In Act Ⅱ Scene 2 of The Crucible, a 1953 play by the Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams, the antagonist, meets John Proctor, the protagonist, in the forest at night, where John asks Abigail to free his wife in court the next day, or otherwise he will expose their affair in public to ruin her. This fast-paced short scene portrays Abigail as pious and possessed, which contradicts the impression given by previous scenes. Most importantly, the scene reveals the crucial plan of Proctor which he is planning to use to take down Abigail. By excluding the scene, Miller eliminates the unfavourable danger of jeopardizing the credibility of the characters due to the inconsistency of descriptions, heightens the dramatic effect when Proctor confesses in …show more content…
Compared to Act IV, Proctor is strangely more concerned with his own name! He says, "How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!" (Book pg. 240). Now, do you not think the play with the scene included will confuse the readers and even force them into considering Abigail, instead of a girl who has “an endless capacity for dissembling”(Book pg.169), as a insane girl who is lost in this ongoing hysteria and Proctor, instead of a heroic protagonist, as a cowardly hypocrite who cannot even keep what he says straight? How do you feel when a random guy shout out the ending during a movie? Well, if I were you, I will be very pissed. Amazingly, Act Ⅱ Scene Ⅱ is the “random guy”. By the end, Proctor unveils his master plan to Abigail, “I will make you famous for the whore you are!”(Page 4). This definitely lays a solid foundation for the readers to deduce the ending of the play, either Abigail exonerating his wife or Proctor confessing the ugly truth. Either way, it will make the confession in Act Ⅳ easily anticipated and less dramatic. There is no doubt that Arthur Miller wants any of this to happen. From another perspective, it also implies that the flawless and persuasive performance Abigail gives in court in Act Ⅲ is well prepared beforehand; however if the scene is left out, it will strengthen Abigail’s prowess at affectation and makes it more believable to the
Furthermore, According to, John Proctor and the Crucible of Individuation in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Michelle I Pearson, states, “Proctor's hypocrisy surrounds his dealings with and about Abigail. In committing adultery with Abigail, Proctor has sinnednot only against the moral fashion of the time, but against his own vision of decent conduct" (18). He wishes, however, to deny this sin both to himself and to others.” This criticism helps
Proctor and Abigail's complicated relationship is already defined in the book. John arrives at Reverend Parris’s house then Abigail and him end up in a room alone together. Abigail confesses to John,”And you must. You are no wintry man. I know you, John. I know you. She is weeping. I cannot sleep for dreamin’; I cannot dream but I wake and walk about the house as though I’d find you comin’ through some door”(Miller 22). Here Abigail is expressing her desire and love for John. In numerous instances Abigale professes her love to John, and he expresses the same animosity every time. Scene 2.2 restates everything that develops in the book. Instead of letting their relationship play out through multiple scenes, the essence of it is caught in one scene. The play is understandable and smooth with no strange gaps; the play doesn’t truly require the scene. This is recurrent to what is known about their relations; he scene is not really needed, it's just fluff on what the reader already
This speech shows that Proctor is blaming himself for this tragedy. Proctor's guilt still continues about his affair with Abigail and he is also now guilty for hesitating to act earlier.
should be happy. He also hides the fact that he was alone in the room
The two characters John Proctor and Abigail portray contrast between the characteristics of fear/courage. When Abigail and her friends are caught dancing in the woods with animal blood and children, she is scared. She begins pointing fingers at others to distract from her own faults. This shows that Abigail is a coward for not accepting her own mistakes. Out of fear of losing what she has with John she begins to blame his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, of witchcraft. She blames Elizabeth and hopes to get her out of her life so she can be with John. Her fear caused her to see no other option but to run away. Parris says, “Mark it, sir, Abigail had close knowledge of the town, and since the news of Andover had broken here-”(Miller 127). Throughout the play John Proctor shows an extreme amount of courage. He confesses to having an affair with Abigail in order to save his wife's life. He speaks up to Reverend Parris even though no one has the guts to. He chooses to be hanged rather than living in shame with his name on the church door. “Because it is my name! Because i cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because i am not worth the dust on the fet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given my soul; leave me my name!”(Miller 143) Proctor sacrifices his good name
Proctor's desire to preserve his good name earlier keeps him from testifying against Abigail, leading to disastrous consequences. Now,
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible presents Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams who serve important roles through their unique characteristics and thinking. John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth, has two defining characteristics that show throughout this play: she not only lives to please everyone around her and behaves passively, but she lacks the assertiveness to confront what lies directly under her nose. However, Abigail, the girl John Proctor commits the crime of adultery with, manipulates those around her. She is keen to act upon an opportunity when one arises and feels a determination to get her way. While Elizabeth and Abigail are similar in their love for John Proctor, Elizabeth differs from Abigail through her tendency to try to please everyone and keep her own emotions bottled up, while Abigail believes the world revolves around her and works to make things go her own way.
