Essay On The Crucible Act 2

Masho Khabazashvili
Gvantsa Zhuruli
16.04.2018
English E Block

The Crucible, Act 2 scene II

In the removed scene of “The Crucible” (Act 2, scene II), Abigail Williams meets John Proctor in the woods at night, where they talk about the occurrences in the town. Abigail tells John of the mental suffering she has gone through, and even shows John the physical proof of her sufferings: holes in her leg from witches’ needles, the wound in her stomach that Elizabeth’s spirit reopens every night, and the lump on her arm that George Jacobs strikes while Abigail tries to sleep. Abigail appears insane to the reader, who knows that she is connected to witchcraft and has no ability to see spirits. Abigail is crazy enough to injure herself in order to be believed by Salem’s court. She misleads herself into thinking that John will marry her one day. As for John, he sees Abigail’s deluded state. He wants to end Abigail’s influence over court, so he warns her that he’ll confess their affair in court, but she does not believe that he will

devastate his name. she laughs about his threat. She thinks that John secretly hates Elizabeth and will marry Abigail once Elizabeth hands for witchcraft.
Act 2 scene 2 is the best scene in regards to development of her character, because it shows Abigail’s complete irrationality, and how desperate and delusional she is.

She is madly obsessed with believing that John loves her. She is not just hungry for power, there is a new motive seen for playing the victim in court. She wants to get rid of hypocrites in Salem, by doing which she believes that she does God’s will by emptying the town of sinners. Also, she additionally tries to manipulate Proctor in order to gain his sympathy, seduce him again. For example, when she shows her wounds on bare legs. As for Proctor the reader sees how truly In love he is with Elizabeth and how he wishes that fairness and honesty were present in Salem. He is ready to ruin his reputation by exposing his affair with Abigail, rather than let her destroy the town. He puts his loved one before anything or anyone else, which shows his ability to love and how loyal he

is.
Arthur Miller might have removed act II because the reader’s imagination gets limited. Instead of getting to imagine what Abigail's motives are, they are blatantly stated in that scene. She reveals to John that, "I will make quite a wife when the world is white again". This shows her motive to get rid of Elizabeth and become his wife. Without this scene reader tries to figure out why she framed Elizabeth, and come up with different theories and many diverse, interesting contra versions. It really was one of the more interesting scenes in the play. Also another reason why Arthur Miller removed the scene is that the reader is exposed to all the interesting and unexpected events that are about to happen in the remaining of the book. One example is Proctor telling the court about his and Abigail’s affair. It was quite unexpected when happened, because of John now wishing to blacken his name. So the scene fundamentally spoilers the exciting moments of the book and changes the reader’s perspective on characters and jails their imagination, driving their attention away from the main idea to other minor aspects, like Abigail’s delusion. As a result of all these reasons, Arthur Miller finally decided to take out the scene, and is now mainly taken out from movies and plays.