Abigail Williams : The Annihilator of Salem An annihilator is a person who annihilates. To annihilate is to destroy utterly. Abigail Williams - a character in the book The Crucible by Arthur Miller, who plays as Reverend Parris’ seventeen-year-old niece - is an annihilator, she utterly destroys the Salem village as she leads the other children in accusations of witchery. Abigail is to blame for the annihilation of the Salem Village, because she was originally the first to testify and confess to the use of witchcraft and association with the Devil, along with leading others to confess and testify or hang. To explain how Abigail is responsible for the destruction and civilian unrest of the village, this essay will elaborate on three major pieces of evidence, what Abigail did to cause this, why Abigail did this and what was the effect of Abigail's actions. …show more content…
Abigail caused the destruction and civilian unrest in the Salem village by testifying and confessing to witchcraft, along with accusing others of witchcraft. Nevertheless Abigail didn’t originally plan this whole ending disposition of things, it just developed as time went on and soon she started to see the possibilities and benefits of continuing the madness. As stated on page 19, "You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" (Miller, 19), this shows what Abigail did. It shows how far she was willing to go to get what she wants, but it doesn’t tell us completely why she continued to accuse, lie and
Abigails motives is to be with john proctor and to protect her name. In the beginning she drank chickens blood to cruse elizabeth proctor when her parris found out. Abigail is a brilliant manipulator and a very good liar we see that in effect when she is in court and has to come up with a expectation of what she did in the woods. Abigail also as a young women in salem wants power and now that the most of the town would believe in what she says she keeps on going with this lie because of her thirst for power and she can use this newfound authority to get john proctor and remove elizabeth out of the picture
The crucible is a story about the Salem witchcraft trials and Abigail Williams is one of the main characters. Abigail was one of the main accusers in the Salem witch trials,which led to the arrest and imprisonment of more than one hundred and fifty innocent people suspected of witchcraft. Abigail deserves the blame for the outcome of the play. Abigail has a little thing for the proctor and he knows,because he had an affair on his wife. In the beginning of the story on page 22 it states the proctor saying “Abby, you’ll put it out of mind. It’ll not be coming for you more.” That meant that the proctor knew that he had done wrong, but Abigail doesn’t really care because she keeps going for him.
Would it be crazy to accuse an eighteen-year-old woman of single-handedly causing the destruction of a whole village? In Abigail’s case, not at all. Driven by jealousy, Abigail Williams, in Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, commits a series of evil actions, which ultimately leads to the downfall of the Salem Village. Abigail, although she seems pure, is guilty of many wrong doings. These include her affair with John Proctor, accusing innocent villagers of witchcraft, and lying in court. Together, these actions had a rippling effect, causing Salem to spiral out of control.
Abigail knows that what witchcraft is wrong, wishing death upon a wife and mother, and having an affair with a married man. She does not care that she is doing wrong because she wants John Proctor. She lied to her uncle, the court, and everyone in Salem about investing in witchcraft. Then when she confessed to dancing in the woods, she said she was clothed and it was Tituba’s idea. She lied and blamed many people of having their spirit come to her and tell her to do things. Abigail also lied about Elizabeth Proctor sending her spirit to stab her with a sewing needle. Abigail wanted Elizabeth to appear evil to the court, and she wanted Elizabeth dead so Abigail could marry
In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, numerous characters are blinded by their goals to take into account of the others around them. Reverend Parris is a man who is afraid of being rejected by society but secretly weighs his opinions above others. On the other hand, Governor Danforth believes his words are crucial, and no one shall judge his words. However, the true character that plays a vital part in the story is the manipulative Abigail Williams. All three characters are villains of this tragic play that rebels against the structure of society.
In my personal opinion Abigail's lustful desire for John Proctor is the root cause for the hysteria in Salem, her evil intent when Proctor refuses to renew the relationship is the cause for all this death and fear. Abigail seduced Proctor whilst working for him and Elizabeth as a maid. As the relationship developed Elizabeth suspected something unusual and ended it by evicting Abigail. This was Abigail's first experience of adult life and of womanhood. For that to be taken away from her so suddenly and then to be thrust into the backseat of youth must hurt very much.
