I chose this scene because not only is it the climax of the entire act, I feel that it is a significant scene that brings many key aspects of the play together.
For example, at the start of the play Abigail is portrayed as a threatening girl who has control over a situation and other girls. In my selected scene, it shows that Abigail is now not only able to control her peers, but she has succeeded in persuasively controlling the rest of the courtroom.
Just before the scene starts, Elizabeth Proctor denies her husband being a lecher, not aware that her husband John has already confessed to it. The technique of dramatic irony is being used by Miller here because the audience knows that John has already admitted to having an affair but the characters i.e. Elizabeth, does not. This means that the court knows that Elizabeth is lying, which isn’t a good thing because before Elizabeth entered the courtroom, John swore that his wife would never tell a lie. By denying her husband having committed adultery it puts Mr. Proctor’s integrity into question as well as Mrs. Proctor’s.
Only Hale believes him that he is lecher and that Abigail Williams seduced him and she is out to try get her revenge on Elizabeth for casting her out of her house. Already, even though the scene hasn’t started it shows that the court officials believe Abigail over John Proctor.
The scene starts when Abigail screams out pointing to the ceiling terrified of something up there. Apparently, she is seeing a demon bird which is being sent upon her by Mary Warren, the maid of Mrs. Proctor. By changing the attention of the courtroom onto her being scared, she is victimising herself, which switches her position from being suspected by Hale to being afflicted by a satanic spirit. This takes the attention off her being a “whore”, having seduced John Proctor and having him labelled a lecher. This is an aspect of Abigail taking control with her ability to persuade and fool the court by her acting skills and also, her ability to accuse people without having a guilty conscience afterwards. This also shows that Abigail is not a pleasant person because she can watch people hang that she has accused and not feel guilty for condemning the innocent.
When Hale declares “this girl has always struck me false!” Abigail realises she must intervene and deflect the attention from herself because she knows that Hale could reveal her as a fraud.
“You will not! Begone! Begone!” This is introducing her fear to the courtroom. It uses short, hysterical which heightens the tension in the courtroom. Danforth becomes bewildered at this and asks Abigail what is wrong. Abigail ignores him to increase her apparent fear and believableness and then as described in the stage directions she raises her frightened eyes to the ceiling and as everyone looks up and when they can see nothing they assume that she really is being afflicted by a spirit. Among those kinds of people, spirits are usually assumed to be invisible. Abigail knows this and is using this to increase her performance’s intensity. Then, to show her power the other girls join in, pretending to see the bird as well. This is an example of her power and influence as a leader. The stage direction uses very descriptive adjectives to describe the intensity of the scene and the actions and facial expressions of the girls.
E.g. “she is transfixed…she is whimpering…agape at the ceiling.”
The word “transfixed” meaning that the spectacle is so overwhelming that nothing could break their attention from it. The word “whimpering” is used her to portray how helpless and vulnerable they are making Mary feel. “Agape” at the ceiling is another word to show the girls’ evident fear of the supposed bird, it is a thought provoking word making the reader imagine the girls craning their necks upward with a terrified emotion. Miller uses these words to increase the level of climax he is building towards and to show the reader the ever growing power that Abigail possesses as a leader.
Then one of the girls confirms what they are doing by shouting out that there is a bird on the rafters of the ceiling. Then Abigail brings the attention back to her being afflicted and says that the bird is threatening to harm her face. “My face? My face?” Again she uses short questions to show how petrified she is at the thought of the bird scratching her face.
Then Abigail again continues to keep the attention fixated on her being afflicted by the demon by being sinister and carrying on in a ‘genuine conversation’ with the bird as if the courtroom is not there. This again is another way of making her performance more believable. By making it seem that she is terrified and that she is not even aware of her surroundings anymore.
The innocent Mary Warren becomes terrified of these accusations and the consequences if Abigail succeeds in condemning her and feebly tries to make Abigail see sense; E.g. “Abby I’m here!” Here Abigail is manipulating Mary to make her power known amongst everyone who knows of her as a leader.
Abigail then claims (whilst in conversation with the bird) that she is doing God’s work by saying that Mary has compacted with the ‘devil’.
The plot then changes course when John Proctor has had enough of Abigail’s monologue and claims that the girls are pretending.
“They’re pretending Danforth!” Of course no one believes him because he has lost his integrity by being a lecher and having a liar of a wife; Abigail has done that to him.
Then Abigail rises to a new level of accusation, way past repentance and intensifies her performance. She starts to repeat everything that Mary Warren says like a sinister echo. For example,
Mary: “She sees nothin’”
Abigail: “She sees nothin’”
By doing this she is frightening Mary into admittance that she has an allegiance with Lucifer by making the girls echo what she says, it gives the impression that they’re possessed and makes Abigail seem all the more helpless.
All the time whilst Abigail is doing this, Arthur Miller is keeping the scene at its peak of tension; the climax. The author does this for a good reason because if he keeps the scene tense he also evokes the emotions and atmosphere that he is supposedly creating.
The repetition that Arthur Miller uses in the court suggests that there may actually be some paranormal happenings concerning the allegiance with Hell.
For example, the repetitions of verbs, i.e. “stop it” makes the scene reach a crescendo when ‘stop’ is repeated five times and Mary begins to cry. It also shows how much Abigail is willing to do to get her way. Only the girls, Mary and Proctor know to what extent Abigail can manipulate a situation in her favour as well as people.
Even when she appeals for help from Danforth they continue to echo her. E.g. Mary: “Mr. Danforth!”
Abigail and the girls: “Mr. Danforth!” This may be because Abigail does not want Mary to tell Danforth the truth and Abigail’s plot. This therefore prevents Danforth from finding out about Abigail and her manipulation of the other girls.
Mary has to show great willpower to oppose Abigail; e.g. “I have no power.” In the stage directions it shows Mary summoning all her determination from within to stand up to Abigail.
In this scene we can see how powerful Miller’s characters can be.
Our first impression of Abigail is accurate because she is clearly capable of sending people to death to save herself.
