Abigail is the person most responsible for the hysteria brought in Salem. She started the whole thing by asking Tituba for a charm. When Betty pretends to be ail she threatens all the girls with “a pointy reckoning” making sure they will not tell the truth (26). If they did tell the truth Abigail, who wanted the charm to kill Goody Proctor, would be punished the most and her name would be tarnished. When Reverend Hale believes it is the work of the devil Abigail lies saying Tituba made her. When Tituba confesses to witchery in order to save herself Abigail sees her chance to manipulate the situation, bringing in the girls with her. Betty is another important character that causes the hysteria in Salem. Betty knows that they will be in
She is an unmarried orphan and described as beautiful and intelligent, however she is very vengeful and seeks for power. In addition to that, she is a liar, manipulative and selfish.
Abigail abuses the power she is given and causes devastation in the community because she tries to protect herself from the laws of the time. This young lady tends to have a gift at spreading rumors that result in terrible consequences. She has a way of manipulating others and gaining control over them. Act 1 displays her manipulative personality, when she somehow manages to flip the blame from her to several other townspeople. The girl in the town are caught dancing, at Tituba’s spell castings, in the woods. Abigail lies in order to protect herself and her friends because this could be associated with witchcraft. Betty accuses her:
Abigail Williams is to be considered a strikingly beautiful young woman. She was the cause of the whole madness of witch-craft by her immaturity because Abigail and with the rest of her friends went out into the woods while having Tituba conjure spirits so the girls could get guys to fall in love with them. Once they were caught by Reverend Parris (which is Abigail's uncle) instead of confessing the truth on what they were doing and owning up to it, Abigail decides to blame Tituba. She blames her for making the girls go into the woods to conjure spirits and help the devil. When John Proctor hears about this though, she quickly tells him in private that its nothing but lie. She wants John Proctor to see her as a women but when she cannot even own
Abigail starts to accuse several people in Salem soon after Tituba in a desperate ploy to get attention, that soon gets blown out of proportion and becomes a massacre of innocent people.
Abigail was, of course, the ring leader of the witch craft accusations in Salem. These false accusations were not without cause, however; Abigail made these accusations to try and protect her own reputation. Initially, Abigail is mainly conflicted about her name currently being darkened through the town. She angrily accuses Elizabeth Proctor of spreading lies about her in defense. However, Abigail is seen as a whore, and John Proctor causes the ultimate disrespect to her when he says, “You are pulling down Heaven and raising up a whore.” (Act II) Abigail’s yearn to retain a good name caused the deaths and punishment of many
Abigail is to blame for the mass hysteria in Salem because she wants to be with John Proctor. John and Abigail both had an affair when she started working for him. John tries to get over his sin and forget about her, but she is very persistent in him remembering their love and to
It all starts in the beginning of the play when Abigail and the other teenage girls of Salem are found dancing around in the forest by Parris, her uncle (Miller 19). I bring up this event because this is when the chaos begins. The rumor of witchery activity is spread, first through the close ones of Abigail and soon the other girl’s relatives. Later, the whole village finds out and the accusations and questioning begin. When Abigail starts getting targeted, she
Adultery. Abigail Williams is the young niece of Salem's Minister, Reverend Parris, she also was once John Proctor's housemaid until his wife, Elizabeth, put her out because of the affair. Abigial was just a young girl, she felt as if her feelings for John Proctor were ‘true love’, this drove her to do some of the most unspeakable things. She was seeking vengeance on Elizabeth since she put her out on the street, “blackened her name throughout the town” and she had the man she loved. Abigail's best way of getting things done was through manipulation, which she was best at. She voluntarily used witchcraft to ‘curse’ Elizabeth and yet turned witchcraft accusations against everyone of Salem. “I will come to you in the black of the night and will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you”(19), is one threat Abigail used to keep the girls mouth shut. She was a power hungry girl who did anything to keep the power for her own selfish gains. When she realized she was losing her power she claims “I have been near to murdered every day because I done my duty pointing out the Devil’s people- and this is my reward? To be mistrusted, denied, question like a -”(100) this was her way out of the truth. This shows Abigail's true
