Abigail Williams, seventeen, enters – a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling. Now she is all worry and apprehension and propriety.
– Arthur Miller
The Crucible, Act 1. Here we are introduced to the antagonist of the play, the 17-year-old niece of Reverend Parris, Abigail williams. Straight away we learn of her gift for deceiving others. She is said to have "an endless capacity for dissembling," or being deceitful and hiding under a false appearance. A striking beauty, it is easy to see why John Proctor has been attracted to her.