The characters of Abigail and Elizabeth Essay Example

The characters of Abigail and Elizabeth Essay How does Miller convey the characters of Abigail and Elizabeth and shape our responses to them? Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams are both characters central to Millers play. However, they are crafted to be total contrasts to each other both in character and in what Miller wants to show through them. what does he want to show? add a sentence here to connect to the rest Miller presents Elizabeth as the very religious and consequently very honest wife of John Proctor. QUOTE? Many people including her husband have an unwavering belief in her honesty. When John is in court he says That woman will never lie, Mr Danforth. She is conveyed in the play as having a strong loyalty to her husband whom she obviously loves a great deal. A proof of her love for John is seen when she is suffering a moral dilemma in court. John is more important to her than religion and therefore she tells a lie for him. Elizabeth also allows him to make his own choice of whether to confess, even though she wants him to live as she realises he could not live with himself if he confessed. We will write a custom essay sample on The characters of Abigail and Elizabeth specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The characters of Abigail and Elizabeth specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The characters of Abigail and Elizabeth specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer She sticks to her principles throughout the play. For example she never admits to believing in witches, even when she herself is arrested. She says, If you think I am one then there are none. Through Elizabeth, Miller is trying to convey the importance of personal integrity. Elizabeth creates a great sense of morality for the audience and it is only when her character begins to degenerate in the middle of the play that she starts to lose some of her steadfastness. It is, however people like Elizabeth and Proctor in the end who use their integrity to eventually bring the situation under control. QUOTE SOMEWHERE IN THIS Miller shows Abigail on the other hand as having no regard for religion. The Puritan religion would have forbidden many of the things she does like dancing and shouting. QUOTE Her role in the play is as a servant girl, the niece of Parris, who has had an affair with John Proctor her former employee. She is conveyed as deceitful and manipulative. Millers first description of her character in the stage directions is as having an endless capacity for dissembling. Arthur Miller is warning us that nothing she does or says can be trusted. Abigails character does not really change through the play and she remains rather static. Millers main purpose in creating her was to start the drama and keep it moving. She starts the plot by introducing the idea of witchcraft to the townspeople and keeps it moving by constantly accusing more women and using her manipulative powers once again to play upon the fears of the townspeople. QUOTE In starting the drama she is not really the actual cause of the disaster, but simply, the spark to set off the bomb that had been waiting to go off in Salem. In such a small, strict community even trivial matters are stretched out of proportion to create a diversion from the monotony of daily life. Abigail played upon this property in beginning the drama. She also used the natural superstitions of the people of that time in Salem whose typical reaction to anything out of place was to blame it on witchcraft or demons. The presentation of the position of Abigail and Elizabeth in Salem is very different. The form of society of Salem was a theocracy which meant that the town was ruled by religion. Since Elizabeth is a religious woman and at the beginning of the play she is married to one of the most important men in the village, she herself is a respected and honourable member of the town. To completely contrast with Abigail, Arthur Miller has created the character of Abigail to have no apparent regard for religion. As a servant girl she is neither respected nor given much attention. Therefore Abigail has virtually no status at all. NO POWER- THEMES She is obviously not approved of or trusted by the other villagers either as she has remained without a job after her dismissal from the Proctor household. Her Uncle, Parris, raised this point. And yet it has troubled me called for your service. The villages also link her name with evil in gossip that her Uncle also questions her about. Your name in the town- is it entirely white? This gives Abigail motive for her behaviour as she wishes to become more important, gain respect and have people care for her. Her more sinister motive is revenge as she wishes to take Elizabeths place, as she believes that John belongs to her. Her hate of Elizabeth is established very early on in the play with Bettys allegation You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor. At the beginning of the play, however, we are not convinced that she will succeed. Later on, though there are moments where the audience feels that it is inevitable that Abigail will achieve her goal. Overall the two women are, as in most aspects, at the extremes of the scale. At the beginning of the play Elizabeth is one of the most significant women and Abigail one of the least significant. While Elizabeths position falls drastically in the middle of the play, Abigail gains esteem. At the very end of the play Elizabeth regains some of her lost respect and the revelation of Abigails true character banishes her lower than her former position in society. The characters of Abigail and Elizabeth Essay Example The characters of Abigail and Elizabeth Paper Through Abigail and Elizabeth Miller is showing the theme of good versus evil and light versus darkness in which they are also extremes on the scale. Elizabeth is representing the good and the light by standing up for herself and her friends. She also strives for the truth to be told although the revelations will affect her name and Johns. quote Abigail is representing the evil and the darkness by telling lies and abandoning her friends. Quote mw Throughout the play Abigails actions have been engineered to produce maximum effect and to shock the audience. Her strength of personality and stamina are used to control peoples feelings and behaviour both on the stage and in the audience. Much of her language is exclamatory, RELATE THIS TO THE SOCIETY SHE LIVES IN which adds to the tension and violence in the consequences of many of her actions. The exclamatory language used by Abigail has a greater impact because of the strict Puritan society she lives in. Nevertheless her actions are not always that of hate. There is one section in the play when she shows some affection and compassion. This is when she is talking to John near the very beginning of the play. We will write a custom essay sample on The characters of Abigail and Elizabeth specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The characters of Abigail and Elizabeth specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The characters of Abigail and Elizabeth specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Here she is desperate to have John back and becomes very emotional when he will not take her back. And you must. You are no wintry man. I know you John. I know you . I cannot sleep for dreamin; I cannot dream but I wake up and walk about the house as though Id find you comin through some door. This is the one place where the audience is allowed by Miller to feel sympathy towards Abigail as he has made us think that she really is showing genuine emotion to him and she is truly upset. This section of the play though does not affect our overall judgement of Abigail but provides a reason for her motive of revenge for later on in the play. Abigails manipulative skills are first seen in use when she is talking to her uncle Parris at the beginning of the play. She manages to answer the questions without actually telling lies but leaving out part of the truth. quote Arthur Miller has also created her as an excellent actress so that her actions always seem credible. She manages to convince the court that Elizabeth Proctors spirit pushed a needle in to her. stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out. And demandin of her how she come to be so stabbed, she testify it were your wifes familiar spirit pushed it in. This along with her leadership qualities provides the secret to her success in the play in commanding and ordering. An excellent example of this is when Abigail pretends to see Mary Warren in the form of a bird sitting on the rafters. All the girls spontaneously burst into screaming and shouting at her command and follow her cue. (ABIGAIL with a weird, wild, chilling cry, screams up to the ceiling) You will not! Begone! Begone, I say! Another example of Miller indicating her control over people is when she dares to threaten Danforth. (In an open threat) Let you beware, Mr Danforth. Think you to be so mighty that the power of Hell may not turn your wits? Beware of it! There is- . USE OF SUPERSTITION AND HYSTERIA THEME For the people in the audience watching the play the scenery and atmosphere on stage would be that of Salem in 1692 in a Puritan society. The characters in the play would therefore react in slightly different ways than we would expect. The effect of Abigails actions would be different set in present day than in 1692. The NATURE/ESSENCE of the religion being Puritan meant that what the audience would see as small actions which were forbidden at that time would shock the characters in the play. Even if Abigail and the girls had only been dancing in the wood and trying to do witchcraft it would have been frowned upon. Elizabeths actions in the play are usually planned carefully with thought. They aim not to produce pain and suffering but to improve the situation, as she is sensitive and aware of the feelings of others. quote Although she reprimands people for wrong doing it is not with the violence or cruelty of Abigail. In her first entrance Miller demonstrates how Elizabeth tries to make the best of a bad situation. She quietly encourages John to tell the court of Abigails actions. God forbid you keep that from the court, John. I think they must be told. Elizabeth has a tendency to blame things on herself. She believes that Johns affair with Abigail was due to her own coldness. It needs a cold wife to promote lechery. However Miller seems to present the cause of her coldness as being attributed to Johns lack of openness. Like many characters she suffers a degeneration throughout the play and this is the low point in Elizabeths character as her behaviour shows reserve and an edge of restraint. She does manage to partly return to her original status and takes on a more central role towards the end. quote expansion Whatever Elizabeth is doing or saying her language is always refined and civil and she rarely shouts. She obviously has little self-confidence, especially at the beginning of the play, since she lacks aplomb to even to tell Mary Warren not to go into town. As Elizabeth says herself, She frightened all my strength away. It is at the end of the play when Elizabeth regains her compassion and clear-sighted opinions. Here she is able to eventually forgive John and allow him to take his decision. Elizabeth also takes on a more central role towards the end of the play Miller displays Abigail and Elizabeth as being very competitive towards John. In every act there is an emotionally charged scene between one of the and John. Should I keep this? In conclusion Miller has created Elizabeth to be a good, kind person and has challenged her, testing the extent of her morality. As an audience we are made to feel sympathetic towards by Miller her as he presents her as the victim. As Miller presents Abigail as one of the causes or certainly an acceleration of the hysteria, the audience is persuaded to feel no concern about her by Miller.

