Compare the roles that Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams play in The Crucible..

Compare the social standing of the two main female characters : • Elizabeth – farmer’s wife, mother of three, covenanted Christian, respected upright member of the community • Abigail – orphan, lower social status, dismissed from the Proctor’s, soiled reputation

LINKED BY ONE MAN – JOHN PROCTOR

Roles in the play – essentially good vs evil.
Miller explores human behaviour in The Crucible and how dark desires and hidden agendas are played out.

Abigail seizes the opportunity to try to take Elizabeth’s place, her husband and social status.
She lies, manipulates and even goes as far as self-mutilation and murder (by falsely accusing people) to achieve her goals. • poppet/needle • false accusations “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil…” • liar – “an endless capacity for dissembling” • she claims to go to God, “I want the light of God” yet is the root of evil in Salem

Elizabeth is a good Christian woman who wants to protect her family. She goes as far as telling lies (commiting a sin) to protect her husband
DANFORTH “Is your husband a lecher ? “
ELIZABETH (faintly) No Sir.”
She finds it hard to forgive John for his adultery but at the end finds forgiveness in her heart and even blames herself, “it were a cold house I kept”.
She stands by her husband’s decision to tear up his confession at the end and go to the gallows because she knows he cannot lose his name and honour, in the eyes of God, his family and the community
“He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him.”

Abigail represents the dark side of human nature and the Proctors represent the individual integrity which Miller shows is needed to fight against such evil. The fact that Elizabeth is pregnant represents hope for the future at the end. This mirrors certain prominent Americans who dared to stand firm in spite of the pressure being exerted during the