Towards the end of Act One we meet Proctor, he comes in to Betty’s room and as soon as he arrives Mary Warren is instructed by Proctor to leave the room. Proctor and Abigail are left alone with the ‘inert’ Betty lying on the bed. The first remark from Abigail is of obvious flirtation towards Proctor. “Gah! I’d almost forgot how strong you are…”.
In this quote it gives the impression to the audience that there might be something going on between both Abigail and Proctor. As the conversation develops we find out that Abigail did have an affair with John Proctor, but now it is over and Proctor wants nothing to do with Abigail.
Whereas Abigail feels the complete opposite, that Proctor loves her and she is not going to give up on him. “…burning in loneliness. Do you tell me you’ve never looked up at my window?” Here Abigail is almost trying to make Proctor admit that he loves her and still has feelings for her. Also it shows that Abigail thinks very highly of her self and she cannot understand why Proctor does not have feelings for her anymore.
In this Act Abigail plays a big role in what is going to happen throughout the play, and to finish it off, at the end of the Act Abigail starts to accuse people of witchcraft. “I saw Goody Hawkins with the Devil!” This quote shows how flippantly Abigail can include someone else’s name in the story to get the blame off her own self without feeling any guilt or remorse.
As we begin in Act Two the mood is very sombre. The audience is introduced again to John Proctor, now with his wife, Elizabeth. Right at the beginning of this Act we can sense the tension between these two characters, it seems that their relationship at the moment is very awkward and this might have something to do with the affair. Soon after Abigail’s name crops up in the conversation, to Proctors dismay. We now realise that the tense atmosphere is due to the affair between Abigail and Proctor, which Elizabeth has not forgiven nor forgotten. I think that especially in this part of the play Miller is trying to point out that although Abigail is not in this act she still holds a great presence in the storyline and the characters lives.
As we move further along Act Two we hear more of Abigail’s actions and their consequences on the Proctor family.
When Mary Warren returns from the court she brings with her a poppet and hands it over to Elizabeth and says it is a present from her, she made it in the court. Elizabeth takes the doll without suspicion. Soon after Mary’s arrival Hale comes to visit both John and Elizabeth to ask them a few questions about Betty. He comes in, and is followed by Giles, Francis and Cheever. While they are there Cheever notices the poppet given by Mary. “I spy a poppet, Goody Proctor”. Elizabeth tries to explain it is not hers and it was a gift from Mary Warren. Cheever continues and explains what happened to Abigail today. “…stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out”. Cheever looked closer at the poppet in Elizabeth’s house, he pulled up the skirt a saw a needle. Elizabeth was then taken away to be kept overnight in prison.
This whole event shows how Abigail can affect people’s lives with her manipulative lies. It is obvious to the audience that Abigail planted the needle into herself to get revenge on Goody Proctor, we know this because we are aware of her dishonest nature.
As we get to Act Three you can tell this is a very formal setting, a courtroom. In this act we learn more about he accused individuals. In my view this is the most important Act of all. It decides what will happen to the accused and also this is the last Act that Abigail is in. We see how both Abigail and the accused deal with the pressure of the witch trials.
For the first time in the play the audience are introduced to Danforth, the main judge in the Salem Witchcraft Trials. The first impression you get of Danforth is that he is a very strong-minded individual, although by the way that he speaks and what he says shows that he is very narrow minded and he believes only what he wants to belief to insure he is always correct.
In this Act when John Proctor comes to the court in order prove his wife’s innocence he meets Abigail, Parris and the rest of the girls. Danforth stars to ask questions to Abigail about both Betty and Elizabeth. Under pressure and not knowing what to do Abigail tries once again to shift the blame off her self by lying. Abigail turns the tables round and makes it seem that she herself is being witched. “Why do you come yellow bird?” Here Miller is trying to create some sort of dramatic irony. Abigail claims that there is a yellow bird in the courtroom but the audience clearly know she is lying. In this quote it reveals how intelligent Abigail is and how quickly she can turn things around so that she is no more in trouble. Furthermore we see that Abigail is wicked enough to throw the blame on her friend Mary Warren, “Oh, Mary, this is a black art to change your shape…” This quote shows at what lengths Abigail would go to, to keep herself in the clear. She is willing to put her own friendship on the line with Mary to say to everyone she has done nothing wrong.
After putting the blame onto Mary, it is now her turn to pass it on. Mary Warren decides to say that Proctor is witching her. He is then taken away to jail.
When we are introduced to the very last Act, the setting is in a cell, very dull and dreary. In this Act we see the consequences of all the accusing that went on throughout the play. Soon Parris enters the prison with news of his niece, Abigail. “…my niece – I believe she has vanished!” Although not said by Abigail this quote tells the audience a lot about her personality. This quote says that when Abigail realises that things are heating up too much for her she runs away from her problems instead of facing up to them. In this part of the play I think Miller is trying to say that no matter who it is Abigail is always in it for herself, she does not care who she is letting down and what she is doing to other peoples lives, she only cares about herself. I think that Abigail’s actions might have added to the emotion at the end of the play when Proctor is sent to be hung. He is sentenced to death because of Abigail, but unlike her he acts very noble and faces up to his problems instead of running away from them.
At the end of the play in Act Four, Miller chose not to show Abigail because he wanted to show how although Abigail had triggered off the events in Salem theocracy finished it off. Due to the strict laws in society it had forced Abigail to do something different to ‘liven’ things up and create controversy among the village.
In conclusion Miller portrays Abigail as a very vengeful, intelligent seventeen-year old. Throughout the play Abigail accuses people and gets away with it all the time. Overall Miller tries to show Abigail as a very manipulative girl and he also shows her as a very heartless person with no consideration towards others. Even without using witchcraft Abigail has shown what she is capable of doing and how ‘powerful’ she can be. Also she has shown that she has a great impact on other people’s lives.
