In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the Salem witch trials were a time where a wave of hysteria broke loose. During this time “….Christians, and those of other religions, had a strong belief that the Devil could give certain people known as witches the power to harm others in return for their loyalty”(Blumberg). Being involved in any witchcraft was a huge sin, and people began to take advantage of others. Numerous innocent people became accused of being witches or were involved with witchcraft due to rumors that children spread around the village. With the girls' statements, many had to admit to the false accusations. The ones who stayed silent and didn't lie are sentenced to hang. From these allegations, it ended nineteen lives. While several characters are to blame, the most responsible for this chaos is Abigail Williams.
Abigail is a compulsive liar. When Mr. Parris questions Abigail on what he witnessed the other day in the woods, she states, “Uncle, we did dance: let you tell them I confessed it - and I’ll be whipped if I must be”(Miller 8). In this quote, Abigail lies to her uncle to hide the truth from him. However, it's evident that Mr. Parris isn’t convinced that the girls only participated in dancing when he states "I fought here three longs years to bend these stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my very character"(Miller 11). According to Mr. Parris, his niece's actions will ruin his
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the audience introduced to a chaotic 1692 Salem, Massachusetts. Throughout the play we see a series of unreasonable events including the hanging of 19 people due to false accusations of witchcraft. These witch trials killed many people and jailed hundreds for no reason at all. There is many people to blame for the Salem Witch Trials but, Abigail Williams is most culpable.
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.
The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the year of 1692 and during this time, the Salem witch-hunts began. The Salem witch-hunt was one of the oddest and most fearsome epochs in human history. The numerous amounts of people that were prosecuted were all innocent and their lives were taken away due to the fallacious accusations of the Puritan’s belief in superstition and their paranoia that witches had walked among them. One accuser that is the reason this all started was Abigail Williams. Abigail Williams is to blame because she possesses the evil qualities of being remorselessness, jealous, and also having the quality of vengefulness. These qualities that Abigail have are direct contributions to the murder of many people who were unjustly hanged to death.
To begin, Abigail’s background story must be explained for anybody to truly understand her character. Abigail is an orphan who witnessed her parents’ brutal murder as a young child and was taken in by her uncle Reverend Parris (148). Abigail has grown up without a proper mother and father figure to guide her through the trials of life. When Abigail is first introduced into the scene, the narrator uses an intriguing choice of words to describe her. Some literary analysts may argue that Abigail’s childhood living situation is the reason that she behaves the way she does; however this is not the case. Abigail has a tendency to victimize herself to gain and receive attention whenever she pleases. Throughout acts I and II, Abigail has made herself the victim in a multitude of different ways. For example, Reverend Parris accuses Abigail of having a blemished reputation around the town of Salem. She denies this statement; however, when Parris calls her bluff, she blames the
Abigail Williams, while on the journey of adultery, seems to of already carefully positioned her name in the devil’s book of self-conceited, merciless, and vindictive individuals that roams this Earth. No one's back holds an off limits sign when it comes to her grabbing a knife. Some may say that Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, is dictated by a whore’s vengeance. While there’s some truth to this argument, I would counter that Abigail, the main antagonist, motives are beyond this. Maintaining her position of a victim to entrap anyone who dares cross her path is the premise upon which I build this counterargument. Abigail, not only abandons her hopeless relationship with John Proctor in the end, but continues the travesties against the people of Salem before and after John’s imprisonment.
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.
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.
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.
On page 11 Abigail discusses with her uncle, Parris, about the events that occurred while they danced in the woods. He claims to have seen a dress on the ground and someone naked running through the trees. Abigail replies to this in terror “No one was naked! You mistake yourself, uncle!” This seems equitable… it was dark and there is the possibility that Abigail is telling the truth; however, on page 17 after Mercy enters and is talking to Abigail about the depth of the situation Abigail now says, “He
In the story of “The Crucible” Abigail is guilty because she had an affair with john, she lied to others, had blamed many others than herself.
Patty Jenkins, an American film director and screenwriter wrote,“Every villain has their belief system that makes perfect sense to them.” This quote is reminiscent of Abigail Williams, a character in The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller. In Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, four girls were caught doing witchcraft. The girls accused other innocents of witchcraft, so they would not be framed for it. Due to the girl's actions, many of them, accused were hanged to death. Abigail Williams was a villain in The Crucible.
In The Crucible Abigail had a significant impact on the trials. Abigail had a significant impacts on the trials because she lies and manipulates a bad situation into something that will benefit herself and makes everyone believe her. In Act three Abigail says “But God made my face;you cannot want to tear my face. Envy is a deadly sin, Mary” (Miller 195). This quote states that Abigail lies and manipulates the situation in the trial when Mary Warren accusing Abigail of witchcraft by lying that she saw Mary Warren turn into a bird and that Mary was going to hurt her. Therefore, by Abigail putting the blame on Mary and because she know as a well proper young lady she has everyone fooled in believing that Mary is the one that is controlling the
In the beginning of Miller’s play, Abigail lies to her uncle, Reverend Parris, about what she and other girls were doing in the woods. She understands the town of Salem would shun her if they assumed she was consorting with the Devil. Her claim of narrowly escaping witchcraft instantly
Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible demonstrates how Abigail Williams commits malicious actions and inveigled others to benefit herself and to protect her reputation. Abigail manipulates, lies, deceives and tears down friends and the town in order to do anything to keep her name clean and eventually sends 19 individuals to their death. The inconsiderate actions she commits are to fulfill her desire of getting revenge on Elizabeth Proctor because her jealousy escalates. She continuously has a sexual desire to be with Elizabeth’s husband and a lust for power.
Every character in The Crucible by Arthur Miller has a decieving side to them. Everyone in the small town of Salem from Abigail Williams to Elizabeth Proctor seems to have a lying edge to them, and the proof is in the dialogue. Abigail Williams is the head liar in the town of Salem, her description even states that shes a liar. “- a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling.” This proves that Abigail can lie herself out of trouble, but that involves more lying, and throwing someone else under the bus. She and the other girls that were caught out in the woods lied about the activities that went on, and said that the only thing that happened was dancing. While Abigail is under fire for blasphemy, she