ENGLISH: ENCOUNTERING CONFLICT

Character Study: Abigail Williams

A woman among girls, Abigail Williams is the leading antagonist in The Crucible. Arthur Miller presents an incredibly strong willed and malicious schemer in the 17 year old who can be credited as being the main instigator of the Salem Witch trials. While many of the audience would dismissively label Abigail’s character “evil” without a second thought, the young woman is truly remarkable if you examine not her actions, but how they were executed. She is marvellously manipulative, controlling all of those around her for her own ends which primarily are securing John Proctor and exacting her revenge upon his wife Elizabeth Proctor and other women in Salem, for which her motivations are numerous.

Not much is known about Abigail’s history except the significant revelation that her parents were butchered in front of her by savage Indians “heads smashed on the pillow next to mine”. No doubt such a horrific event traumatised the young Abigail, forcing her to grow up beyond her years and fend for herself. Obviously no love is lost between Abigail and the hypocritical and society- conscious Revered Parris, her presence resented in the household of her remaining family “Do you begrudge my bed Uncle?”. The reader is left to realise Abigail has been probably neglected and lacked any resemblance love for most of her life. This could aptly account for the root of Abigail’s obsession with John Proctor, her desperate need for “a soft word”. The affections of John Proctor may very well be the first love she has known since her parents’ brutal murder. Abigail could view her parents’ death akin to betrayal, for after all she has been left alone to live with her oppressive Uncle, and when John Proctor tries to dismiss their intimate affair this second betrayal obviously caused Abigail in her fragile mental state to snap.

In the opening scene of the play, it is revealed Abigail and several girls from the village danced in the forest, while conjuring spirits with the black slave Tituba. The audience witnesses Abigail first manipulation of The Crucible’s characters when she threatens the girls in order to keep their silence “ I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” and skilfully deflects blame from herself by accusing Tituba of witchcraft, holding the slave responsible for Abigail’s own sins committed due to her suffocation in the puritan society “she’s always making me dream corruptions”. Of course this move was incredibly selfish but its tactical skill must be appreciated, as Tituba was a Barbados native and as such her social status, ebony skin and cultural background render her distrusted by the 17th century, puritan society of Salem. As there was already hard evidence of conjuring against Tituba with the eye-witness account of Reverend Parris, any defence the slave made would only further Abigail’s case, a poor victim of a Barbados savage ramblings. Even so early on in the play, Abigail is seen to very resourceful albeit ruthless in getting her own way.

While maintaining her authority over the village girls, fuelling the mass hysteria that grips Salem and causes frenzied females to fake fainting and hallucinate spirits, in the midst of the madness Abigail Williams skilfully and subtlety casts suspicion upon Elizabeth Proctor. She does this through Mary Warren, a pitifully malleable character who is simply a pawn of Abigail’s. Mirroring voodoo superstitions, a “poppet” in which a silver needle is embedded, is used to frame John Proctor’s wife who threw Abigail out of her house “onto the high road” upon learning of her husband’s lecherous affair. Abigail has powerful cause to resent this woman, who is not only married to the man she loves, but Elizabeth’s cold dismissal of her was of great embarrassment for Abigail, and the entire village of Salem gossips about the teenager “I will not have it said my name is soiled” It is evident Abigail abhors Elizabeth “a lying, cold, snivelling woman”, and is relentless in her poisonous rage deluded in thinking John Proctor will love Abigail again when his wife is gone. Elizabeth Proctor is Abigail’s main source of conflict in The Crucible and the girl goes to extraordinary measures to obtain revenge on the “gossiping liar”.

In the end, Abigail is almost undone in the court room when Mary Warren is brought to testify. However Abigail is far too clever and she is able to wriggle her way out of seeming damning evidence. This is partly due to Mary Warren being an incredibly weak and pitiful character; the Peter Pettigrew to Abigail’s Lord Voldemort. It is unfortunate John Proctor pinned his hopes on such a spineless jellyfish. Mary Warren has no guts, she is too chicken to even join the village girls dancing in the forest “I never done none of it Abby, I only looked.” She is the first to bow under pressure from the adults, afraid for her own skin “MARY WARREN, frightened for herself” . Although she is part of the girls’ pranks in court and sends innocent women such as Goody Nurse to hang, she crumples when questioned alone by a livid John Proctor and betrays the girls. She is not worried about betraying her friends out of loyalty, only of getting in trouble “ I cannot, they’ll turn on me-”. However, in typical cowardly behaviour, she turns on John Proctor in court, due to Abigail’s crafty manipulation and through a cowardly fear of punishment from Danforth. Although controlling Mary Warren does not take much of Abigail’s skill, she is still seen to at the same time, persuade an entire courtroom of her innocence and other’s guilt. This speaks for her undoubtable intelligence for not only does she successfully execute her plans for revenge, she is never apprehended or held responsible for the 17 “witches” hung due to events she set in motion.

Driven by fear, lust and primarily revenge, Miss Abigail Williams is certainly the most intriguing character in The Crucible. She is the pyromaniac, who struck the first match for the fires that raged through Salem, and though her actions are horrible, her cunning and brilliance of character are undisputable.