Although, Abigail is accusing innocent people for being witches, but the judges doesn't know that Abigail is lying because she want to hide her affair with John proctor. In the beginning of the play, Abigail first accuse Tituba for witchcraft. For example Abigail said “ she made me do it! She made betty do it!” (miller page 482). Abigail is telling Mr hale and Mr. parris that tituba is making abigail and betty to do witchcraft, but actually Abigail want tituba to make love potion for John proctor to love her. Everyone in salem town is believe her with big lies. Everyone is scared of Abigail because they can be accuse. Abigail and her friend are blaming others for witchcraft and pretending they are getting hurt. People are getting arrest or getting hang up because abigail and her friends doesn't like them. According to cheever “ There be so many cows wanderin’ the highroads, now their master are in jail and much disagreement who they will
Abigail is the main challenge in this case because two of the people she targets to be accused of witchcraft is Tituba and Elizabeth. Miller uses pathos and irony to convey how Abigail becomes a problem in the salem community to accuse people of witchcraft. In page (41) it says “ Don’t lie to hale she comes to me while I sleep. She’s always making me dream corruptions”. This quote demonstrates irony because a while ago she just told John Proctor that Betty’s Colma has nothing to do with witchcraft , but she is now restating that by saying that tituba uses witchcraft to get in her head while she sleeps. In addition in page (151) she also says “ She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! She is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her! Let her turn you like a “ She acts like she’s mad at Elizabeth for making her look bad , however the bigger emotion she feels is envy since Elizabeth is the one married to John and not her. The quote shows pathos because Abigail is letting her emotions get to her and demonstrates that bad yelling at proctor and saying things about
Abigail is the character that no ones wants to be in a story. She is most of the responsibility for the girls going with Tituba to the woods. Then after Paris finds them, she tries to fake her behavior because if she doesn’t it will show her affair with Proctor if she confesses to casting a spell on Elizabeth Proctor. Betty calls Abigail out by saying “you did it, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Procter’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor! (Miller, 19). Abigail lies first to hide her affair but then she starts lying to prevent being accused of witchcraft. To keep all the attention off of herself she starts accusing other people of witchcraft. Abigail is heartless because she thinks nothing of just accusing people of witchcraft which will send them to their death. Abigail was a very deceiving when she spoke to anyone about anything throughout the story. Abigail was lying at the court case they had durning the Salem Witch trials, she was trying to get everyone to believe that Mary’s Warren was a bird coming to get her, she says, “But God made my face; you cannot want to tear my face. Envy is a deadly sin, Mary” (Miller 106). Abigail was lying that who court case so she didn’t get in trouble, she wanted to save herself even if it meant that others were going to die.
In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Miller demonstrated that it was Abigail’s flaws- lust, jealousy, and mendacity- that led her to be responsible the most for the tragedy of the witch-hunt in Salem. The Crucible focuses of the finding of young girls and a slave messing around in the woods, trying to conjure spirits from the dead. Rather than admit to their actions and face the consequences, the girls accuse everyone else of the crimes they were guilty of. Abigail Williams is the person who caused much of the drama in this story. She bears much responsibility for everyone meeting with Tituba in the woods. Once Parris discovers this meeting, Abigail attempts to keep her actions a secret because it would possibly reveal her affair with Proctor. Abigail lies to cover up her affair with proctor, and to stop the charges of witchcraft in order to prevent the terrible punishments that go along with the accusations.
Abigail Williams is the leader of the girls. She was the first one who got blamed for this. She is the first one who lied and blamed all of the witchcraft on Tituba. Abigail wanted to hide the truth because she feared of getting caught, and what would happen. She lied
Abigail Williams wanted what was best for her. She did not care of others. Due to Abigail’s actions a whole conflict outbursts in Salem, Massachusetts. The girls have been caught in the woods dancing and even naked. They have been caught and accused of doing witchcraft. Betty is then “very ill” and they believe she is going to die. Betty awakes. Abigail threatens the girls to stay quiet. “You did. You did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!” (Miller 18). This shows that Abigail Williams was a villain because she was hoping for the death of a person in order to get what she desired. Abigail and the girls were caught doing witchcraft. Abigail comes up with a different story to tell. “Now look you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the back of shudder
As we continue to read throughout the book, we notice the true colors of certain characters such as Abigail Williams. Abigail is a very intelligent, persuasive, malicious young woman. She is one of the main characters in the novel and is the main reason witch craft started in Salem. At first Abigail portrayed a young, innocent girl, but once you found out what she was doing with John Proctor, you started to think otherwise. She betrayed her own friends just to protect herself. She stole from her uncle; therefore she can escape from the entire catastrophe she had created. The first reason Abigail Williams is to blame for the deaths of those during the