Abigail Williams Act One Lie Essay

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:

It’s important to note why and how Abigail inherited her selfish behavior in the first place, and what caused her to act a certain way. Abigail claims that she is in love with John Proctor, and the two characters were discovered to have an affair with each other. John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor, finds out about the affair and

Concerned that word about her affair will spread throughout the village, Abigail begins to lie and point fingers at people for witchcraft, hoping it can draw the people’s focus away from her. After she and the girls were discovered in the forest by Reverend Parris, she lies or purposely forgets to mention to that she had drank a potion that would kill John Proctor’s wife. The only thing she said to him was: “We did dance, uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there's the whole of it.” (Miller 9). In another situation where Abigail's lying is shown again, Parris is asking why she was fired from her previous job as Elizabeth Proctor’s servant, and her excuse is: “She hates me, uncle, she must, for I would not be her slave. It's a bitter woman, a lying, cold, sniveling woman, and I will not work for such woman!” (Miller 11). Clearly this is false because Elizabeth didn't fire Abigail just out of coldness, though that was part of it, she fired her because she found that Abigail was having an affair with her husband, John. These lies led to unnecessary problems and prove Abigail is a self centered person because she only wants what's best for herself.

Due to her fear of punishment, selfishness, and envy, hundreds of innocent villagers were accused, several were killed, and an entire society was left traumatized and afraid in the late Seventeenth Century New England. Her actions resulted in absolute tumult and chaos. You may be wondering, “Who?”, or, “How could one person possibly have such a huge affect on an entire community?” The infamous Abigail Williams, who lied and took advantage of the fearful, suspicious society in which she lived purely for her own benefit.

Abigail Williams lies and manipulates others to save her own reputation. After being questioned by her uncle, Abigail lies about whether or not she performed witchcraft. She deceives Parris when she says, “Not I, but Ruth and Tituba,” which makes him believe her lies (Miller I. 317-318). The way Abigail lies about the women doing witchcraft shows how far she will go to save her own skin. Abigail tells lies to weasel her way out of getting in trouble. She lies to Proctor about what happened in the woods with the other girls: “There is nothing more, I swear…” (Miller I. 155-156). Abigail tells Proctor that she is telling the truth; even though, Betty later calls her out on lying. After Abby reveals to Proctor what allegedly happened in the woods, she goes and tells Betty about this to cover up what actually happened, but then Betty calls her out on her lies by saying, “You drank blood, Abby…” (Miller.I.444). This shows that Abby lies to Proctor to make

One of the biggest lies spread throughout the play, from start to finish was Abigail Williams’ lie. Abigail Williams, stirring the pot, spreading amuck the false hysteria; Abigail spreading the witchcraft hysteria, in hopes of gaining power and status. Abigail’s lies spreading like wildfires as seen in page 48 she said, “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” In Act One, Abigail Williams getting other girls involved in her web of lies spreading around the witchcraft story in hopes of gaining

Abigail is a highly jealous character, concentrating her jealousy on Elizabeth Proctor. This jealousy is driven by lust and her desire for John Proctor. Abigail served as a servant in the Proctor household and after an affair with her husband John, Elizabeth fired her. She still resents Elizabeth for this as she is still in love with John. She clearly says to John, "You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!" Abigail is still in love with John and she assumes the converse. Her love for John only causes her resentment for Elizabeth to strengthen. She hates John Proctor's wife and in her conniving ways she attempts to inspire the same views of Elizabeth in John's mind. Saying things to him such as, "She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me, She is a cold, sniveling woman." Abigail fabricates stories in attempt to steel John from Elizabeth. She is a manipulative liar that does and says as she pleases in order to get what she wants.

Throughout the play we see instances where Abigail shows she still has feelings for John saying things like “ Give me a word, John. A soft word.”, but she is only met with rejection from John “ No, no, Abby. That’s done with.”. (Miller 22) as he has moved on and is trying to live a more righteous life. Even though John has made his intentions clear Abby continuously attempts to sway him “...do you tell me you’ve never looked up at my window?” (Miller 23) believing he will still come back to her. After still facing rejection from John, Abigail believes the only reason he denies her is because of his wife. Knowing that she has the power to condemn people by accusing them of witchcraft, Abigail decides that it is the only option she has to be with John. As time goes on the Proctor family is torn apart when Cheever, a clerk of the court, comes with a warrant for Elizabeth. The Proctor’s find out the reason for the arrest is because of attempted murder through the use of witchcraft. It is to our understanding that a poppet that is in the possession of Elizabeth, given to her by their servant, Mary, was used to attempt to murder Abigail . As the situation goes on we discover the entire ordeal was an elaborate plan by Abigail when Mary says “...she saw me sewin’ it in court. Or better still: Ask Abby, Abby sat beside me when I made it.” revealing that it was a plan by Abigail. Abigail saw Mary making a poppet for Elizabeth and came to the realization that it would probably be her best chance to get Elizabeth out of the picture. By placing blame on Elizabeth, Abigail is able to further her own personal goal of being with

