Analysis of Arthur Miller’s Presentation of Abigail Essay

Arthur Miller wrote the play â€Å"The Crucible† in 1953 which was in the middle of the McCarthy political ‘witch-hunt’ in America. However the story had appealed to the playwright for many years, therefore ‘The Crucible’ can be described as a political parable as it was inspired by the decade of McCarthyism. Miller wrote the play set in an area of Massachusetts called Salem in 1692 where some adolescent girls were dabbling with supernatural powers and witchcraft. They were eventually jailed and the jails were filled with men and women accused of witchcraft. Ultimately twenty people ended up hung. The inhabitants of Salem were rigid in their interpretation of the Bible, believing in witches and the Devil. They believed also that the Bible instructed them that witches must be hanged. This relates to the McCarthy trails that were happening in the USA during the 1950s as the trails were about the admission of adherence to communism, consequently witnesses were brought before the committee to name names. This naming approach was very similar to the process of witch trials; Miller then began to relate this to the public confessions as parallel with the naming of names at Salem in 1692. Subsequently Arthur Miller wrote a play in relation to this and uses Abigail to convey similar ideas to the McCarthy Trials in the 1950s. In the McCarthy trails the only way to clear your name was to name members of the extremist party, but even still a person’s reputation would be extremely tarnished. Therefore I will be looking at the presentation of Abigail and how it conveys this idea, in relation to the McCarthy Trials. During the beginning of Act One we discover Abigail is a girl who can’t be trusted and people don’t believe her. Paris refers to her as a ‘child’ so she is assumed as being young and questioned over how she can make up so many lies. From being referred to as a ‘child’ the audience makes an assumption that Abigail acts younger than her age and there is immense significance of this quote as she is referred to as a ‘child’ more than once and by different characters. Abigail has endless capacity for dissembling so she is a brilliant liar and doesn’t know when to stop. Her lies in this particular scene appear not to be very convincing as she is worried and anxious; hence she is lying for a way out. From this Abigail could be presented to be small and weak as she is forced to sit in a chair while Parris towers over her and doesn’t take any action of rejection. Parris is threatening Abigail to tell the truth as she is a compulsive liar; consequently it is extremely hard to get her to tell the truth. Our impression of Abigail develops later on in Act One as she loses her innocence since she becomes no longer believable to the audience, her lies are over looked by them as they realise she is withholding the truth. When Proctor enters Abigail starts to become nervous which is highlighted from her reaction whilst she is alone with him and he says ‘Ah, your wicked yet, aren’t y’! ‘ Abigail reacts with a nervous ‘laughter’ and becomes frightened of Proctor. Consequently Proctor acts powerful and continues to act powerful and dominant towards Abigail by forcefully saying ‘child’ to Abigail to give recognition of her still being a child, this is the second time that Abigail has been called a ‘child’ by different characters highlighting the importance. While Abigail does react angrily and infuriately to appear powerful and gain control over Proctor, her reactions are childish, she moans when she doesn’t get her own way, so she acts like a little ‘child’ which is why she is being called a ‘child’. This part of the play is foreshadowing events to come, we know that she is going to eventually turn wicked and evil so her innocence is lost as we realise that she will later turn wicked as the wickedness can be used as a way out. When Abigail is alone with the girls she takes control of them and becomes the leader of the group and the girls begin to look to her for an answer so they look up to her. They follow her lead so she has the power of the group. She gains this power of the girls by saying ‘I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. ‘ Abigail threatens the other girls so they are so frightened of her that they follow her lead, this becomes clear nearing the end of Act Three. The word ‘shudder’ is onomatopoeia and this adds dramatic affect and gives you a real sense of the word and makes it come to life and sound real. It is this word order which Miller uses that makes you really think that this is going to happen if the other girls do not obey her. The adjectives used during this statement from Abigail are ‘black’ then ‘terrible’ and ‘pointy’ these are all threatening adjectives and are the type of words that you would visualize when a murder was taking place so this intensifies their anxiety. During this scene the audience discover just how devious and manipulative she can be, in this instance she shows this by being threatening and dangerous to the other girls. Danger changes sides towards the end of Act One during Abigail’s questioning as she starts to become frantic. She begins rushing out excuses as quickly as possible to conceal her lies, as she comes dangerous close to being exposed. Abigail is scared of the fact that if people don’t believe her, then she will be caught in the act of lying, she is anxious about this. Furthermore Hale says ‘perhaps some bird invisible to others comes to you’ thus implying an insight to the deviousness of Abigail. This provides inspiration later for Act Four; therefore implying Abigail is not innocent and is an untrustworthy character with a deeper meaning, perhaps Abigail is lying. Abigail proceeds out of this situation by catching on to the circumstances there are in hand and uses them as weapons to propose the excuse of making herself look like the victim in this entirety. Consequently people can’t accuse her, which because of her selfish behaviour leads her on to accusing Tituba by saying ‘She makes me drink blood! ‘ This describes Abigail’s destructive nature and the deviousness of Abigail’s thinking put into practice. From this I can call Abigail opportunistic as she has seen a way out; she has explored it and taken it. While this is selfish behaviour, it is certainly a very clever move by Abigail to relieve some of the pressure from her and give her a chance to think about what she is going to say next. The audiences’ response from this action taken by Abigail is that it is ludicrous that she can accuse somebody and say a few words and make the court believe her. This links in with the McCarthy trials because all the court was interested in was names and they were so desperate for a name that once one was named with a motive they seized it.