The Crucible- Abigail Williams

Before reading 'The Crucible', I had no idea what a crucible was. To me a container isn't a good word to describe a crucible, but a pot is better. Everything that's put in a pot in mixed together and reacts, it's a metaphorical way of putting this story. But it's also the beginning cause for all problems that arise in this carefully crafted play by Arthur Miller. This play, 'The Crucible' is based on the 1692 witch trials that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts yet it also focuses on the relationships between various characters. Abigail Williams doesn't have much luck in this play, and she never really had. She lives with her uncle - Reverend Parris and his daughter Betty, because she's an orphan and claims she: ''Saw Indians smash my dear parents heads on the pillow next to mine.'' Perhaps this brutality from such a young age caused her to develop into someone that is brutal toward others around her? But living in Parris' house couldn't have been easy either. We're told in 'act one (the overture)' that he had: "...no interest in children... mouths shut until bidden to speak." Living with a careless man would've been a bore for young Abigail, plus being a young unmarried girl at this time would've been a struggle. The repressive lifestyle of the puritan society at that time would've been extremely dull for Abigail, and so some of her actions are plausible, but not excusable. When act one does begin, Miller has set the scene within the Parris household in Betty's room, it's not revealed to us immediately of why Betty is inert. Abigail knows though. It was her idea to go into the woods; to sing and dance, but to also get Tituba, Parris' slave from Barbados, to put a spell on Elizabeth Proctor so Abigail can have John for herself. When Parris saw them in the woods, he shocked betty into her current state, but he won't reveal this to anyone in his community as he wants to keep his reputation clean. As soon as others in the village find out about the recent