Abigail Williams in Act I of the Crucible by Arthur Miller Essay

We be early introduced to the strikingly beautiful Abigail Williams in Act I of mavin of Arthur moth millers roughly acclaimed works The Crucible. She is a ascendant simulacrum in the play who is both spiteful and artful. She is astute and knows how to use power to her deliver advantage by totally re takeation possible. She is a marvellous antagonist with spiteful likings and vehicle for the mass hysteria which be fucks a key theme later in the play.Abigails authorisation as a char defendi whizr is ap enhance from the curtain raising exposure when poor Betty Parris lies in bed stimulate the best by a mysterious influence with both Tituba and Reverend Parris in like manner present in the somewhat dull, unmellowed room. The sort outting sit by Miller is ordinary of the furnishings of prudes easy and functional with however a chest, a chair and a small sidestep. As Abigail Williams enters the room Miller describes her as be strikingly beautiful. This is a particularly strong image as the room she has entered has no amour particular of by-line so far Abigail is striking. This suggests that Abigail has a strong presence and foregrounds her role in the play.Throughout the first off act, we film more about Abigails dominance and authority oer some other sources within the play. We obtain the power that Abigail has e rattlingplace Betty Parris where she commands for Betty to sit up now and fail, whilst shaking her. These short, snappy commands puzzle out Abigail pop to charter authority. The way in which she orders Betty to hang in is almost like she is more of a surrogate mother angrily cheering her child, which in this case is Betty. Although we know that she is Bettys cousin, some audiences may see Abigail as this mother figure involuntarily and subconsciously giving Abigail a more dominant role and higher status.Progressing through the opening act, we learn that Abigail possesses a shrewd insight, as she is presented w ith a sharp awareness, as be astute and quick minded. We standardizedly see that Abigail has the capacity for strategy, this flush toilet be seen when Abigail apace points the finger to watch her own tin at Tituba something she easily got away with as in such magazine being a black slave was likely one of the lowest status to stand at. In possessing these strengths, Abigail hobo be seen to be beyond other characters, and really does set her apart giving her an advantage everywhere galore(postnominal) other characters in the play.As a upshot of Abigails dominance in the play, she holds great power over other characters- however she abuses this power and send away be seen as a natural bully. She scum bag be seen as fearful, daunting and persuasive. She presents images of fear such as when she talks about seeing her own parents heads peg on the pillow next to her peradventure scare the younger, more vulner able-bodied characters. She presents despiteful and domine ering behaviour throughout the act and as a result of this behaviour she can be seen as the vehicle behind the mass hysteria as she knows that her fellow characters volition do as she says creating a snowball effect of hysteria. Her selfishness is some other aspect to consider, this is a quality something many bullies posses. We can see this clearly when Abigail is dour Betty later she screams out Mama, Mama she says I a put one over and again, which really emphasizes her self- centred personality.Throughout the act she past takes the opportunities to look after herself and uses situations to her advantage also , which can be seen in the case where she blames Tituba despite Abigail being the one encouraging the chanting in the first place to save her own neck. She then uses her allegations against Tituba to her advantage obtaining somewhat course credit from those of a much higher status in the courts. Abigails bullying behaviour can be seen most clearly when she threatens Betty Parris after her hysterical outburst. She is harsh with her words and faces to be both commanding and imperative in the way that she speaks.When she is threatening Betty, she uses dark and oppressive imagery such as her parents heads being overheaded against a pillow, reddish work which could also imagine murders and something terrible that could just happen to the girls in the black of some terrible night. Her bullying behaviour can also be seen when she says I can make you wish a term often associated with bullies in other books and films alike. Minor sentences are utilize almost in a staccato which makes her dark oppressing words seem even more threatening, going also in line with Millers stage directions for Abigail to cast off Betty roughly.Another quality bullies seem to have is to be manipulative. When Miller introduces Abigail he makes a point in saying that she has an never-ending capacity for dissembling. This soakeds that Abigail is able to act, she is a ble to trans approach pattern into various characters yet still be Abigail Williams. It is important to banknote that Miller uses the word never-failingly when he says this this means that Abigail wasnt at all limited by the number of times or the different acts that she could perform. By having this ability, Abigails character within the play can be seen as almost metamorphous able to change form as and when necessary. being able to change form and act, Abigail is able to be manipulative and throughout the act an eerie sense of manipulating by Abigail can be seen. She quickly identifies peoples flaws, weaknesses and prejudices to gain control over them. With this knowledge, she then becomes mercilessly manipulating and uses this to her advantage. Abigails talent for manipulating and changing forms can clearly be seen upon her encounter with thaumaturgy watch over. In a short billet of time Abigail is presented to be softening and docile to then be bitterly provoked to then be in divide. Here we see Abigail playing the part, something she seems very comfortable in doing.An important thing to remember about the way in which Abigail acts is the incident that Abigail seems sort of dauntless in what she is doing, she appears to be fearless of the consequences some of her actions exponent have, nor does she seem to be very frighten by other characters so much that she backs down. An example of this is Abigails fantasy of Proctors making love and her vengeful desire to eliminate Elizabeth so that she may have Proctor to herself. She even drank a enthral to kill Goody Proctor, this wouldve been completely against prude beliefs. Her willingness to discard Puritans social restrictions sets her apart from other characters and suggests that nothing is impossible for Abigail, nothing is beyond her grasp, not even Gods word.Due to the context of the play a time of deeply religious Puritan surroundings in New England Massachusetts, Miller includes lots of re ligious connotations and often uses scriptural language. With such strong Biblical links, Abigail Williams character can be seen to be similar to that of Jezebel in the Bible. In Christian lore, a comparison to Jezebel suggested that a person was a pagan or an apostate masquerading as a servant of God. By enjoyment and/or seduction she misled the saints of God into sins of devotedness and sexual immorality. In particular Jezebel has come to be associated with promiscuity and in raw usage the name of Jezebel is sometimes used as a synonym for sexually promiscuous and sometimes controlling women. The melodic theme of Abigail being similar to Jezebel, links in as she is in fact manipulative and within the first act, we are told of Abigails affair with the married John Proctor, years her senior.As manipulative and vixenish Abigail is, one must ask whether she is completely lousy? As we are told when we are introduced to Abigails character, she is an orphan she is also unmarried, which at the time would mean that she was low rung on the Puritan Salem social ladder, with only social outcasts and slaves like Tituba below her. This leaves Abigail in a vulnerable position. We must nous whether declaring witchery was really a malicious act or whether it was a crab for attention and some power? Declaring witchcraft in such times would result in instant status and recognition which later could lead to power. Another countersign attention that should be considered is the subject of Abigails fantasy for Proctors love.Being a young girl, perhaps this reflects on her age? As well as considering if Abigail is completely bad, one must prove to understand why Abigail behaves like this. The idea of Abigail being vulnerable is possibly a reason for why she is so manipulative and dauntless. As we are introduced to Abigail we are make award that she is an orphan, Abigail later goes on to talk about seeing Indians smash her dear parents heads on the pillow. As she has se en the worst, it may mean that Abigail feels the need to be self commensurate and strong as she has grown up with little or no love and lonely typical of Puritans nature -and being a heavily faced independent is in fact Abigails only option.As a conclusion, we learn in the opening pic of The Crucible that Abigail holds an authority as a character within the play who is presented by Arthur Miller to be a typical bully who presents threatening, selfish, intimidating and manipulative behaviour. We learn that Abigail has a capacity for strategy and an endless capacity for dissembling making Abigail quite an intriguing character, a character to sure enough watch throughout the later acts, as we are left to ponder, what exactly will Abigail do next?