Selfishness And Selfishness In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the characters are driven by certain motives to make them seem less guilty during the witchcraft scenario. However, Abigail Williams is motivated, not to seem less guilty, but to redeem her most wanted desire: John Proctor. She does not matter who she has to get through or what she has to do in order to become Proctor’s wife. During the play, Miller validates that Abigail Williams’s flaws-lust, vengefulness, and jealously- makes the audience believe that she was the cause of most of the chaos during the witch-hunt in Salem.

Abigail Williams is a very deceitful person throughout The Crucible, she can be characterized as deceitful because throughout the book she often pretended to be a perfect puritan in the courts and during church, but really she had been the opposite the whole time. In the beginning of the book, Abigail can be described as deceitful because she began the whole witch trails by telling Reverend Parris that it was all Tituba and her witchcraft the other night, that she had made her do the things that they did. In the middle of the book, she can be characterized as deceitful through this line, “Suddenly, from an accusatory attitude, her face turns, looking into the air above- it is truly frightened.” Also, shown throughout the words of John Proctor breathless & in agony, “It is a whore!” These lines display her deceitfulness throughout the beginning of the book. At the end of the book, she displays her deceitfulness when she had asked John Proctor how his wife Elizabeth Proctor was when in all reality she had no interest in how she was doing which showed that even at the very end of the book she still had been a deceitful

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.

According to Arthur Miller, “ . . . witchcraft was to forgo any understanding of how it came to pass that tens of thousands had been murdered as witches in Europe”. While reading The Crucible, we can learn three main ideas about human nature. The Crucible showed that selfishness, scape goats, and reputations. Selfishness surely did not benefit various characters in The Crucible.

Abigail Williams is the Devil figure in the crucible for many reasons that are clear to see. She is very smart in the decisions she makes throughout the novel making sure that what she says so won’t come back to make her seem like she is lying. Abigail started off in the novel as an intelligent, dependent, and strong character. If she wanted to have everyone attention she made sure she had it even if it was in the craziest ways. She was able to lie her way through a lot of things but soon it was going to catch up with her. In the crucible by Arthur Miller he uses Abigail as the Devil figure sending the message that lying to get what is wanted will not always turn out as planned.

The character of Abigail is the reason behind many of the influential and devastating events, which occur during the play of “The Crucible”. Abigail is a character that has a longing for power and is determined to acquire it. She also has a frightening self-belief that she can achieve any objective even if it involves carrying out morally corrupt and selfish plans. I also believe that Abigail has a longing to become recognised as an adult. During the first act, Abigail is depicted as a victim since she appears more naive and therefore vulnerable, one example of this is when she is seen in the company of John Proctor and although the audience still receives inklings to her darker personality she seems to be depicted as an inferior.

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.

In the Crucible, Abigail is very dishonest, manipulative, and selfish. Abigail really just wants for her and John Proctor to be together and she will do whatever it takes to get together with him. Abigail tells lies and makes people believe her. She drank chicken blood so that she could kill John Proctor’s wife.

Would you ever confess to witchcraft? In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, there are many concerns that are important to the plot of this play. One of the important issues is selfishness. In this story Mary Warren, Abigail Williams, and John Proctor are selfish. The main plot is about a group of girls who go dancing in the forest in the middle of the night, and do witchcraft.

In The Crucible, Abigail could act as a source of blame for many of the events that had occurred. However, there are multiple factors that might sway one’s opinion in the opposite direction. The society she was within was corrupt as it was. She couldn’t help the environment that she was raised in. Poor decisions had led her into some tough situations that would make getting out of very difficult.

As dozens of slaughtered bodies rot in the town of Salem, yet selfishness still covers the scent of the dead. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, has many examples where selfishness plays a big role in this book. One major way that selfishness shows up in this work is showing the people’s hunger for power. The people in Salem Massachusetts show many ways of being selfish but the biggest way, is that they will do anything to get land even at the cost of a person’s life. Being selfish is one thing but when you will take dozens lives for your own gain that is just pure selfishness. All of these things happening in this town are because of one teenage girl and her name is Abigail. For all of this chaos to stop, one man known as Proctor, must

“I am not an angel,” I asserted;” and I will not be one till I die; I will be myself.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre. This quote talks about how humans are themselves and will always sin and always do what is human nature to whomever it is. The Crucible by Arthur Miller, in my opinion, is about how people can turn on each other so commonly. What I mean by this is that our jealousy, selfishness, and failures can get to us surprisingly so easily. People's’ jealousy, selfishness, failures, and peer pressure can affect you negatively in so many ways.

In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, Abigail can be considered evil and her failed attempt to be good and pure was evident. Arthur Miller has portrayed Abigail to be unclean and the chaos of Salem, this is clearly shown from the very beginning of the play when Betty reveals to the audience, abigails truly malicious character saying, “you drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife.” this quote outlines the truth of abigail's evil intentions and despite her obvious knowledge about what is right to do, she tries to guilt John Proctor into continuing their affair “You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet! John, pity me, pity me!” In this quote, Abigail tried to flatter john while also disrespecting Elizabeth Proctor.

In The Crucible some of the people in the town of Salem committed a sin by lying about their actions to avoid getting into trouble. Abigail Williams in one of those people who committed that sin. She lied that Tituba had forced her to drink chickens blood and to conjure spirits. In reality Tituba actually didn’t force her to drink the blood and conjure spirits it was all on her own free will. Abigail did this so she would not get whipped or even worse, hanged for being a participant in witchcraft. Also, is she was discovered doing witchcraft than the truth will be revealed about her relationship with John Proctor. Overall, Abigail Williams lied about her activities of witchcraft just like some of the people did in the town of Salem.

In The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, a small Puritan village in Salem turns into a town revolving around accusations and rumors of witchcraft. The defensive actions of the characters involved in the dramatics show their greed to protect themselves at all costs against the allegations of witchcraft that tear the town apart. The characters in the play prove Cormac McCarthy’s assertion that “what is constant in history is greed and foolishness and a love of blood and this is a thing that even God - who knows all that can be known - seems powerless to change” (McCarthy 239). The inevitability of greed of mankind will prevail through the motivations to maintain reputation, sustain self-preservation, and get revenge.