Character Sketch of Abigail
Introduction
Abigail Williams also known as Abby Williams is the most complex female character in "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller. Unlike Rebecca Nurse - the wise and saintly old woman, Elizabeth Proctor - the frigid and betrayed wife, Mary Warren - the girl who just wants to feel important and fit in with the cool kids, or Tituba - the slave who was forced into saving herself by accusing others of witchcraft. Abigail's character cannot be neatly labeled as just one thing. Instead, there is a complex interaction of different motivations that lead Abigail to act as she does during the events of the play. She is deftly characterized throughout the play through Miller's stage directions, what other characters say about her, and through her own actions and dialogues. Salient features of her character are as following;
1. Chillin Like a Villain
Sometimes literature throws us a bone in the form of a really awesome antagonist. Someone we hate ... but find totally magnetic. Someone who chills us to the core ... but we can't stop watching. Abigail Williams is vengeful, selfish, manipulative, and a magnificent liar. This strikingly beautiful young lady of seventeen years old seems to be uniquely gifted at spreading death and destruction wherever she goes. She has an eerie sense of how to manipulate others and gain control over them. She is the pebble that gets the avalanche of the Salem witch trails started. She sends nineteen innocent people to their deaths. These things make her an awesome antagonist.
2. A Pathological Liar
Abigail is an accomplished and convincing liar - she lies easily, without any compunction or care for the truth, and can keep lies going. From the very introduction, Miller tells the reader of the play that Abigail has "an endless capacity for dissembling", and she spends the rest of her time onstage living up to this description. Part of Abigail's success in convincing others of her lies stems from her ability get herself to believe the lies. This occurs in Act 3 in the Salem court - Abigail manages to convince herself that she's being afflicted to the point where she goes into a fit that has real physical side-effects. A large part of Abigail's believability, though, comes from societal preconceptions - it's unthinkable that such a lowly girl would dare lie to someone important i.e. her uncle, the Deputy Governor of the Province.
3. A Single-Minded Girl
In addition to being an accomplished liar, Abigail is also extremely single-minded. When she wants something, she goes for it; if one method doesn't work, she's happy to go with Plan B. A good example of this is Abigail's pursuit of John Proctor. Because Abigail wants John Proctor for herself, she gets Tituba to make her a potion to kill Goody Proctor. When that doesn't work, she pleads with John to take her back; when that doesn't work she accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft and manages to get her arrested. By the time this backfires (John Proctor is also accused of witchcraft), Abigail is too deep in it to say anything, even if she wanted to - protesting his arrest would draw suspicion back onto her.
4. An Opportunistic Girl
Abigail is opportunistic. She seizes the chance to divert blame from herself and Betty by accusing Tituba of making them do bad things. Once Abigail has gained power as an "afflicted child", she seizes the chance to accuse Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft and get her out of the picture that way. Furthermore, when Elizabeth falters under Danforth's questioning and doesn't admit Abigail was dismissed because Abigail slept with John Proctor, Abigail seizes upon that too and strengthens her position by screaming and going into a fit before Hale can explain further about what he means by "This girl has always struck me as false!". And when neighbouring towns like Andover overthrow their witch trials and it looks like being someone who accused others of witchcraft might not be so safe anymore, Abigail grabs Parris's savings and leaves town.
1. Chillin Like a Villain
Sometimes literature throws us a bone in the form of a really awesome antagonist. Someone we hate ... but find totally magnetic. Someone who chills us to the core ... but we can't stop watching. Abigail Williams is vengeful, selfish, manipulative, and a magnificent liar. This strikingly beautiful young lady of seventeen years old seems to be uniquely gifted at spreading death and destruction wherever she goes. She has an eerie sense of how to manipulate others and gain control over them. She is the pebble that gets the avalanche of the Salem witch trails started. She sends nineteen innocent people to their deaths. These things make her an awesome antagonist.
2. A Pathological Liar
Abigail is an accomplished and convincing liar - she lies easily, without any compunction or care for the truth, and can keep lies going. From the very introduction, Miller tells the reader of the play that Abigail has "an endless capacity for dissembling", and she spends the rest of her time onstage living up to this description. Part of Abigail's success in convincing others of her lies stems from her ability get herself to believe the lies. This occurs in Act 3 in the Salem court - Abigail manages to convince herself that she's being afflicted to the point where she goes into a fit that has real physical side-effects. A large part of Abigail's believability, though, comes from societal preconceptions - it's unthinkable that such a lowly girl would dare lie to someone important i.e. her uncle, the Deputy Governor of the Province.
