Abigail's Character in Act 1 of "The Crucible"

Auther Miller uses phase directions to demonstrate how controlling and manipulative in the first act of 'The Crucible'. From the audience's very first read of the play you can see immeadietley that she is deceiving, Miller states that she has "a limitless capacity for dissembling". The word dissemble indicates that Abigail is hiding her real opinions and love. Likewise with a limitless capability for dissembling you start to question whether you will ever see the true side or if she has been hiding her real character for so long she has actually become her aliases.

Through Act 1, Auther Miller makes Abigail changes her personality a number of times. You never rather get to understand her real character. In the start of the act she is almost depicted as naive with words like "worry", "apprehension" and "propriety", displayed in her phase instructions is the phrase "quavering as she sits". However towards the middle of the act she says 'I'll beat you Betty' proving she is rather strident and unrelenting.

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From this moment on the audience are skeptical about whether Abigail truly cares about her cousin Betty or if it's just a false personality used to hide her true intentions.

In Act 1 Abigail admitts that she "did dance" and tells Parris "I'll be whipped if I must be" this indicates to the audience that she is a capable character, as for a girl/women to accept this type of punishment willingly would have been a great shock considering her age. It shows she is strong headed and determined to keep everything she did under wraps as she would rather be whipped for dancing then hung for witchcraft.