How Did Abigail Influence The Crucible

​In act I, John has shown his sinful past with Abigail and his hatred towards authority. John and Abby talk for a bit about his past with her and John shows mixed emotions but overall wants to forget about her. “Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut of my hand before I reach for

However, for a period of his life, John cheated on her with Abigail Williams. John ended the affair, and Abigail was not happy about it. She was hoping that John would leave Elizabeth, and marry her. When John ended the relationship, Abigail became extremely jealous of Elizabeth. She wanted her dead. So since John made her upset, Abigail accused Elizabeth of being a witch so that she would be hanged, and her and John could finally be together. After John was hanged for his “crimes” people started to be skeptical of the witch trials. Abigail suspected this would happen, and she knew that people would come after her to avenge the innocent people who

John Proctor is a man who values his reputation. “How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” He wanted to save his name, but for personal and religious, rather than public, reasons. Proctor is a pious man although he went against his religion and committed adultery with Abigail Williams. He feels that the only way to stop Abigail and the girls from their lies is to confess his adultery.Along the line, Elizabeth is arrested so John desperately needs to tell the court he had an affair with Abigail.

Abigail is untrustworthy and deceitful during the witch trials in Salem. The affair that got Abigail fired started Abigail’s grudge against Elizabeth. Although the affair ended, Abigail is not over John. She tells him, “John။I am waitin’ for you every night”(21). John continuously tells Abigail that their affair is over and not to hope for him. Abigail assumes that by getting rid of his wife,

As Abigail fell in love with John [after the affair], her morals and her whole life began to fall apart. Soon after her feelings of love, and her passion for John grew to be enormous and after she was denied these feelings; she could no longer control herself-- her only reason for living is to get John back. This illustrates that when a person is given something, which they enjoy, or even love, and then they are denied it, they feel distraught and they will do whatever it takes to get it back. Abigail has been brought up to believe that magic is real, so Abigail went to Tituba and begged her for help. Tituba confesses to Hale and Parris, "You beg me to conjure! She beg me to make charm-" (40). Abigail was so desperate to get back John that she was willing to drink chicken blood to get him back. Tituba gave Abigail a blood potion to drink so Elizabeth would die. Abigail believes the only reason that John is rejecting her is because of his wife, Elizabeth, she realizes that she can use people’s fear of the devil to discredit, and elim­­inate Elizabeth; ultimately getting John for

Abigail knows that if she blames others her word will be taken as true and she takes advantage of this. She acts like she is being attacked by spirits in court and the judges take her side and believe everything she says. Abigail convinces Mary Warren to give up her attack on Abigail and join Abigail’s side once again, by acting like she is being attacked by Mary’s spirit. All the other girls back up Abigail by acting with her so they also stay out of trouble. Abigail also uses scapegoating to get what she wants instead of just to get out of trouble. Abigail wants Elizabeth out of the picture because she wants to be with John Proctor for good. Abigail sees Mary Warren sewing a poppet in court one day, and she sees Mary stick a needle in the stomach of the poppet. Later Mary gives the poppet to Elizabeth as a gift not knowing what she has done. Abigail takes advantage of this and sticks herself with a needle acting like it was Elizabeth’s spirit who stabbed her. This not only takes the spotlight away from Abigail but it also gets Elizabeth convicted. This backfires when John also gets convicted trying to defend his

When Elizabeth found out, she kicked Abigail out on the highroad and never truly forgave John for what he did. At the end of the act four, Elizabeth realized she played some role in the hardship that led John to commit adultery with Abigail. Elizabeth stated, “I counted myself so plain, so poorly made, no honest love could come to me! Suspicion kissed you when I did. I never knew how I should say my love. It were a cold house I kept.” This showed Elizabeth grew in character and is no longer a suspicious women. Another comparison John and Abigail had were they both lied to the community. When rumors were roaming around salem that Abigail and a group of girls were doing voodoo rituals in the woods with Tituba, Abigail started to name people as witches to redirect the suspicion from themselves. This caused to have over twenty deaths. Meanwhile to John, he lied about numerous things; for example, he lied to his wife about committing adultery with Abigail. Also, when Reverend Hale asked John if he knew all his ten commandments, John said yes. When Hale asked him to recite them all, ionically he knew all of them except adultery. Hale said he repeated one of the commandments twice, John replied with, “Aye.

