How Does Abigail Williams Build Tension In The Crucible

Abigail Williams seems to be a despicable character in the story The Crucible. She causes do much trouble throughout the story starting from when the girls were in the woods dancing naked with Tituba. Abby says “She sends her spirit on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayer” (Miller,1154). Abigail uses Tituba to take the blame for all the girls speaking spirits and being in the woods. She manipulates people into believing and seeing what she wants them to see she is a very decisive

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.

Betty Parris is one of the main reason why they had the witch trials. She laid in bed and not moving or opening her eye giving her a lot of attention. Reverend Hale is brought to Salem to check her out. She would randomly burst out yelling at the people around her bed. Betty and another girl laid in their beds not moving or talking to people. Even when people tried to make Betty wake up, she would act limp and unable to move. This cause attention to be brought upon her. The called Reverend Hale to town to look at her. He decided from her acting strange that there must be a witch possessing her. In one scene, she randomly woke up and started screaming witch like things to the people in her room and the people outside her window. The Salem Witch

“Smart, strong, caring, reliable, resilient, selfless, charismatic, and inspiring.” Those traits are the 8 traits of a hero. These traits are all found in amazing people now just think of someone with the opposite traits. Which character from the crucible has the opposite of these eight traits? Abigail is someone who does have some of these traits. Abigail Williams is a villain in The Crucible.

Parris cares the most about his reputation because he’s a priest in a church. Betty, Abigail, and the Girls were playing the woods and Parris caught them playing in the woods and took them home, the next day Betty did not wake up the next morning. Parris did not want anyone in the village to hear about it so his good reputation wouldn’t turn into a bad reputation. “I’ll lead them in psalm, but let you say nothing about witchcraft yet.” (pg.17). He doesn’t want anyone to know his daughter is being accused of witchcraft so he’s asking them to hold on until they figure out how to accuse others. At the end of the act Betty wakes up and starts accusing people along with Abigail. “I saw Goody Sibber with the devil.” (pg.48). Parris plan worked cause

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.

When talking to her uncle who is Rev Parris, (also betty's father) she says “ Uncle we did dance; let you tell them I confessed it-- and I’ll be whipped if I must be. But they’re speakin of witchcraft. Betty's not wiched.” (138). All of this is true.

Everyone wants to have power,its just some people take advantage of that power and unfortunately that comes with some downfalls.In Arthur Miller’s book The Crucible,the main character Abigail Williams has full control over the girls' who had danced in the woods and are now part of the Salem Witch Trials.The power she has over them has gone to her head and made her feel invincible.The people of Salem were naive to think that the girls acting was true,this shows that people in the 18th century believed a lot of what the heard.Abigail believed she was a child of god and also believed that she was a higher power than most of the children in Salem,since children were believed to be more in touch with god then if an elder accused abigail or any of the girls they would not be believed by anyone because they are gods gift.

The first victim of her accusations was Tituba. When Hale questions Abigail saying, “Did you call the devil last night?” (I.i.22), she replies with, “I never called him, Tituba called him!” (I.i.22). After Tituba denies this and says she has had no relations with the devil, Parris says, “You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to your death.”

In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, Abigail Williams told a series of lies in order to save herself from punishment (blaming others in the process just so she herself wouldn’t be accused) and to take revenge on the man who was once hers, showing that once a person tells so serious a lie, this person now has power - power that can be used for personal gain. When Abigail began accusing her Puritan neighbors of witchcraft, she did not realize how much damage she would cause, for she was blinded by her thirst for revenge, similar to Senator McCarthy during the Red Scare.     Before she began accusing others of witchcraft, Abigail, Tituba, and her friends were spotted by Reverend Parris dancing naked in the woods. The songs Tituba had been singing

Throughout the play, Abigail Williams constantly lies to other people to keep her good reputation. When John Proctor asks about Betty's poor condition, she says they were just dancing in the woods and Betty got startled and fainted. She denies any involvement of witchcraft. However, she doesn't tell Proctor she also drank chicken blood to kill his wife, Elizabeth. Abigail and John Proctor were deceiving

Abigail Williams was a tremendous character in the story “The Crucible” . Abigail Williams impacted the story by having an affair with John Proctor . And was outside dancing naked in the woods . She was all possessed with the devil. Abigail's psychotic actions affected lots of people’s lives in the town.

With Elizabeth making it hard for her to find work and the fact that she will not be able to continue the affair with the man that she loves, makes it that much easier for her to accuse Mrs. Proctor of practicing witchcraft.

Parris is the minister of Salem. He is very concerned about his reputation and what his enemies could do to him. When Betty was “asleep” after dancing in the woods with Abigail, Parris freaks out and delays addressing the issue because he doesn’t want his reputation to be ruined. He is also very concerned about his enemies to find out and then use it against him to take his power. “But if you trafficked with spirits in the forest I must know it now, for surely my enemies will, and they will run me with it”(170).

Parris’s concern to keep his name clean and his respect intact leads him to create the beginning of the witchcraft hysteria. Parris doesn’t want Abigail to do something crazy or something that is frowned upon because if they do something bad then his good reputation would be lost and all of his respect and power would be too. Parris is overly strict with Abigail and Betty for this reason, leading them to fear him. One example of how Abigail feared Parris is shown when they were discussing what happened in the woods. Abigail says, “But we never conjured spirits.” Parris furiously replies, “Then why can she not move herself since midnight? This child is desperate! It must come out- my enemies will bring it out. Let me know what you done, Abigail do you know I have many enemies?” (Act I pg. 10). Abigail and Betty know that if Parris finds out they did something to damage his reputation they would also be damaging his power. Parris would be absolutely furious if that happened. When Parris inquired about dancing in the woods Abigail made up a story because she fears Parris so much and she didn’t want to get in trouble.