Examples Of Abigail Williams Selfish In The Crucible

In Arthur Miller 's The Crucible, the main character Abigail Williams is to blame for the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, Abigail Williams remained a static character throughout the book. Abigail is a mean, deceitful and manipulative person who always wants her way; she has no remorse about who she hurts along her journey to get her want she wants.

By being selfish Abigail is portrayed to be aggressive and manipulative so she can save her reputation and life. Abigail and the girls in the community are scared because they were dancing and Abigail was going to drink a “charm” to lead to the death of Goody Proctor. One of the girls that was with them, Betty Parris is being unresponsive and has her father Reverend Parris very scared. Abigail is with the girls and she wants to get them intimidated so they will not tell the truth to the other people of the town. “All of you.

Abigail quickly threatens them after Betty’s episode by saying, “..I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it” (19). By doing this she starts off by making sure that the girls know that if they decide to go to a court official and tell them what was really happened, then Abigail will kill them. This isn’t the last time you see her fear people, Mary Warren was afraid of revealing that everything was a lie in court. Even though she would have been protected by John Proctor, who has a very good reputation in Salem. By making people afraid of her, Abby makes the girls believe that it’s smarter to follow her in her actions rather than do the moral thing and tell the

Power is a simple thing to have but a difficult thing to control. Power with the wrong intentions can cause great devastation. The Salem Witch Trials are a prime example of power becoming strong enough to kill innocent people. Salem, Massachusetts is full of Puritan Protestants who focus on the righteousness of God. The Puritans, following what they believe to be God’s words, create an irrational situation to present the importance of conformity.

Her first lie is when her uncle, Reverend Parris, asks her what really happened in the woods the night Betty went into the fit. Abigail claims that “we did dance, uncle… And there’s the whole of it” (Miller 9). This tells us that Abigail told Parris that she and the girls only danced in the woods, but as the reader continues to read forward they will realize that Abigail was lying like a demagogue. Abigail insisted that they only danced, yet Betty says Abigail drank a charm to kill Elizabeth. She evidently lies about practicing witchcraft. Abigail also lies when she accuses Tituba of bewitching her. She says “She sends her spirit on me in church… She comes to me every night to go and drink blood” (Miller 41). The preceding sentence tells the reader that Abigail is lying. She is trying to protect the fact that she is the one who was practicing witchcraft. In order to save herself from being executed she lies by accusing others of her involvement in witchcraft. She hides the truth by telling a lie making her a despicable

In “The Crucible,” there are many betrayals and in particular Abigail is very selfish for her own personal interest. To begin with, in act three Abigail grabbed an opportunity to pretend that Mary Warren is a witch. Since Mary Warren told on the girls about them associating with witchcraft, they are going along with what Abigail is doing and making Mary suffer for something they all did. Second, in court, Mary Warren admits she is pretending that she can see spirits; the scene is set in court where Danforth says to Mary “You would still go on with this?”

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

Abigail Williams is not just another young girl. She is a child who seeks forbidden lust in a fanatic society and that what causes her anger and aggressiveness. Abigail does not attain her love so she seeks vengeance by falsely accusing people of witchcraft. Just like Thomas Putnam, when he could not attain his interest, he seeks to remove Giles Corey who opposes him to get the land. There is also Mrs. Putnam who envy Rebecca Nurse for Nurse has all her children unharmed while Mrs. Putnam has buried them all and Ruth is sick, so she accuses Nurse of hurting her children by sorcery. Abigail desires revenge because she is so angry for her reputation in the village, that is why she threatnes the girls if they confess "I will come to you in

This is later confirmed when she threatens to “come to [them] in the black of some terrible night and … bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder” (Pg.175) Mary Warren and Betty Parris if they dare to tell the truth. This shows her determination at killing Elizabeth Proctor and securing her own reputation. Unlike many naive villains in other literatures, Abigail sets out a meticulous scheme to frame Elizabeth. First, she witnesses Mary Warren leaving a needle in a doll. Then she “[sticks] two inches [of a needle] in the flesh of her belly”(pg. 203) to frame Elizabeth of performing witchcraft. So mendacious is Abigail that she is willing to injure herself to accomplish her plan. Under her beautiful appearance also lays a manipulative heart. She is capable of manipulating not only the girls into doing things her way, but also the members of the court to her advantage. When questioned by Danforth whether the spirits she has seen are illusion, Abigail steps it up a notch by making the members of the court feel sorry for her and madly refutes, “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, questioned like a—” (Pg.210) This, following by Elizabeth's failure to tell the truth and the girl’s verisimilar acting toward the “yellow bird”, further demonstrates her manipulative power which brings the court in her favor. Altogether, many

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,

In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible Abigail Williams, an unmarried orphan in the Massachusetts town of Salem, incessantly grows more jealous, her desire for vengeance only grows stronger, and her selfishness escalates. She repeatedly lies to save herself by denying her involvement in witchcraft. Abigail's Jealousy of Elizabeth Proctor intensifies in attempt to realize her desire for Elizabeth's husband John Proctor. In order to save herself she accuses the innocent, without any sense of ethical violation. Abigail proves to be a selfish antagonist in The Crucible that shows no sense of right and wrong.

The selfishness of Abigail is shown when Betty says, “ You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!”(19). Another quote is when Abigail says,” Shut it! Now shut it!”(19). The quotes show that Abigail was trying to keep a secret from John Proctor. As seen in these texts, Abigail was trying to put a charm on Elizabeth Proctor in order to have John Proctor’s love. She really wanted Elizabeth Proctor dead because she wanted to keep John Proctor all to herself. This was very selfish on her part because she wanted John Proctor to be in love with her instead of him being in love with his wife, Elizabeth

Let either of you breathe a word, or an 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 pointy reckoning that will shudder you” (837). This shows that she is the controller of the others because she has threatened and scared them. This is shown a lot in the court trials, but is never really caught because of how the girls believably act along. In the scene of the trial where Mary Warren confesses to the acting of being bewitched it is not noticed that Abigail is the one who starts the repetition of Mary Warren and that the others did not say it the first time. When Abigail is saying about the bird on the ceiling Mary Warren says, “She sees nothing,” and only Abigail repeats it (875).

In the beginning of the play, Mary Warren’s character is well known as being wimpy and afraid. She is under Abigail’s control and will do everything she says. According to Sara Constantakis in Literature Resource Center, “she is weak and easily influenced. She is one of the girls who took part in the voodoo ritual and is terrified when the talk of witchcraft begins, as she knows people who are convicted of being witches are hanged.” This opinion of Mary is further proven by her action of not telling the truth about what happened in the woods because she knows Abigail would kill her. Abigail even screams “I say shut it, Mary Warren!” (Miller, Act I). Mary is always listening to Abigail’s demands, even when she knows the right thing to do. Mary Warren is seen as a poor little mouse who is too quiet to ever stand up for herself. In addition to this, Mary wants to confess about what happened in the woods, but Abigail won’t let her. Mary cries, "Abby, we've got to tell. Witchery's a hangin' error, a hangin' like they done in Boston two year ago! We must tell the truth, Abby! You'll only be whipped for dancin', and the other things!" (Miller, Act I). Mary knows she is innocent and for that reason, she is ready to own up to her sins, however Abby knows that she

When diagnosing the Crucible, one may find a lot of lessons that can be learned from just one story. When reading out of context and really examining the play for what it truly is. Life, can soon be persevered as short, seeing for most of the victims that were accused fell short on the hands of others. In this reading, evidence and quotes will provide a demanding case against Abigail Williams, stating that she is not pardoned from the crimes that she has committed.