Abigail already has a guardian who is the, Revered Parris who is Abigail’s Uncle. Why does Abigail not see Parris as the fatherly figure she longs for? The simple reason is Parris cares for no one but himself. He is totally self obsessed and I individually believe that this is reflected in Abigail’s temperament. An example of Parris’s self obsession is when the talk of witchcraft arises in the village all he cares about then is what people may think of him ‘But if you trafficked with spirits in the forest I must know it now, for surely my enemies will, and they will try to ruin me with it’ and not about the people who are more valuable like his niece.
Abigail is never shown much attention from a love aspect throughout the play and is never given any affection. I think this may be another reason for her looking up to John Proctor. Moreover Abigail is desperate for the affair to continue but John makes it perfectly clear that it is over and that he has made a mistake as Abigail is just a ‘Child’. Abigail is very good at playing the innocent person (or child) to get sympathy, ‘I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart’.
Throughout the play Miller makes it demanding for us to understand whether Abigail is genuinely in love with John or whether it is just a teenage infatuation? This is because she is actually prepared to kill anyone and anything who/what gets in her way.
When Abigail is only seventeen, she has her first proper relationship with John Proctor. Abigail still flirts with John whenever she gets the chance and looks for any hint that John still likes her by trying her best to catch his eye. ‘Since Proctor’s entrance, Abigail, has stood as though on tiptoe, absorbing his presence wide eyed.’ Abigail is almost to ‘flirty’ for her own good as it in a sense makes her weak. ‘Give me a word John, a soft word, (her concentrated desire destroys his smile)’.
John gives Abigail mixed signals which makes him no saint. Why should we look at Abigail as evil when John Proctor is leading on a teenage girl, and is still seen as being a decent man!? John always keeps Abigail guessing ‘(his smile widening) Ah, you’re wicked yet, aren’t y’!’ right up until the last moment in the court room, ‘How do you call heaven! Whore! Whore! It is a Whore!’ This is the only time in the play where Abigail thinks it is over because he has insulted her.
Proctor is as much to blame as Abigail for the affair, and gives her no signal that it is totally over. One of the strongest things he says to Abigail however is: ‘I will cut off my hand before, I’ll ever reach for you again.’ But he enjoys the fact that if he ever needed Abigail for something, she would come eagerly at any call he made ‘(knowing smile on his face).’ Abigail has also seen John Proctor looking in her window which indicates that is not a man who is sure what he wants and is very tempted by Abigail’s offer. John Proctor nevertheless lies about this saying he has not stepped off his farm in seven months.
After analyzing Elizabeth’s character I have come to the conclusion that
Elizabeth is the total opposite to Abigail. Elizabeth is very cold and is extremely shy in some situations. Maybe if Elizabeth had not have been so cold and uptight and slightly more warm and passionate John might not of been tempted by a younger more exciting girl? Miller deliberately makes Elizabeth and Abigail the two possible extremes of a female character so it makes it harder for Proctor to choose who he will go with. Out of the two characters Miller has made Elizabeth the more stable character representing a secure mother. On the other hand the play has made Abigail the danger-thriving, young attractive girl.
Elizabeth knows she is partly to blame for the affair John had with Abigail, and that if she had been a little more passionate towards John in the first place, John might not have gone looking for something better ‘I never knew how I should say my love. It was a cold house I kept.’ ‘It is winter in here yet’ what Proctor is really talking about here is there marriage and how they are hardly speaking to each other. John does try to please Elizabeth ‘I mean to please you Elizabeth’ but she just gives him no emotion or no clue to how she really feels. When they do talk to each other it is as though they are strangers, talking about issues which really avoid the subject of their marriage such as the weather because Elizabeth is finding it hard in her to forgive John for the sin he committed.
Elizabeth has a cold side to her, which both Abigail and John know. Abigail talks about Elizabeth to John saying how she is a ‘cold sniveling woman’ and that she thinks John is ‘No wintry man’. Abigail is a very adoring person and is linked with warmth ‘I have a sense for heat John,’ conversely Elizabeth is liked to winter and coldness ‘she is a cold snivelling woman.’ The dramatist intentionally does this to show us the contrast between the two female protagonists which in turn makes it even harder for John to decide whether he will choose Abigail or Elizabeth.
