Mass Hysteria In Abigail Williams In The Crucible

Have you ever blamed someone for something they never did? In the play written by Arthur, the Crucible, Abigail Williams accuses many people of witchcraft leading to the death of 20 innocent people. Ever since she was caught dancing in the woods at the beginning of the play, Abigail and her friends have been trying to cover up their mistakes by blaming others of “being with the devil.” By the end of the play, Abigail is responsible for the death of many people because of the flaws she had which led her to make poor decisions. Her flaws of selfishness, anger, and cowardice ultimately led to her downfall which ended up killing many people including John Proctor.

In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, people are accused of witchcraft and put to death because they don’t admit to it. People believed that witches followed the devil instead of God and only worked for the devil. Many people were killed without hard evidence for witchcraft. Many characters can be accused of causing the many deaths of innocent people but Abigail and Governor Danforth take most of the blame yet people could also blame Reverend Hale as well.

In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams and Mrs. Putnam are are the sources of the witchcraft mysteries because they are able to use their manipulating witchcraft skills to throw the blame onto their enemies. Abigail Williams hates Elizabeth Proctor, for she had an affair with her husband,John, and still has lustful feelings towards him. Abigail used to work for the Proctor family, but was immediately thrown out because of her relationship with John, of which Elizabeth has no idea existed. Abigail believes Elizabeth hates her and calls her a “bitter woman, a lying, cold, sniveling woman” (12). This of course shows tensions between Elizabeth and Abigail. Abigail even admits she would do ANYTHING to get of Elizabeth, perhaps

Within today’s society, an individual’s morals determines how one is scrutinized, judged, and reprimanded. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Abigail Williams is a character with compelling moral principles. Abigail’s disoriented moral constitution allows the theme, the detrimental effects of mass hysteria, to be constantly reassured throughout the play. Through the egotistical, manipulative, and deceitful rhetoric of Abigail Williams, Arthur Miller is successful in conveying how the spread of misinformation can tear apart a small town.

“If you know that’s a sin then why won’t you stop doing it?” In the play The Crucible a group of girls were caught dancing in the forest by the minister Reverend Parris who’s daughter Betty and his niece Abigail Williams were involved. The girls knew that they have sinned so they claim that they were bewitched by members in Salem. They claim the members sent spirits out for them, they did this to save themselves from being hung. A court had to be set up to determine if the accused are guilty or innocent. Because of Abigail’s actions in the play she should be the one who is blamed for the outcome of the play.

“ There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” - Elie Wiesel. This quote communes the struggles of the citizens of Salem, Massachusetts who were unjustly condemned of witchcraft during 1692 . They were vulnerable while they were convicted but a few people managed to speak out against this injustice -John Proctor, Martha Corey, Giles Corey and Rebecca Nurse - eventually giving up their lives for this cause. The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, tells of a forbidden affair between married man John Proctor and his servant Abigail Williams. Their liaison is eventually discovered by John’s wife, Elizabeth, leading John to call off the affair. In an endeavor to get vengeance, Abigail and other local girls attempt to place a curse on Elizabeth in an occult rite in the forest one night. When their ritual was discovered, allegations of witchcraft spread around town. When Elizabeth is convicted of being a witch, it ultimately leads John to cease the paranoia and hysteria plaguing Salem. Abigail Williams applied scare tactics in order to manipulate fear in the citizens of Salem.

Conflict within a story does not only affect a single character yet rather affects them all. Abigail Williams, niece to Samuel Parris and cousin of Betty Parris, is most responsible for the conflicts within The Crucible. Abigail Williams consistently caused conflicts between many characters in the story as a revenge towards Elizabeth Procter following the conclusion of an affair with John Procter, Elizabeth’s husband. Initially, this conflict was kept between Abigail and John however soon after Abigail grew bitter towards John Procter’s wife, Elizabeth Procter as well as John himself. This bitterness resulted in a deadly accusation of alleged witchcraft as well as a cruel dispute within the small village of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. People will go to great lengths in order to protect the ones they cherish the most, even if it means destruction.

Being related to a priest doesn't mean you are a good person. Abigail Williams was the niece of Reverend Parris, but she was no Puritan. Arthur Miller understood and used this truth while writing his play, The Crucible. Abigail did some things that were not only unspeakable by Puritan standards, but also illegal at the time. She had Tituba use voodoo magic in an attempt to kill John Proctors wife, and had an affair with him while she was living there as a servant. To top it all off, she threatened the other girls who saw and knew what actually happened in the forest. These are all very strong reasons for why Abigail is not a true Puritan.

Recent studies suggest that women who live under constrained social customs are more likely to commit crimes, often times violent ones. In ¨The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, many people struggle with their actions because the rules of their strict Puritan Society make it impossible to handle their feelings and sins. One such character Abigail Williams struggled with handling an affair she had with a married man, which ultimately led her to commit horrible atrocities. Arthur Miller wrote this play to highlight the false accusations that occurred, partially against him, during the McCarthy Trials of the 1950s during the age of anticommunism in the United States. In ¨The Crucible¨ many people were convicted of witchcraft and hanged. One main character the played a role in these convictions while trying to get what she wanted even if it meant manipulating the court. Abigail should be responsible for the deaths of the people who were wrongly convicted or hanged in the play because Abigail was manipulative and dangerous, Abigail manipulates Danforth and the courts, and Abigail is violent.

In “The Crucible” the story has taught us about how great and powerful fear can easily take over one another and show how people turn against one another just to protect themselves. One of the characters in the story has shown a great example of this and you can see the great evil that is inside of this person who just lets good innocent people die to protect themselves. Cruel and selfish is what you think or maybe it is the other way around for you. Maybe you think you got to do whatever you got to do to keep going in this puzzle of life. Yes that is true but in this story a girl named Abigail Williams deserves to take all the blame that needs to be taken for all of what has been done in the little town of Salem.

that love and jealousy in large quantities can cause a person to go to what they

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.

Mass Hysteria is strong reactions by groups of people based on misunderstood facts, suggestions, imagined stimuli, or blindly following a false authority. The impacts of mass hysteria on a society can be damaging and deadly, not only physically, but emotionally too. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is about the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. During the Salem Witch Trials, several girls in Salem, Massachusetts accused multiple people in and around the town of being witches. Being Puritan and wanting to please God, the community immediately started trials for the accused people. As a result of the trials, twenty people lost their lives. Mass Hysteria leads to rash conclusions based on few reliable facts; The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the 2014 Ebola outbreak, and allegations that vaccinations can cause permanent challenges, such as autism, are all examples of mass hysteria.

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.