Comparison of Elizabeth Proctor with Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible

Abigail Williams is a very deceitful person throughout The Crucible, she can be characterized as deceitful because throughout the book she often pretended to be a perfect puritan in the courts and during church, but really she had been the opposite the whole time. In the beginning of the book, Abigail can be described as deceitful because she began the whole witch trails by telling Reverend Parris that it was all Tituba and her witchcraft the other night, that she had made her do the things that they did. In the middle of the book, she can be characterized as deceitful through this line, “Suddenly, from an accusatory attitude, her face turns, looking into the air above- it is truly frightened.” Also, shown throughout the words of John Proctor breathless & in agony, “It is a whore!” These lines display her deceitfulness throughout the beginning of the book. At the end of the book, she displays her deceitfulness when she had asked John Proctor how his wife Elizabeth Proctor was when in all reality she had no interest in how she was doing which showed that even at the very end of the book she still had been a deceitful

In act one of The Crucible, there exist two major conflicts which are underlying causes of the witchcraft hysteria. The conflict between Reverend Parris and the village leads Reverend Parris to make decisions which the average minister may not make in order to protect himself. These decisions will eventually create poor results and serve to feed the general hysteria. The conflict between Abigail and the Proctors leads Abigail to do things which are highly indicative of witchcraft. While there are many reasons for the hysteria, the conflicts between Reverend Parris and the village and between Abigail and the Proctors are truly what blow things out of proportion.

Their differences would also become evident when Abigail William goes on her path of vengeance. This trait becomes evident as Abigail Williams does whatever it takes to get her name cleared, including lie or commit murder. She then accuses Elizabeth of being a witch in an attempt to take her bed from her. Elizabeth, however, becomes the light of reason and sanity as she refuses to judge her husband, even to save his life. She knows that her husband is a good person and refuses to take that away from him. This was a very different view as compared to Abigail. Abigail held on to the notion that John Proctor would choose to run away and be with her instead. Wherein Abigail Williams had a somewhat weak background and character, which fed off of the fears of others, Elizabeth Proctor has a relatively strong character. Elizabeth refused to surrender her beliefs in the face of hardships, whereas Abigail would abandon her beliefs in order to save herself. Although Elizabeth spoke on the side of truth, Abigail would be the one that is believed because of her ability to change her belief to feed off of the fears of the community, a very powerful tool in puritan Salem.

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.

Abigail wants to get rid of Elizabeth, who she describes as John Proctor’s “sniveling envious wife” (Optional scene Pg. 158)! One can infer how Abigail is jealous and is doing anything to steel Elizabeth’s place in Proctor’s bed. It reaches a degree were Abigail is lies so much she starts to believe her lies, and stabs herself in the stomach with a pin to blame Elizabeth for attempting to kill her. She later goes on trying to convince Proctor that “the jab your wife gave me’s not healed yet” (Optional scene Pg. 155). The revenge that Abigail is seeking to find is directly related to the theme of vengeance that is profound throughout the play. Additionally, other people in Salem, such as the Putnam’s, take advantage of the crisis to help achieve their

From 1692 to 1693 a series of terrible trials occurred, These trials consisted of accusations of witchcraft. Today, these trials are known as the Salem Witch Trials. As a result of these trials, 19 citizens, 14 women, 5 men, and even one dog were put to death. The play, The Crucible, was written by Arthur Miller in 1952. In this play the characters have so many different characteristics from each other. Abigail is seen as a bad person while John Proctor is seen as the good and honest character; even though he made some bad decisions.Throughout the play the two characters Abigail and John Proctor show many differences in the characteristics of: lying/truthfulness, self-sacrifice/selfishness, and fear/courage.

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible presents Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams who serve important roles through their unique characteristics and thinking. John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth, has two defining characteristics that show throughout this play: she not only lives to please everyone around her and behaves passively, but she lacks the assertiveness to confront what lies directly under her nose. However, Abigail, the girl John Proctor commits the crime of adultery with, manipulates those around her. She is keen to act upon an opportunity when one arises and feels a determination to get her way. While Elizabeth and Abigail are similar in their love for John Proctor, Elizabeth differs from Abigail through her tendency to try to please everyone and keep her own emotions bottled up, while Abigail believes the world revolves around her and works to make things go her own way.

