The Crucibe- The Gradual Revelation Of Abigail Williams.

Authors Avatar

Show how Miller creates tension in the gradual revelation of Abigail’s character and intentions in act one.

The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, was written with intent to tell the story of how the small community of Salem was caught in a spiralling web of lies, resulting in many innocent lives being lost. Arthur Miller begins The Crucible with Reverend Samuel Parris' daughter, Betty, lying inert on her bed and not able to wake, after fainting the night before when she was caught, by her father, dancing in the woods. Witchcraft is then feared, as the circumstances are suspicious and Parris is desperate to find out what really did happen that night in the woods. Parris' niece, Abigail Williams, is introduced and she begins to cause more suspicion, instigating rumours about other people, and, as the play unfolds, the audience see that Abigail is not what she at first seems to be and, purely due to lust, vendettas and jealousy, lives are lost and suspicion and paranoia is aroused in every home.

Arthur Miller establishes that the play is set very much in the past by using archaic language and sentence structure. When Proctor is speaking to Mary Warren, he asks her, "Be you foolish, Mary Warren?" In this particular example, 'be' in a modern context would actually mean 'are'. As an example of Miller using inverted sentence structure is when Parris says to Abigail, "Sit you down." This would be more commonly used nowadays as "You sit down," or even, "Sit down, you."

When Abigail is first introduced, Arthur Miller, describes her in stage directions as 'an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling.' To me, this means that Abigail has lots of room to lie without stopping; bringing up excuses from nowhere and putting them together. This language is very formal and deep; therefore may not be properly understood, so the connotation to Abigail's description is at first unclear, but it becomes clearer as act one proceeds and we see Abigail engage in conversation with other characters, thus revealing more about her character.

Join now!

As an audience, we see Abigail's first conversation of the play, when she is being questioned by Parris. She seems to be innocent- and she acts it- but Parris is aware that not everything is as it should be in the peaceful town of Salem and he persists, asking her questions, then reaching the subject of Abigail's departure from her services at the Proctors' home and why she was let go. He questions her on this and Abigail begins to show annoyance for the first time of the play. Parris' questioning angers her; 'Abigail (in a temper): "My name ...

This is a preview of the whole essay