People are very easily scared. It’s a natural human trait right? Well in the late 1600’s, this trait was dramatically demonstrated with the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, when the fear of witchcraft came about. “The crucible” was a play written about these events, in which I strongly believe that a character in the play, named Abigail, was the cause of this mass hysteria because she was a great actor, used witchcraft as an excuse to get her way, and was very manipulative.
Although The Crucible seems to contain a never list of evils and villains in Salem, Massachusetts, Abigail is the one who is always present a when evil shows its cards. Abigail is at the front of this evil that has engulfed Salem, she is the gardener continually watering the seeds which grow into the enormous problems such as, the death of those hanged for being witches and the destruction of Mr. Procter's good and righteous name. We see numerous citizens attempting to kill Abigail's garden of corruption, including Rebecca, Hale, Cheever, and Danforth. These are a few of those who try each to kill Abigail's garden before it can spiral out of control and leave the small and quiet town to Satan himself. Abigail’s villainous attributes are owed to her life
In the story the crucible by arthur miller the character abigail is a young women who commits witchcraft,which has negative results not only on her but on other people as well,such as having about 150 accused witches imprisoned or arrested.Also her character seems to change as well after the witchcraft she seemed to be a little girl who had fits, and it is claimed that her body contorted into impossible positions whom bothered a lot of the villagers,after they called a doctor to determine if the afflictions were medical, soon they found out they were not and the villagers then assumed it was witchcraft.This is very important because then the villagers soon got scared, and due to this false accusations were made,resulting in 20 deaths.Soon
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 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.
We are first introduced to the ‘strikingly beautiful’ Abigail Williams in Act I of one of Arthur Miller’s most acclaimed works The Crucible. She is a dominant figure in the play who is both malicious and manipulative. She is astute and knows how to use power to her own advantage by all means possible. She is a marvellous antagonist with vengeful desires and vehicle for the mass hysteria which becomes a key theme later in the play.
In the late 1600s, the Salem Witch Trials were results of the loss of Puritan power in the early colonies which reflected New England’s strict religion. In the 1950s, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible, which was not historically accurate, in order to draw the audience into the Salem Witch Trials. The Crucible contains characters that had once lived in early New England, but some traits Miller gives those characters are not historically accurate. Miller’s The Crucible dramatizes the Salem Witch Trials to entice the audience through the characters Abigail Williams, Samuel Parris, and John Proctor.
Abigail Williams in “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, personifies an innocent young girl who lives with her Uncle Parris because her parents were killed by Indians. The Puritan society in Salem was religious and believed in the bad that existed in the world such as, the devil and hell. An event called Salem Witch Trials occurred in 1692, it presented conflicts such as the belief of witchcraft occurring. Many suffered prosecution and experienced false accusations for committing these acts, creating more hysteria within the community. Vengeance seeks within the mind of many individuals to get revenge against others, one of them being Abigail whose influence is powerful enough to destroy.
This immature behavior of Abigail is her using her past as an excuse. Persistently, Abigail attempts to make herself the victim in every situation, and she blatantly states her backstory in the quote, “I saw Indians smash my dear parents’ heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!” (Miller 20). Abigail is able to use this story to convince the town’s officials she is telling the truth. Sympathy is purely what Abigail is searching for at this point, because she knows that is she can get that then everyone will listen. Knowingly, Abigail achieves her goal of not being blamed since she places it on others, and by giving everyone the idea that she can’t help her actions. Correspondingly, this quote makes it prevalent to how she attaches herself to John Proctor, “I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart! I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men! And now you bid me tear the light out of my eyes? I will not, I cannot!” (Miller 24). Notably, Abigail exploits John Proctor’s character with her deception. Surely enough, John Proctor is gullible enough to get himself into this situation which is irreversible.