Arthur Miller's The Crucible

There is an old saying about art imitating life. An example of this in the world of American theater is the classic play by Arthur Miller, "The Crucible". The play is a dramatic recreation of the Salem Witch Trials of the early 1690's, when men and women suspected of being involved in witchcraft were executed with little or no chance to defend themselves against the charges (Johnson, 1998). In the play, two of the major characters, Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor, are interesting to discuss for their similarities and differences. This paper will compare and contrast these two characters in order to better understand them.

Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor in Comparison and Contrast

Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor, two of the main characters in "The Crucible", are similar in some ways and different in others, making them among the most interesting characters in the play. Abigail is an orphan and the niece of the town minister, Reverend Parris. At one time, she was a member of and domestic worker in the Proctor household, but was fired and turned out of the home when it was discovered that she was having a romantic affair with John Proctor who ironically enough was the husband of Elizabeth Proctor. Ultimately, Abigail is saved from being hanged as an accused witch because of her being pregnant.

One of the similarities between these two women, ironically enough, is their romantic interest in John Proctor; of course, he is legitimately married to Elizabeth Proctor, but Abigail Williams has an obsession with him ever since their romantic affair. This of course created a great deal of tension and anger between these two women, and is one of the driving events behind the plot of the play itself (Johnson, 1998). As if this is not a serious enough situation for the two women to be sharing, as women in Salem during this time, they also both had to come to grips with the possibility that at any time they could be accused of witchcraft, and even killed for it, whether or not they were guilty of being witches. This is the way that life was in Salem, and how people had to live- similarly, the women were thrown into this "crucible", which was the basis for the name of the play.

Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor had differences as well; obviously, they had "differences" with each other because of the romantic situation with Elizabeth's husband, but they also were different from one another in several ways. Probably due to her rough upbringing as an orphan, Abigail is a quiet and basically distant person who is somewhat distant in nature. However, Elizabeth is more of a cold and harsh person with a mean streak, which makes her seek revenge against anyone who she thinks may have done something wrong to her. For Abigail, this was of course very bad news, because she actually did do something wrong to Elizabeth. However, Elizabeth also has a paranoid streak which makes her think that people have done things against her, when they really have not done so (Oggel, 2004).

Conclusion

Overall, when these two characters are compared, what can be seen are two women, faced by challenging times, but completely different in personality and attitude. This complex relationship helps to make "The Crucible" a classic drama.

Works Cited
Johnson, Claudia Durst, and Vernon E. Johnson. Understanding the Crucible A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.

Oggel, Terry. "The Temptation of Innocence in the Dramas of Arthur Miller." Theatre History Studies (2004): 169+.