Because of all of the lies and rumors and her unmistakable finger that can always point out the wrong doers in the town she has mistakenly pointed to the one person she did not want to be harmed, John. Abigail is ultimately the cause for John’s death. “Because it is my name! because I cannot have another in my life… how may I live without my name? I have given you my soul, leave me my name!” (143). The previously mentioned verifies the fact that Abigail has ruined him, because of the lies she has told and the things she has done, it has given him this obligation to tell the court the whole truth in order to take away the power that the court gives to her over people’s lives. However, in doing so, in facing such a manipulative girl he ultimately loses. He loses his wife, his dignity, and now, threatened to lose the very pride in his name. “Stuart Marlow states that Abigail is what drives the town towards Proctor’s arrest,” (2). Abigail has done the one thing that she was not intending to do. By causing all of the mishap that she has, it has turned around to hurt her original plan, and with Proctor’s attempt to show the court who Abigail really is, he is arrested, which in turn leads to his death since he will not let the court tarnish his good name. However, to be more specific it is Abigail’s lies to the town regarding witchcraft she sees people do that leads John to feel the need to confess that causes his arrest and

John opposes society by standing up to the court and not folding like everyone else. John’s reputation of being a good and honest man has led him to not back down in the court’s powerful presence. His affair with Abigail has created a large sense of guilt within himself. With this sense of guilt in his mind, John has made the decision within himself to not give a false confession, but he is tired of dealing with the court and decided to falsely confess. Everyone has said they are a witch, and those who didn’t were hanged.

Together they attempt to fight on Elizabeth’s behalf, however, through the tension and hysteria created by Miller in this scene Mary Warren’s argument collapses as she is manipulated by Abigail and the other girls. At this point in the play John has no hope left and no possible argument which would prove Abigail is lying so instead we see John confess to his sins in an act of integrity in order to save his wife. “I have known her.” John confesses to the court of his affair with Abigail and this is the first time we see John as a honest and loyal character in the play, this shows that deep down he is a good man who cannot forgive himself for his own sins and it is this which conveys John as finally beginning to redeem himself for what he has done. However, the tension in the court room increases as when Elizabeth is asked to confirm that John did actually have an affair, she chooses to lie in order to save her husband, not knowing he had already confessed it. From this point on in the play Elizabeth is taken back to jail and we see John become accused of witchcraft by the court due to when john says: “God is dead!” This shows john has lost all faith as he feels if god were real then this hysteria and nonsense would not be allowed to take place. However, the court sees this as an act of witchcraft and John now becomes wrongly

Abigail is an intelligent and a conniving girl; she formulated a plan that would lead to her being with John. She was indulgent of the idea of her and John being made for each other from past encounters with him. In actuality John does not feel the same amount of love for Abigail as she does for him, she made up the love they shared in her mind. She took one moment they shared and made a story out of it; thus, when John tried to shut it done Abigail got the hint that the only interference was Elizabeth, she invented a plan which would guarantee a reaction. Since Abigail started her strategy she had gained more power she was prepared to accuse Elizabeth of being a witch. She condemned innocent people to hang all to fulfill this abstract idea

John tries to save his reputation with they town by ending his affair with Abigail. Abigail continues to get him to leave his wife for her. “Abby, you‘ll put it out of mind. I‘ll not be comin‘ for you anymore. You know me better.” (6) In this scene, John was continuing to try and fix the mess that he made but, he knew that Abigail could ruin his reputation. John’s character no matter what happened he had to put his reputation had to be affected so it would have been better if he would have told the truth the first

This is because he is intolerant of the sins he has committed. Even though John willingly commits adultery with Abigail, he does not want to acknowledge his sin. He tells Abigail that “[he] may think of [her] softly from time to time,” but that he would rather “cut off [his] hand” before ever reaching for her again. He then proceeds to tell her that “[they] never touched. (23).” John's speech to Abigail shows that although John knows he commits adultery, he does not want to admit to it because he is ashamed of himself. John does not want his relationship with his wife Elizabeth or the town of Salem to be tainted by the sins he has committed.

As the first acts of the play begin to develop, John is portrayed as having a conversation with Abigail. John, guiltily, engaged in an affair with Abigail while he was married to his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, making him a sinful man. However, in this scene, John wants nothing to do with Abigail and is making a clear point of this when he says, “But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again” (177). This statement made by John confirms John and Abigail’s past affair while he was wed to Elizabeth. Concisely, John spills out his true feelings for Abigail during this time in the play, as he clearly wants nothing to do with her. The sinfulness

Abigail is a character who seems to have an insanely short temper, per-se. During the beginning of the play, the audience see the main protagonist, John Proctor, is having an affair with Abigail, who is John and Elizabeth Proctor’s maid. Halfway through that fateful night, John says that he doesn’t wish to be with Abigail, stating “Abby, you’ll put it out of mind. I’ll not be comin’ for you more.” (Miller Pg. 1270) This only angers Abigail, as she realizes that John will not get with her. She then proceeds to accuse people of witchcraft, putting multiple people on trial. She and a group of her friends set up an entire hoax, starting with one of her friends pretending to be asleep and unable to wake. Through doing this, the town believed a spell had been cast upon her, preventing her from waking. Throughout the Salem Witch Trials, Abigail and her friends accuse anyone that might get in their way. Nineteen people were hanged, and one pressed to death during the trials, and it