Is Elizabeth right to carry a grudge against John, or do you think she should forgive and forget? Elizabeth has strong convictions and will not give in no matter what. ‘An everlasting funeral marches round your heart,’ this reinforces the idea that John is describing the house as a vile place to be. John does actually want to save his marriage but with the reactions he gets from Elizabeth he does not know what to do ‘You forget nothin’ and forgive nothin’. Learn charity, woman.’ This quote adds to the tension in the play by making us wonder whether or not Elizabeth will ever forgive John. John is prepared to forget the affair with Abigail ever happened even though he still has feelings for Abigail (Elizabeth is aware of the fact that John still has feelings for Abigail ‘If it were not Abigail, that you must go to hurt, would you falter now?’). On the other hand Elizabeth is not convinced the affair is over and that John is not being totally honest with her, for the reason he goes into Salem and comes home late ‘You come so late, I thought you’d gone to Salem this afternoon.’
Dissimilar to Abigail, Elizabeth lacks self-confidence, and knows that she is not neither attractive nor as young as Abigail. Elizabeth is an old, unattractive wife who is sometimes under estimated by people ‘John I counted myself so plain, so poorly made, no honest love would come to me.’ Elizabeth’s character also finds it exceptionally hard to express her feelings, the opposite of Abigail who finds it easy to burst into tears whenever she needs to in the court room. It is only right at the end of the play when Elizabeth has finally enough courage to say exactly what she is feeling and when the audience see any kind of physical closeness (ironically it is when her husband only has a few minutes to live). At the end of the play just before John is sent to the gallows they start to talk and the last few words Elizabeth says is when she is ‘(pouring out her heart)’ to John. If Elizabeth opened up earlier on in the play would it saved their marriage? I personally think that Elizabeth was too hard on John and should have been slightly more forgiving when she had the chance. At the closing stages of the play Miller creates suspense by giving John a choice between his newly sorted out marriage, or whether he will die for his beliefs.
Abigail and Elizabeth are the reverse of each other both at the start of the play and as the play draws to an end. The roles the characters play at the start exchange towards the end of the dramatic piece. By far the strongest, dramatic character is Abigail and as the court continues to trust her she develops more power, until she ultimately has reached the peak and virtually controls the court. But when she finally realizes she cannot have John she runs away, becoming a no body, because she is so self-centered. On the other hand Elizabeth is the weakest at the beginning (almost invisible) hiding in the shadows and almost frightened to speak, but as the play progresses she builds up more confidence and by the end of the play she is one of the strongest characters and is actually strong enough to accept her husband is going to be hung.
Abigail is always calling the shots as the one in charge because she has such a strong personality. When we first see Abigail talking to her Uncle Reverend Parris she knows that she is in trouble because he saw them dancing in the woods and everything that happened ‘No-one was naked! You mistake yourself uncle,’ Abigail is protective and hates being caught out ‘(with anger) I saw it! (he moves from her, then resolved) Now tell me true Abigail.’ In this situation Abigail has a strong enough character to turn the situation to her advantage and Parris starts apologizing to Abigail which tells us the strength of Abigail ‘Do you begrudge my bed, Uncle?’
‘No – no.’
‘Now Betty dear, wake up not it’s Abigail (she sits Betty up and furiously shakes her) I’ll beat you Betty!’ Abigail can change character very quickly one minute she can be understanding and the next she harasses people. In the court room Abigail is at her strongest. Whatever she does, the girls follow her lead. Abigail finally seizes control of the judges which means that she has the power over life and death. All this power goes to her head in a way and she starts using it without thinking of the consequences. Some of the court do know that Abigail is lying and try to get her to admit it ‘(weakening) Child I do not mistrust you, ‘(in open threat) Let you beware, Mr. Danforth.’ This shows how power has got to Abigail’s head. She actually has the nerve to threaten a judge. ‘(stepping up to Danforth) What look do you give me?’ At this remark made by Abigail, Danforth cannot speak. He cannot believe he is being spoken to like that by a child.
Abigail at the height of her power realizes she cannot have John and resolves by firstly thinking how she can annihilate John because if she cannot have him no one will and secondly by thinking of herself and running away with Parris’s money. Miller states at the end of the dramatic piece that ‘legend has it that Abigail turned up later as a prostitute in Boston.’
When Elizabeth enters the courtroom she is terrified and can hardly speak ‘(wetting her lips to stall for time)’ ‘(for a crisis of indecision she cannot speak),’ because she is so anxious. Unlike Abigail, Elizabeth actually thinks about her family and her husband over herself which is one major difference between Abigail and herself.
