The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions regarding the potential of people practicing “the Devil’s magic”, or witchcraft. Over 200 people were accused of witchcraft, and 20 people were executed. Eventually, the trials were deemed as a mistake, but this was after mass destruction and chaos had occurred. About 300 years after the witch trials, “The Crucible” was written, which is a play inspired by the extreme behavior and inconsistencies from the Salem witch trials. One of the main characters in the play, Abigail Williams, is first accused of having some correlation of witchcraft, but carefully finds a way to get the target off her back. Abigail Williams, a young girl who strives to be with John Proctor, transforms from a naive, pure-hearted girl, into a violent and powerful character, who tries to manipulate and destroy anyone she can, changing the atmosphere of the quaint, peaceful, Puritan village to a chaotic and devilish fury.
Abigail first begins to stir up controversy in the town when she, along with many other girls, were caught dancing in the woods and “summoning the devil.” When the accusations begin, Abigail tells all of the girls the lies they should tell, saying “We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that is all.” (pg.19), while threatening them, saying “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 black of some terrible night and I will bring a
In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the characters are driven by certain motives to make them seem less guilty during the witchcraft scenario. However, Abigail Williams is motivated, not to seem less guilty, but to redeem her most wanted desire: John Proctor. She does not matter who she has to get through or what she has to do in order to become Proctor’s wife. During the play, Miller validates that Abigail Williams’s flaws-lust, vengefulness, and jealously- makes the audience believe that she was the cause of most of the chaos during the witch-hunt in Salem.
Within today’s society, an individual’s morals determines how one is scrutinized, judged, and reprimanded. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Abigail Williams is a character with compelling moral principles. Abigail’s disoriented moral constitution allows the theme, the detrimental effects of mass hysteria, to be constantly reassured throughout the play. Through the egotistical, manipulative, and deceitful rhetoric of Abigail Williams, Arthur Miller is successful in conveying how the spread of misinformation can tear apart a small town.
“If you know that’s a sin then why won’t you stop doing it?” In the play The Crucible a group of girls were caught dancing in the forest by the minister Reverend Parris who’s daughter Betty and his niece Abigail Williams were involved. The girls knew that they have sinned so they claim that they were bewitched by members in Salem. They claim the members sent spirits out for them, they did this to save themselves from being hung. A court had to be set up to determine if the accused are guilty or innocent. Because of Abigail’s actions in the play she should be the one who is blamed for the outcome of the play.
Abigail Williams is an evil, lying witch responsible for the deaths of innocent citizens in Salem, Massachusetts. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible the young, beautiful Abigail has an affair with married John Proctor. She will stop at nothing to get what she wants, including practicing witchcraft. Abigail is an obsessive, selfish, manipulative liar, who brings destruction wherever she goes.
In the play of the crucible by Arthur Miller was about the witch trial in salem, massachute. A teenage girl named Abigail fell in love with a married guy named John Proctor. Abigail is doing everything to win John Proctor heart and be john proctor wife. Everything went wrong and she started to lie by accusing innocent people for being witches. Innocent people are getting hang up because of Abigail and her friends lies. The author's purpose of this play is to inform the audience about what happened during salem witch trials.
Being related to a priest doesn't mean you are a good person. Abigail Williams was the niece of Reverend Parris, but she was no Puritan. Arthur Miller understood and used this truth while writing his play, The Crucible. Abigail did some things that were not only unspeakable by Puritan standards, but also illegal at the time. She had Tituba use voodoo magic in an attempt to kill John Proctors wife, and had an affair with him while she was living there as a servant. To top it all off, she threatened the other girls who saw and knew what actually happened in the forest. These are all very strong reasons for why Abigail is not a true Puritan.
Salem Massachusetts in 1692 is a dark period of disseminating hysteria. As exemplified in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, witch trials took place. Members of the community claimed to have seen a person’s spirit performing witchcraft, a crime that would cause a person to be sentenced to death. A character named Abigail in the play acquired immense power, and manipulated the situations in the witch trials. At the same time, John Proctor also strived to vindicate his reputation and refused to confess. Several themes were thoroughly displayed in the story through different characters, including the power of falsehood and deception, preservation of self-image,
Abigail Williams did not want to stop the witch trials because if they found out she was lying about most of the things she said she would have been hanged. Blaming other people, getting them killed because of her ignorance. She only was loyal to the girls. One wrong move for abigail then her life would have been over with. Abigail was full of herself in the play she was selfish, ignorant, and a back-stabbing liar, it was her way or no way she did not let nothing stop her from getting rid of who was in the way.She even told lies on Tituba, but she had the courage and was brave enough to stand up and confess about it only because she was a slave and she thought they were going to kill her. The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the author of the book put everything in play because Abigail Uses the town’s fear and Witchcraft to her own advantages. She stole Reverend Parris money and lied about it and, acts the whole shouting and screaming in court and puts the town in fear. Being so vindictive as she is, she scares herself at times because she’s afraid if anyone would find out about her lien about the witchcraft.