Writing a High School Student Essay

Writing a High School Student EssaySample student essays are a good way to start when you are writing a high school student essay. These samples are easy to find and they do not take too much time to write. However, there are some things that you need to consider before writing your own essay.Before starting on a school essay, you will need to make sure that you know the information that you will be using. Do not go into too much detail. You will need to know exactly what you are writing about in order to have an organized writing. If you are unsure of what you are writing about, do not worry. There are plenty of high school students who can tell you all about it.Grammar is another very important part of any writing assignment. Your grammar and punctuation will determine how well your writing will be received by the people who will read it. There are plenty of things to remember when it comes to spelling and grammar.Writing samples that are used in different topics in high school are very popular. If you want to get a different sample for writing a college essay, look on the Internet. There are many sites that will provide you with sample essays that are used in different topics in high school.The most common type of essay that is used is a science essay. This kind of essay is used in many high schools because it gives the students some of the required knowledge that they need to get through their classes. Science questions in high school are extremely important, and they help the students learn what they are going to learn in their classes.If you belong to a special interest group, such as a women's studies club, then you may want to write about the members of your group. This will allow you to relate your experiences to other women in the group. However, if you are writing a science essay, you do not need to include this in your writing.Keep these tips in mind when you are writing a high school student essay. By using samples, you will be able to start writin g your own essay at a faster pace.