Abigail Williams in Act One of The Crucible by Arthur Miller

How Arthur Miller Establishes the Character and Motivation of Abigail Williams in Act One and How She is Not to be Trusted

Arthur Miller wrote ‘The Crucible’ in the 1950’s during the Cold War.

The play is a study in the mass hysteria which led to the 1692 Salem

witchcraft trials. It shows the consequences of being accused as a

witch. The reason for a witch hunt is because it is a sign of the

devil and in Salem no one is more superior than God. The people of the

town live for God, respect God and die even for God.

Abigail Williams is the main character in ‘The Crucible’. She is 17

but despite her age she is very deceitful, fraudulent and malicious.

She only cares about herself and will do anything to get what she

wants even if it means lying when in the house and court of God.

The way that Arthur Miller shows us that Abigail is not to be trusted

throughout the play is by the use of language, the stage directions

and the way she contradicts herself. In the first few introductory

lines Arthur Miller describes Abigail as ‘A strikingly beautiful girl,

an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling’ this instantly

makes the reader form a negative opinion of Abigail and makes them

suspicious of her character.

In the first scene Tituba ‘Negro slave’ enters the room where Abigail

and Reverend Parris are standing around the bed in which Betty lays.

Reverend Parris is the most respected man in the village due to the

fact that he is the minister (highest priest). Betty is his daughter

who is seemingly bewitched and will not wake, Abigail; his niece.

Abigail and other girls were seen by Reverend Parris dancing in the

virgin forest which...

... middle of paper ...

...tending to be

bewitched) wakes and accuses Martha Bellows.

From all of this it is made extremely clear than Abigail is a

deceitful, devious, fraudulent girl and she should never ever be

trusted.

To conclude Arthur Miller shows us in the stage directions and in the

way Abigail changes her behaviour depending on who she is with, that

she’s a liar and she will say anything to get out of being punished.

She knows she is not the sort of girl people in Salem would approve of

and she knows she will be punished if her affair with John Proctor is

discovered. We also know Abigail’s obsessed with John Proctor and she

despises his wife. Her cruelty is revealed in the way she treats

Betty, threatens other girls and accuses Tituba in order to save

herself and this is the way Miller shows how Abigail is not to be

trusted.