At the end of the performance Elizabeth comes across as a substantially strong individual as she has to put her own feelings aside and tells her husband to make his own decision about his life (whether he wants to live or die for the right reasons) ‘I am not your judge I cannot be (as though giving him release) Do as you will, do as you will.’ If Abigail was in this situation Abigail would plead for his life seeing that she thinks mostly of her own feelings. Inside Elizabeth is utterly distraught ‘(supporting herself against collapse, grips bars of the window),’ but she is strong enough to put her own feelings aside and go along with any decision that her husband wants to make about his life.
Why is it that Elizabeth is strong enough to let John go? The reason is, because she believes like John that there are more important things than life ‘He have goodness now. God forbid I take it from him,’ Elizabeth is playing the loyal wife even though it is destroying her inside, she understands John has his principles.
The switching of roles at the start and the end of the dramatic piece add to the dramatic structure of the play. It creates added suspense throughout the piece and also added tension.
Elizabeth has exceedingly fanatical religious beliefs and is on the whole very religious. Maybe she takes her religion too far on some occasions. This may explain why she let Proctor go to his death and never stopped him as obviously she believes in the after life so she thinks John and herself will meet again. In the time in which the play was set, there was no divorce so after John had broken one of the ten commandments (adultery) she did not forgive him and because he was a sinner so their marriage had to stay as it was because you could not divorce.
In some ways people may argue that Elizabeth makes herself God and plays God ‘I confessed. Confessed! Some dream I had must have mistaken you for God that day.’ The final judge John has to face in the play is Elizabeth -who thinks she is some kind of God/heavenly person-, and once again Abigail is radically different as she controls an earthly court not a heavenly court that Elizabeth controls.
When John is asked about the Ten Commandments by Hale he forgets adultery and an embarrassed Elizabeth has to remind him ‘Adultery, John.’ I generally think that Elizabeth is more disappointed with John that he broke religious commandments (by having the affair with Abigail) than she is hurt by the fact John betrayed her.
A complete contrast to Elizabeth is Abigail who is always associated with witchcraft and the devil. Even her uncle Parris knows that she is up to something ‘But if you trafficked with the spirits in the forest I must know it now.’ Abigail is the person who also suggests she has powers to scare the girls ‘I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you!’
Abigail is a connoisseur at acting and can change her character to suit. This is the reason why she is able to get away with so much (she has the ability to pretend). Abigail is always able to shift the blame to someone else which most of the time is to a much weaker character. In the drama whenever anybody gets close to finding out the real truth the attention is always put on someone else or attention is taken away from the subject in question ‘(Suddenly, from an accusatory attitude, her face turns, looking into the air above-it is truly frightened)’. She is incredibly talented at lying and manipulating the truth to suit her needs.
Abigail’s character also changes whenever she is around John. She starts smiling and laughing and generally flirting. John is the only person in the play who Abigail does not deceive and is the only person who Abigail does not lie to. She tells him the truth about the woods and never lets her emotions be kept inside when she gets the chance to pour her heart out to him ‘(Whining, she comes a little closer, with a confidential, wicked air) We were dancing in the woods last night and my uncle leaped in on us.’
The dramatist purposely puts Abigail and Elizabeth at two ends of the scale. Abigail lives by lies and Elizabeth only ever tells one lie which sends her husband to the gallows ‘In her life Sir she have never lied.’
‘Answer my question! Is your husband a lecher?’ This at the very end keeps you in suspense as to whether or not Elizabeth is going to say to the court that her husband is lecher which is a hanging offence. Elizabeth knows that John can be sent to the gallows if she answers honestly but she decides to answer ‘No, Sir.’ This ironically is the only lie she tells in her whole life and it condemns John to his death. It is also ironic that Elizabeth chose to lie because if she had not Abigail would have been uncovered as a liar. The dramatist deliberately does this to add more dramatic appreciation to the play.
The contrasts between the two female protagonists contribute to the plays dramatic quality by illustrating a range of character. Miller uses the two possible extremes of a female’s personality which adds to the drama of the play by keeping the reader hooked to see which female John will choose in the end. The play deliberately uses differences to show us as the audience that there are clear contrasts between Abigail and Elizabeth. Miller also composes the idea about religion verses witchcraft by introducing once more a contrast between Abigail and Elizabeth-Abigail is in an earthly court causing people’s deaths and Elizabeth is in her own heavenly court which only she controls-.
The issues which are brought up in the play makes the dramatic piece more relevant to today by making the play not only about the happenings of witchcraft but about the crime of adultery, which makes the play more about a love triangle between Abigail, Elizabeth and John. This allows us to be captivated throughout the whole play as to which woman John will finally choose!