A court case is an event of great importance, and most trails ultimately end with the person or concept on trail being condemned to be guilty, or being declared innocent of the charge.Some trails take session upon session to find the truth of whether one is guilty and innocent. The longer the trail, the harder it often gets to tell between right and wrong. However, the guilt of some is painfully obvious. The deceptive girl, Abigail Williams, in Arthur Miller’s play the Crucible, shows her guilt by trying to sway John Proctor’s feelings for her, threatening her friends, and accusing so many people of witchcraft.

Before any of the witch trials began, Abigail and her cousin Betty were in the woods with their slave Tituba. Reverend Parris, Betty’s father, found them and other girls. The next day Betty started acting strange. Reverend Parris accused Abigail of using witchcraft. Abigail turned it around, and accused Tituba and others in the town of witchcraft. That’s how everything was started. Anyone that Abigail had a grudge against would later be accused of witchcraft. Since she had a grudge about John Proctor’s wife she was Abigail’s biggest target. Now let’s talk about why she accused Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch.

Elizabeth loves her two boys and her other child on the way, for example, “When the children wake, speak nothing of witchcraft-it will frighten them.”(Miller 73), takes care of her husband and is extremely patient with him and she is extraordinarily good at holding things back no matter what it is. Elizabeth's husband John Proctor has been unfaithful to her and she subtlety ask John of his fault. John confesses of his utter mistake but then blames Elizabeth for being too cold to him. At this time the girl whom John was having an affair with, Abigail Williams, was creating city-wide havoc pertaining with witches and she recruits all the girls in town to play along with her wicked ruse. Abigail despises Elizabeth for her relationship with John and decides to pull the witch trick on Elizabeth, for revenge.Elizabeth is then

The character of Abigail is the reason behind many of the influential and devastating events, which occur during the play of “The Crucible”. Abigail is a character that has a longing for power and is determined to acquire it. She also has a frightening self-belief that she can achieve any objective even if it involves carrying out morally corrupt and selfish plans. I also believe that Abigail has a longing to become recognised as an adult. During the first act, Abigail is depicted as a victim since she appears more naive and therefore vulnerable, one example of this is when she is seen in the company of John Proctor and although the audience still receives inklings to her darker personality she seems to be depicted as an inferior.

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.

Arthur Miller's “The Crucible” is one of the most controversial, and famous plays he has ever written due to its representation of the clear similarities between witch hunts of the past to the ones that where ongoing during the red scare of the 1950's. The play is specifically set during the Salem witch trials/hunts that occurred in 1692. While portions of the play are fiction, the play itself is historically accurate, especially when it comes to identifying who the villain is. It is unequivocally clear that the villain in this sad story is the young girl, Abigail Williams. While the case can be made that there where obviously other villains that had a more direct role in the injustices that occurred during the witch trials, at the end of the day no matter how you look at it Abigail was the main/real villain because she was the initial instigator of the witch hunts, practiced deceit and deception, influenced her vengeful will upon others, and lied; without hesitation nor remorse. These dishonorable qualities that Abigail possess combined with her own motives to gain vengeance(kill) against Elizabeth Proctor and assume her place as John Proctor's(her love interest) wife is enough evidence to make an educated claim that Abigail Williams in fact the main antagonist, and ultimately the villain.

She must be ripped out of the world” (Miller 929). Abigail accuses Elizabeth of being a witch which makes her like a crucible because this is a hard test. It is not easy to accuse someone of a severe crime like murder when it is false, and get away with it. Abigail plotted this by stabbing herself and gave lots of evidence to defend her statement of Elizabeth being a witch. Also Elizabeth then states that Abigail is lying but Abigail’s evidence is too strong. Abigail makes Cheever believe she is innocent when Elizabeth claims she is lying. Abigail passed another hard test and used solid evidence which makes her resemble a crucible. The last reason to show Abigail is like a crucible comes from Act three. Act 3 is the first court scene where people start being accused of witchcraft. Abigail accuses Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft. During the court sessions John Proctor and Mary Warren both claim that Abigail is faking her sickness and isn’t actually seeing witches. They both say that Abigail accused Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft so she can be with John, who she had an affair with. Abigail gets angry so she fakes seeing a bird that Mary Warren sent out. Abigail crying in fear “Oh, Mary, this is a black art to change your shape” (Miller 950). Abigail is given another test and that is to prove she is not faking her sickness and she is actually seeing witches. She passes this test by making the judge believe that Mary Warren is attacking her. She comes up with

all faith in him, she feels that he does not want to prove Abigail is