Abigail is caught in a lie when Mrs Putnam says that they were conjuring spirits because she sent her daughter Ruth to contact her 7 deceased babies to find out who killed them, Abigail said that they didn’t do any conjuring at all. When Abigail is caught she blames it on Tituba and Ruth, if she was conjuring spirits she would have been hanged.
Miller portrays Abby as vicious and focused, she says to the other girls ‘let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other thing, and I come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you’. She threatens all the girls to make sure that she doesn’t get hanged, before she says this she hits Betty and this has an effect on the girls watching. I think that something that may also affect Abigail is that she saw her parents murdered by Native Americans; she is traumatised by the experience and she has seen people die and she knows how to kill, also Miller doesn’t allow anything to make Abigail seem nice in anyway, he doesn’t make any exceptions.
Later in the scene Miller reveals the relationship between Abigail and Proctor. In the stage directions on page 17 Miller says that Abigail is ‘absorbing’ Proctors presence, and she is standing ‘on tiptoe’, so Miller is showing that Abigail really likes John Proctor and in this is coming on to him.
She becomes angry with Proctor because she is infatuated with him but Proctor doesn’t reciprocate Abigail’s feelings.
I think the audience can feel some pity for Abigail, she is trying so hard to get Proctor to like her and all he does is push her away, we have to also remember that she is only 17 at the time and this is probably the first man she has been with.
Miller makes the audience think that Abigail is evil, she accuses a lower class citizen because she knows she can get away with it, she says ‘she makes me drink blood’, but even though Tituba was considered lower class the bible says that everyone should be treated equally.
She does it because she is already in the clear, Mrs Putnam then says that they should be hanged and then Tituba confesses, when she does this Hale says ‘we will protect you’, so after she confesses she is immediately comforted. Tituba then says all the names so she can get off, Tituba says the names that were put into her head by Mrs Putnam. Abigail then follows saying that she will follow God and starts saying names, Abigail says the names of all the women she doesn’t like in the village though.
Miller sets the start of Act 3 in the meeting house. The girls are brought to tell if Mary is telling the truth or whether Abigail and the rest of the girls are telling the truth. Abigail seems to be a cunning character because she is playing the game. As Abigail’s and Danforth’s conversation continues Abigail threatens Danforth, when she says ‘I done my duty pointing out the devils people and this is my reward! To be mistrusted, denied and questioned like a,’ this has a huge effect on the audience because if she can accuse Danforth she can accuse anyone.
When Abigail finally realises that she has stepped out of line she quickly gets the court to turn against Mary Warren she says that Mary Warren has sent her ‘spirit out’ and is attacking Abigail. Proctor then a huge risk as the court proceeds Proctor blames Abigail of being a whore to defend herself she refuses to answer the question. Abigail manipulates Danforth and the others by saying that Mary has sent her spirit out in the form of a bird. When
Mary finally succumbs and goes back to Abigail’s side, and she hugs Mary, to show that she has ‘infinite charity’; this shows the audience that Abigail has won.
When Proctor again accuses Abigail of being a whore this summarises Miller’s portrayal of her, he still doesn’t allow the audience to feel anything for her.
In Act 4, Abigail is exposed when she has been found to have stolen Parris’s money, she has done this because she must have heard what happened in Andover and has fled for fear of it happening in Salem. This must have scared the girls because they must be thinking that the court can be overthrown and the people not be hung, the girls may also get found out about their lying. Miller shows that Abigail’s departure has had no effect on the hangings in Salem. I think this is due to the fact that Danforth does not want to take blame for so many deaths, and just stop the hangings after so many have already been killed.
Abigail’s behaviour through what happened has no excuses; I don’t think that anyone could make an excuse for the hanging of innocent people.
I do think that other people can be blamed for what happened; firstly I think that many of the other girls can be blamed for not standing up against Abigail and not agreeing with the hangings. I think that Danforth could also be blamed; he allowed the executions to continue knowing that Abigail had fled because she was lying. I think Miller has painted an evil character, but no one that is not believable, he only allows one bit of sympathy and that is when Abigail’s parents were murdered by Indians.