Pity on the Fool It is easy to be feel sympathetic for a child who witnessed the murder of its parents; but is it easy to feel the same way when the child becomes a homicidal maniac? Finger pointing, hell raising, Abigail Williams turns the whole town of Salem into a twisted game of murder. In the play, The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams, a pathological liar was willing to do anything to get her enemies six feet under. Slithering through this game, she tries to play the role of the pitiful victim. Abigail Williams was set up as the unsympathetic villain of the play when Miller has her manipulate and lie to the rest of the characters with impunity. Never once did the readers witness a behavior or personality change in character of Abigail Williams. A static character may be the correct term for Miss Williams. Throughout the play, her selfish and vengeful traits stick with her like leeches. Tucked away behind the innocent face of Abigail lies hidden truths and monstrous lies just waiting to be explored. One may think after witnessing the brutal death of her parents on a first hand experience, she knows how excruciating it may be to lose a loved one and would never put someone through that. Unfortunately, Abigail’s heart overflows with rage and even threatens to kill her own friends if anyone spills the truth. Abigail asserts her power over her girls as she reassures them, “ Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other
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
In Arthur Miller 's The Crucible, the main character Abigail Williams is to blame for the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, Abigail Williams remained a static character throughout the book. Abigail is a mean, deceitful and manipulative person who always wants her way; she has no remorse about who she hurts along her journey to get her want she wants.
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.
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.
Argumentatively, Abigail is an adulterer looking for retribution against her lover’s wife, but underneath that her actions are narcissistic. The abundant need for self-preservation becomes obvious when presented with evidence from the beginning of the play. Abigail depicts these characteristics when asked about Elizabeth Proctor’s departure from church services and Abigail’s own displacement from Elizabeth’s home, “She hates me, uncle, she must, for I would not be her slave. It’s a bitter woman, a lying, cold, sniveling woman, and I will not work for such a woman!” (Miller 12). She refuses to acknowledge that her own actions are wrongful and places blame on others, “My name is good in the
Abigail Williams is an evil, lying witch responsible for the deaths of innocent citizens in Salem, Massachusetts. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible the young, beautiful Abigail has an affair with married John Proctor. She will stop at nothing to get what she wants, including practicing witchcraft. Abigail is an obsessive, selfish, manipulative liar, who brings destruction wherever she goes.
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.
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
During this essay I will introduce the main points involved in answering the proposed question. I will explore the certain aspects of Abigail’s personality and how it is an important role in portraying her reasons for her actions. I will also analyse the ways in which Abigail’s personality changes through the progression of the play. I will sum up which points have a bigger effect on her intentions and motivations and the effect she has on the characters of the play. I will support my reasons with quotations to justify its relevance.
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.
Abigail is one of the main characters in the book, The Crucible. She is an evil character who is rather selfish and is inconsiderate of other people. And because of her personality, she has conflicts with many characters in the book. Best example, she has conflicts with John and Elizabeth Proctor. She is a wicked child who would do anything to get what she wants and knows how to manipulate people and the situation to get to where she wants to be. Her conflicts began with a little desire to take John Proctor away from his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, and own him to herself and only herself.
"He was the kind of man - powerful of body, even - tempered, and not
think and do. As an audience, at this stage we have a mixed opinion of