In “The Crucible” the story has taught us about how great and powerful fear can easily take over one another and show how people turn against one another just to protect themselves. One of the characters in the story has shown a great example of this and you can see the great evil that is inside of this person who just lets good innocent people die to protect themselves. Cruel and selfish is what you think or maybe it is the other way around for you. Maybe you think you got to do whatever you got to do to keep going in this puzzle of life. Yes that is true but in this story a girl named Abigail Williams deserves to take all the blame that needs to be taken for all of what has been done in the little town of Salem.
Arthur Millers’ novel “ The Crucible” is a wicked story, filled with love, hatred, and mysterious scandals. The Crucible introduces us to witchcraft and strange ways people walked with the devil. In this novel you’ll find out who’s a real Christian and who is misleading others in there path. In The Crucible it reveals the truth and the lies of everyone. Mostly women were accused of lying about witchcraft. The people in Salem thought witchcraft was a suspicious thing. In The Crucible, Abigail Williams takes out her pain and love for John Proctor, out on other people just so she can be with him forever. Abigail is a sneaky , conniving “whore” who is wrapped around John Proctor. As time goes on Abigail love for John Proctor grew so intense.
The main character I chose to analyze is Abigail Williams. Abigail is a very intelligent, manipulative, and cunning character in The Crucible. Some would call her the puppet master of the play, as she almost seems to have all of the other characters on a string, controlling their destiny with her sly and devious ways. A main example of this in the play, was her use of Mary Warrens poppet to manipulate and control Elizabeth Proctors fate. A poppet is somewhat of a voodoo doll, which Mary Warren had innocently created, and left in the Proctor household. Abigail saw this as opportunity to finally destroy Elizabeth once and for all, after having an affair with her husband John, and still wanting to get him back. The only way to do this, was to kill Elizabeth. Abigail stabbed herself in the abdomen with a large needle, and cried witchcraft at Elizabeth, insinuating that Elizabeth had been the one to stab her through witchcraft. The courts fell for her ingenious plan, and Elizabeth was innocently sent off to jail. This is only one example of the scheming ways of Abigail, shown throughout the play. Her main motivating factor has a theme of jealousy and revenge on Elizabeth. She is clearly the “villain” of the play with her deceitful ways, and never shows any remorse for her actions. She is also a large example of irony in the play, as she is the one that was first accused of witchcraft, but ends up successfully blaming everybody else.
The devastating Salem witch trials occurred between February 1692 and May 1693. By the end of the trials many people were accused, nineteen were executed and several more died in prison. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, captures the hysteria that developed during the Salem witch trials. Crucible character, Abigail Williams, represents the repressed desires that many of the Puritans possess. Abigail’s readiness to abandon Puritan social restrictions sets her apart from the other characters, and eventually leads to her downfall. Abigail Williams uses manipulation and cruelty to create an atmosphere of terror and intimidation in her town. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Abigail Williams leads the hysteria in Salem by taking extreme measures to succeed in attaining John Proctor's love.
While many characters in the Crucible harm or help the community, two stand out as especially influential to the fate of Salem. These two are John Proctor and Abigail Williams. Both, perhaps, do not have the community at the forefront of their minds, but in the process of pursuing their goals they affect Salem for better or for worse. Where John inspires other Salemites to rebel against the trials, Abigail tears apart the community with hysteria and paranoia.
According to Maya Angelou, “Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean” which explains why the bitterness and anger in Abigail Williams over losing John proctor in The Crucible by Arthur Miller causes her to seek attention by accusing many of witchcraft. Guided by their strict puritan beliefs, many of the townspeople believe her, causing several to die and countless more to suffer. Set in 1692, the town of Salem is very religious, and their puritan beliefs guide their everyday life; however, by living in such a strict environment, small arguments affecting only a few people can turn into a tragedy for the whole time. The girl most responsible for the death in Salem is Abigail Williams. She
It is sometimes said that theatre is supposed to reflect society and experiences that the audience can relate to. Luckily, very few people have led the type of life that Abigail Williams, the heroine of Abigail/1702, chose to live. Abigail/1702, an elaboration on what happened to Abigail Williams after the events of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, was written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and was performed by the Nebraska Repertory Theatre under the direction of Andy Park. I attended the performance on Friday, October 6th at 7:30 p.m. I generally enjoyed the production; most of the leading cast of characters were phenomenal actors and the addition of the Twenty was a nice touch that I imagine livened up the story from the original iteration. It was an overall visually and emotionally interesting performance