Crucible - Summary

We are warned about Abigail before she even utters a word, Miller gives us a quick overview of her personality ‘Abigail seventeen enters- a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling.’ We see that before we even get to know Abigail we are told that she is very good a telling lies. But at the start Abigail does try to start off telling the truth when she does tell her uncle about the dancing and she pleads with him that young Betty is not witched. However, we do see the dark side of Abigail, when she is talking to all the girls saying that they only danced and Tituba conjured spirits not them and if they told Abigail would ‘come to [them] in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. I saw Indians smash my dear parents’ heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!’ We can see the extremes Abigail would go to keep this a secret. We know that Abigail is just plain bad, there isn’t a lot of good in her at all. Also we see that Abigail perhaps because she is raised as an unloved orphan, she loves to be the centre of attention when she can be. So when Tituba was confessing to Reverend Hale about conjuring spirits. Abigail noticed she wasn’t getting any attention so she confessed to witchcraft just to get some praise off of the back of Tituba. To get even more praise and to become even more absolved she starts naming random names. Abigail with or without realising it starts something, that she may think she can control, but as the lies gather momentum and as the crucible burns hotter, she cannot and she has completely gone too far with the lying and cannot turn back. Abigail Williams' lies and deceit is done to maintain her sense of control over the group and to ensure that what she covets or desires is what will be gained. In Act II, the focus is the realm of the internal. The effect of