Here, Abigail agrees to join the convent under false pretenses, further underscoring the role hypocrisy plays in religion not only within the context of the play but in broader European society as well. Like her father, Abigail is Jewish, and she has no desire to actually convert to Christianity and join the convent. To execute her father’s plan, Abigail will have to “dissemble,” which is to say she will have to do some serious acting in order to conceal her true intentions.
While it is Abigail’s turn to “dissemble” here, it is Barabas who spends most of the play acting…