He feels that he can never be with Abigail again. He is haunted by this because when he talks to her, he is nervous. “Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of mind. We never touched” (Page 22). In this quote, two betrayals are revealed by Proctor. First, his betrayal of his wife and second his betrayal of Abigail. These two betrayals are crucial to the play seeing as it is due to Proctor’s betrayal of his wife, by cheating on her, and his betrayal of Abigail, by leaving her without taking responsibility, that initiated the conflict. Furthermore, because Proctor is not willing to admit his deceit, both he and his wife got caught in disorder. Ultimately, Proctor’s betrayal and dishonesty lead to his downfall.
Abigail proclaims her guilt by revealing her character and purpose. She is mad in love with John Proctor, and attempts to sway his feelings for her. She speaks to him with a brimming passion, and even cries for his attention (Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Act I, 21,22). Even though Proctor is a married man, she strives to make him fall in love with her. Proctor’s wife Elizabeth asserts that, “...She (Abigail) cannot pass you in church but you will blush” and she believes he blushes, feeling the guilt of being too close to Abigail while she is beside him (Act II, 58,59). Abigail’s conduct is improper and shows her obvious guilt.
Arthur Miller's verifiable play, The Crucible, depicts the recorded occasions of the Salem witch trials through a swarm of life-changing characters. Trepidation drives these Puritans to uncover their actual feelings while confronting their informers in the predisposition courts before coldblooded judges. While in the long run all the individuals of Salem get subject to this frenzy, two ladies emerge above the rest. Retribution and disgrace live in the heart of the young adulteress, Abigail Williams, while truth and exemplary nature dwell in the soul of Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor's dedicated wife. Although they both elevate the strain and tension of the play, Abigail William's and Elizabeth Proctor's disparities lead to turmoil because
Throughout the play, Proctor struggles with his honor as he changes from viewing it as his reputation to believing it is based on his own private moral of truth. The isolated Puritan community in which Proctor lives forces him to try and achieve a pious and perfect lifestyle, which ultimately pressures him into lying about his affair with Abigail in order to maintain a good reputation. This view changes in the courtroom, when Proctor becomes extremely frustrated with the lies and deceit that Abigail is telling the judges, Proctor screams in anger, “I beg you sir, I beg you - see her what she is… She thinks to dance with me on my wife’s grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me; I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a
After having an affair with John Proctor, she couldn’t accept not being without him. Abigail also admires “how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife” like Elizabeth be unaware of the affair she had with John Proctor(act1pg#). As a result to the affair, Proctor is trying to rebuild his marriage with his wife. Abigail continues to intervene in John Proctors marriage and attempts to manipulate Proctor so he would confess his love for her. Proctor admits his love for her, but does not continue his affection because Abigail seeps of vengeance for other individuals. He portrays her “as a lump of vanity” who thinks to dance on his “wife’s grave!”(act 3). For her own selfish desires, Abigail accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft and tries to intentionally sabotage her. She does this for the purpose of her own selfish and fictitious relationship that she has with Proctor. Abigail believes she has the capability to influence Proctor, but her egoistic actions to win his undefining love makes her appear as the criminal in the
In the original version of The Crucible, published in 1953, a second scene for Act II was written but Arthur Miller decided to take it from the future editions that came after that time. A reason Arthur Miller might have removed this scene from the play was that it showed the readers too much information, which would have given the readers too much about what would happen later on in the play and it might have had disinterested the readers into continuing reading. The Act II scene, which was taken off from the play, would have changed the outlook that the read had on The Crucible and its characters, like Abigail’s character. Abigail would have been viewed differently after this scene because they would feel pity for her. Arthur Miller made
Lying leads to terrible tragedies. Lying for so long will make it unpleasant to move on and the more difficult it will become. Just like how The Crucible ends. The Crucible is set in Salem, Massachusetts, at the beginning of the 1692 Salem Witchcraft Trials. The story is centralized around John Proctor, a white, landowning Puritan who betrayed his wife, Elizabeth by having sex with Abigail Williams. Back in the day, everything was black and white, meaning if something isn’t about God then it must’ve been about the Devil, they were religious people and they would not accept the fact that he had sex with someone else outside of marriage. He denied that nothing ever happened between him and Abigail. While Proctor is not taking responsibility for his actions, he causes a big commotion: people getting arrested and hanged, Abigail and a group of other girls are being accused of being part of Witchcraft. In the fourth act, Proctor is stuck in a situation where he either says the truth about who is part of witchcraft or he gets hanged. Proctor does not confess because he does not want people to use his name in vain and he knows that if he confesses it will leave a bad example for his sons, he decided to die an honest man than to live a fraud. At the end, Proctor ripped the confession knowing that he will be hung. Throughout the play, Arthur Miller creates two themes: the past will always haunt you and as people run away from their problems, their problems will continue to follow
John Proctor and Abigail Williams do not see each other the same way in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Proctor is rejecting Abigail as she is desperately trying to convince him to come back to her. Abigail thinks that Elizabeth Proctor is acting as a wall so that Abigail can not come back to Proctor. Abigail's relationship with proctor is also keeping them from telling the truth about what happened in the forest.