3. A Single-Minded Girl
In addition to being an accomplished liar, Abigail is also extremely single-minded. When she wants something, she goes for it; if one method doesn't work, she's happy to go with Plan B. A good example of this is Abigail's pursuit of John Proctor. Because Abigail wants John Proctor for herself, she gets Tituba to make her a potion to kill Goody Proctor. When that doesn't work, she pleads with John to take her back; when that doesn't work she accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft and manages to get her arrested. By the time this backfires (John Proctor is also accused of witchcraft), Abigail is too deep in it to say anything, even if she wanted to - protesting his arrest would draw suspicion back onto her.
4. An Opportunistic Girl
Abigail is opportunistic. She seizes the chance to divert blame from herself and Betty by accusing Tituba of making them do bad things. Once Abigail has gained power as an "afflicted child", she seizes the chance to accuse Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft and get her out of the picture that way. Furthermore, when Elizabeth falters under Danforth's questioning and doesn't admit Abigail was dismissed because Abigail slept with John Proctor, Abigail seizes upon that too and strengthens her position by screaming and going into a fit before Hale can explain further about what he means by "This girl has always struck me as false!". And when neighbouring towns like Andover overthrow their witch trials and it looks like being someone who accused others of witchcraft might not be so safe anymore, Abigail grabs Parris's savings and leaves town.
5. A Calculating Sociopath
An easy, surface explanation of Abigail's character is to label her as a calculating sociopath, and there is some evidence that supports this claim. In Act 1, Abigail does seize upon the opportunity to divert blame from herself to first Tituba and Ruth, then just Tituba, then to women with questionable reputations like Sarah Good, Goody Osburn, and Bridget Bishop. She doesn't care at all about the fates of the women being blamed - she's just accusing them to further her own ends. In Act 3, Miller describes Abigail as staring Mary Warren down "remorselessly", furthermore, Abigail seems to deliberately focus on Mary Warren as the cause of both of her fits. Finally, in Act 4, we learn Abigail has stolen her uncle's money and run away. When viewed through the lens of "calculating person who does not feel emotion", the reasons for Abigail's actions become very simple: she acts as she does because she has no empathy for others and cares only for herself.
6. Historical Abigail
Abigail Williams was a real person, and she did spearhead the group of girls who saw spirits and pointed out the witches in Salem. The historical person was a bit different than the fictional character. Arthur Miller explained that one discovery he made while digging into the actual history of the Salem Witch Trails set his imagination of fire: Abigail Williams, the mover and shaker of the witch-finding craze, had been the Proctors's house servant for a short time. While there is no actual evidence that the real John Proctor and the real Abigail Williams had an affair, Miller could find no good reason why Abigail distinguished so vehemently between the guilt of a husband and wife. So Arthur Miller took creative license with her character to make the connection between sexuality and politics more dramatic.
7. Relationship with the Parris Family
Abigail is Reverend Parris's niece and so Betty Parris's cousin; she lives with the Parris family because her parents were killed by local American Indian tribe. We mainly see Abigail's interactions with her family in Act 1, when Betty is lying unresponsive on the bed and Parris is freaking out about what people are going to say and how it is going to affect how he is perceived in the town. It is unclear whether Abigail actually cares about Betty, or if she is just worried that if Betty doesn't wake up she'll get in even bigger trouble. Because Abigail is an orphan in a society that does not value women, she is force to depend on her uncle's kindness and avoid upsetting him or risk being thrown out to live on her own without any means to do so. Abigail has a somewhat mixed relationship with the third member of the Parris household, Tituta.
8. Relationship with Proctors
Abigail is the former servant of John and Elizabeth Proctor. Over the course of the first two acts, it is revealed that Abigail used to work for the Proctors but had an affair with John; she was kicked out when Elizabeth confronted John with her suspicions and he confessed. By the time the play begins, Abigail still loves John, but the feeling that does not appear to be mutual, as John won't continue the affair with her. The relationship between Abigail and John Proctor changes even further the course of the play; by Act 3, Abigail no longer cares about John as much and makes no move to halt his arrest and hanging for witchcraft. Abigail and Elizabeth have a mutual dislike, although the feeling is much stronger on Abigail's side than Elizabeth's.
9. Relationship with Other Girls
Abigail appears to be friends with Mercy Lewis and Mary Warren. Mercy and Abigail seem to have a sort of partners-in-crime type of friendship - Abigail likes Mercy well enough to warn her by telling her what Parris has told Abigail he knows about the woods. On the other hand, Abigail appears to have nothing but disdain for Mary Warren, and is perfectly fine with bullying her. Along with Ruth Putnam and Betty Parris, Abigail, Mercy, and Mary were in the woods with Tituba; along with Susanna Walcott, the girls form the core of the group of "afflicted" girls who accuse others of witchcraft during the trials. By Act 3, Abigail no longer fears anybody because of how much she has risen in status and how much authority she has gained. She even faces off against Danforth and gets him to back down from questioning her.
It's very easy and good
ReplyDelete