He feels that he can never be with Abigail again. He is haunted by this because when he talks to her, he is nervous. “Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of mind. We never touched” (Page 22). In this quote, two betrayals are revealed by Proctor. First, his betrayal of his wife and second his betrayal of Abigail.  These two betrayals are crucial to the play seeing as it is due to Proctor’s betrayal of his wife, by cheating on her, and his betrayal of Abigail, by leaving her without taking responsibility, that initiated the conflict. Furthermore, because Proctor is not willing to admit his deceit, both he and his wife got caught in disorder. Ultimately, Proctor’s betrayal and dishonesty lead to his downfall.

Not only is Abby an improper girl, she dirties her name even more by making threats and lowering herself to violence to conceal her wrongdoing. For instance, Abigail shakes Betty, and smashes her across the face. Her anger is clear and may justify her actions somewhat, but what she says afterwards goes too far. Speaking to Betty and Mary Warren, she says “...Let either of you breathe a word...and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it…”. She afterwards tells Mary to shut up (Act I,18,19) These terrible threats, along with Abigail’s violent nature to cover her sins, condemn her to a life of treachery which she does not turn from. Mary Warren adds further proof to Abigail’s guilt when she is asked by Proctor to testify in court as to the nature of the poppet she had made. Mary speaks in fear of Abigail and what she might do to both herself and Proctor (Act II,

I always hear her laughing in my sleep. I hear her singing her Barbados songs and tempting me with-”(p.44). Abigail is lying that she never gave herself to the devil, and that Tituba forced her and Betty to do witchcraft, and that Tituba forced her to drink the charm even though Abby drank the charm to kill Mr.Proctor's wife because Abigail used to have an affair with John and Elizabeth kicked her out of their house because she realized they had an affair and now Abby wants Elizabeth dead so she can have John. Then Abigail continues to be dishonest by saying Tituba comes to her at night and start singing her barbados songs and tempting her even though thats a lie. Also in the play it states, “The girl, the Williams girl, Abigail Williams, sir. She sat to dinner in Reverend Parris house tonight, and without word nor warnin’ she falls to the floor. Like a struck beast, he says, and screamed a scream that a bull would weep to hear, And he goes to save her, and, stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out. And

“The most memorable characters in fiction are not people most of us would choose as our friends” (Allen 1). Readers find it intriguing to learn about a character that lacks predictability: they could do no wrong in one scene, then turn around and become a backstabbing liar in the next. The same characteristics that would not make the best of friends. Irregularity makes a character and the story, for that matter, interesting. Abigail Williams from The Crucible develops into a character that readers love to hate. Her anger, her cunning, her passion, every twist and turn she brings throughout the play brings fascination with it. She would not be an especially remarkable candidate for a best friend, however, but it perusers find it extremely easy to remember her. Abigail exhibits memorability not because of the qualities that prove a good friend, but because of her intransigence, her passion, her accusatory behavior, and her manipulation.

Since Abigail is the Reverends niece and grew up with a pastor in the household it seems as if she should be very humble and a good person but her human nature took a toll making her greedy therefore making her dishonest and deceptive. She is afraid that people won’t agree with her, that motivates her to get people on her side. She then falsely accuses others of witchcraft and her being the victim. Witchcraft was taken very seriously back then and it ended up ripping apart the town and caused non stop fighting by almost everyone. Abigail’s main motive is John Proctor so she tries to lie to John about his wife to get him to fall for her “She is blackening my name in the village she is telling lies about me she’s a cold swiveling

First and foremost, Abigail is obsessive. Evidence for this is shown when she refuses to believe that her relationship with John Proctor is over. In a heated argument she openly states, “You love me John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!”(Miller 146). Not only does this statement prove she is head over heels for John but that she does not care at all that he has a wife. She even tries to guilt the poor man into continuing the love affair. Abigail tries to get Elizabeth out of the picture by falsely accusing her of witchcraft, so she can have John to herself.

Furthermore Abigail has shown she can not be trusted. For example, she lied about conjuring spirits in the woods and when the other girls said they should tell the truth she told them they would be hanged so we have to lie. She would say are make any one tell a lie to stay out of trouble. She accused others of witchcraft