Eng Paragraph On why Miller cut act 2 scene 2 from the play In Act 2 Scene 2, 2 the main characters are john Proctor and Abigail Williams. They meet in the woods at night, with Abigail wrapped with her nightgown, and Proctor with his lantern raised. As they got over the awkwardness and silence, john pleads with abigail to withdraw the accusations she made. Abigail makes it quite clear that she is irrational as she clings to a belief that the accusations were true and that after everything, that they will get married.
The first reason that this scene was cut is because without this scene, the accusations appear to be undetermined whether they were accurate or not. However, if this scene was part of the play, the readers would know that the accusations would be no doubt, fictitious, something Abigail just made up. The second reason is the portrayal of Abigail in this scene. Abigail was portrayed in the first scene as “a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan with an endless capacity for dissebling. (pg 8) But in Act 2 Scene 2 Miller was portrayed as bewildered and even delusional as she states that it was true that many people such as George Jacobs, who was in jail at that time, and Elizabeth Proctor had tried to harm her by inflicting pain upon her with needles and pins. “The jab your wife gave’s me haven’t healed yet y’know. ” (pg 149)Though, it is suspected by the readers, and backed with evidence that the stories were fabricated by Abigail so as to achieve her goal.
The third and last reason, though similar to second, is a very important point. As stated already, Abigail was first introduced by the play as a deceitful and scheming little girl and this is also how she is presented throughout the novel. Though in spite of that, in the scene miller cut out, Abigail is portrayed as innocent, somewhat sweet and caring. She claims and reasons that the townspeople are hypocrites and have hoped that she’d be thrown in jail.
She then exclaims “oh, it will need god himself to cleanse this town! ” , inducing that all along she was the one who had been misfortunate , and she was being harmed. Thus Miller did the right thing taking out this scene did not help the readers identify/ clarify the motives of Abigail and Abigail’s role in the story. In taking out this scene, it can be established that Abigail is the main antagonist in the novel.
