115), which ultimately works. She maintains her power over Mary and the girls for her benefit. Miller uses this to show Abigail’s established dominance over the other girls. Once again, Miller shows Abigail’s remorselessness by making her wrongly influence others. Although the story develops and situations change her character traits remain the same.

Fa Mu Lan is a changing character who grows from a little girl to a renowned warrior to a kind mother. On the other hand, Abigail Williams remains stubborn, selfish, and influencing throughout her story. Their external circumstances either shape them or don’t. While they are alike because they both face challenges, Fa Mu La challenges adversity causing her to gain strength as a character and for Abigail, it is others disagreeing and conflicting