The Crucible - Abigail Essay Example for Free

The Crucible Abigail Essay The character who I would find the most interesting to play in The Crucible is Abigail. There are many ways in which Miller has made her an interesting and complex character to act as, including her change in power over the stage, her role as a cruel and merciless character, the fact you can relate her to a real historical figure and the audiences ability to see a slightly softer side to her at some points in the play and question their opinions of her. The first way in which Miller makes Abigail an interesting character to play is the way in which her control over the stage and the audience changes throughout the play. There are times when she shown as a very strong and manipulative character and has great presence, for example in the yellow bird scene where she leads all the other girls in preventing Mary Warren from telling the truth. The words are full of malice, for example when she first mentions Marys name and says Envy is a deadly sin Mary. Even though she has been lying and sinning throughout the play, the uses of the words deadly and sin show us that she is very good at manipulating the situation to her advantage by planting these malicious words into peoples heads. She is made to sound very threatening but at the same time she is saving herself, not minding getting others into trouble. However, in contrast to this, there are times in the play where Miller shows some of Abigails power slipping away from her and she is not able to play with the mind of the person she is talking to. A good example of this is where she is talking to Proctor near the beginning of the play and is trying to convince him that he still loves her. The words Miller has given her show her clutching at straws as she tries everything she knows, for example trying to be seductive when she says Give me a word John, a soft word. When this doesnt work, she is shown as getting even more desperate, finally shouting out John, pity me, pity me! These two examples show her in very different stages of power. I think this would be interesting to play as you would both be able to hold the stage at some points but also be able to play a character with some depth and show her scrabbling for any power she can when she does not get her way. Carrying on from this, another interesting part of playing Abigail would be the sheer power that she has over the audience during the play. She is almost always the centre of attention whenever she possibly can be and the audience are never completely sure whether they should be pitying her or being very suspicious of her. From the start we can see through the stage directions that Abby is meant to have a remarkable skill for dissembling, however the audience do not see this and so they go through the play wondering what to really think of her. She acts very sweet and innocent at the beginning and it would be enjoyable for the actress to play this knowing that she is in fact deceiving the audience. Later on in the play she could be played showing more twistedness, for example when she is playing the yellow bird scene and making remarks at Mary Warren whom we trust and believe isnt a witch, so by then the audiences sympathies will have moved and the actress playing Abigail can really show them how bitter her character is.