The Crucible Abigail Williams Motives Essay

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.

Abigail is a selfish and manipulative person which gives her the courage to do the things that she does. In act 3, Abigail says "Oh, Mary, this is a black art to change your shape. No, I cannot, I cannot stop my mouth; It's God's work I do" (III.115). Abigail claims that she is doing God’s work, but she is actually doing the devil's work because she is lying and forcing her friends to agree with her and go against Mary. She has the courage to go through with anything that comes to her mind, no matter what harm it could cause. “The girl, the Williams girl, Abigail Williams, sir. She sat to dinner in Reverend Parris's house tonight, and without word nor warning she falls to the floor. Like a struck beast, he says, and screamed a scream that a bull would weep to hear. And he goes to save her, and, stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out. And demanding of her how she come to be so stabbed, she --- testify it were your wife's familiar spirit pushed it in”(Act II.1282). This explains how Abigail is willing to go through with anything to be with John Proctor. She shows a monstrous amount of intrepidness just to do so. Abigail Williams has the courage to do anything when it comes to John Proctor. She stabs herself with a needle just to accuse Elizabeth of witchcraft.

Abigail wants to get rid of Elizabeth, who she describes as John Proctor’s “sniveling envious wife” (Optional scene Pg. 158)! One can infer how Abigail is jealous and is doing anything to steel Elizabeth’s place in Proctor’s bed. It reaches a degree were Abigail is lies so much she starts to believe her lies, and stabs herself in the stomach with a pin to blame Elizabeth for attempting to kill her. She later goes on trying to convince Proctor that “the jab your wife gave me’s not healed yet” (Optional scene Pg. 155). The revenge that Abigail is seeking to find is directly related to the theme of vengeance that is profound throughout the play. Additionally, other people in Salem, such as the Putnam’s, take advantage of the crisis to help achieve their

Arthur Miller states "Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets." The quote of this meaning is that people are falsely accused, but they may be innocent. The Crucible by Arthur Miller, is a play based upon events that occurred in Salem circa 1690s. Through Abigail Williams, Miller was trying to state the injustice in Salem because she targeted the innocent people, leading to their death. Many of the conflicts that occurred in the play were caused by Abigail Williams. Abigail's jealousy of Elizabeth Proctor was triggered by Elizabeth's husband John Proctor. Abigail was a hypocrite because she used the name of the Lord for her own interests. She lied in order to save herself by denying her involvement in witchcraft. The character selected is Abigail Williams because of her three main character flaws which are jealousy, hypocrisy, and mendacity.

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.

Towards the end of the book, when John Proctor calls Abigail a whore in act three, it causes the people in the court to see her as an untrustworthy liar. Throughout the book Abigail uses her wit and mischievous ways to get her out of things. For example, when she was accused of having an affair with Elizabeth, she convinced the town Elizabeth was witched. She moved the blame off her shoulders onto someone else to seem innocent. But, her past caught up to her and an affair with John Proctor came back to haunt her. And then, finally, in court he stood up in anger and called her a whore. The minute she was called a whore she was affected and shut down. The court then questioned her motives and her morals. Miller says, “Danforth seems unsteady” (Miller 111). In this

Since Abigail is the Reverends niece and grew up with a pastor in the household it seems as if she should be very humble and a good person but her human nature took a toll making her greedy therefore making her dishonest and deceptive. She is afraid that people won’t agree with her, that motivates her to get people on her side. She then falsely accuses others of witchcraft and her being the victim. Witchcraft was taken very seriously back then and it ended up ripping apart the town and caused non stop fighting by almost everyone. Abigail’s main motive is John Proctor so she tries to lie to John about his wife to get him to fall for her “She is blackening my name in the village she is telling lies about me she’s a cold swiveling

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

In Arthur Millers “The Crucible”, Abigail Williams says to John Procter “I know how you sweated like a stallion whenever I came near you”. That is perhaps the quote that led to the start of the Salem Witch trials. Is Abigail Williams the one to blame for the events that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692? I do not believe she is because of; the towns religion, weak minded citizens, and mass hysteria setting in.

One of the main flaws of Abigail Williams was that she had lust. She was in love with a man who already had a wife and waited for him all the time. The man she loved was John Proctor. Their romance began and John did not try to stop it. . He hid it from his wife but she got suspicious and threw Abigail out on the street. She quotes, “John- I am waiting for you every night.” which shows that she wanted to be with him every night and wanted him to continue to be away from his wife. She also quotes, “I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I come near.” This shows that John also felt for her.

Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible has a variety of unique and memorable characters that change & progress throughout the entire play. Some characters may even change the final outcome of the entire story. Abigail Williams, an antagonist in the play is a character some may describe her as dreadful. I myself would describe her as smart and persuasive because of the way she tried to manipulate everyone. Abigail's actions are quite obvious, but I believe she doesn’t deserve all the blame for what she has done.

She wanted people to believe she led a life of propriety, as her own ideology, but behind closed doors Abigail was naught but a smirched little girl playing make believe. In addition, Abigail craved for her community to view her as a covenanted pilgrim who lived in providence, however, she broke charity with anyone who did not defer or submit to her. In Act Two, when Danforth confronts Abigail in court she explains, “I have been hurt, Mr Danforth; I have seen my blood runnin’ out! I have been near to murdered every day because I have done my duty pointing out the Devil’s people - and this is my reward? To be mistrusted, denied, questioned like a -,” where Danforth replies “Child, I do not mistrust you -.” Manipulation is of clear importance to Abigail agenda as that if someone has dares to have a disputation with her incredulously, she is quails to protect herself. Therefore, Abigail is all pretense in order to elevate her own social status and preserve her

Some of Abigail’s actions are symbolic, which sets her apart from all of the other characters. There is no doubt that she is the antagonist in the play. Abigail shows heinous actions by exploiting the other girls in Salem, telling lies and leading nineteen honest people to their devastating demises. The reasons for her actions are never more complex than that of simple revenge and envy for Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail seems to relate to the bible, along with the entire play.

Through the history of mankind, there has always been the controversial topic of the supernatural. Witches, Devils, Angels, and God have always been topics that people has an opinion on. A great play discussing this matter is Arthur Miller's "The Crucible", a powerful and compelling play, is one which explores the theme of power. "The Crucible", set in Salem, Massachusetts in the late 1600s, explores morality and a rigid society's desperate need for preservation during the infamous Salem Witch Trials. The witch-hunt begins when a character of the name of Abigail Williams, a girl of the age of seventeen. Her role in this play was very dark, tempestuous, and mischievous. She can be seen as the most despicable character in the play. Especially

While George Orwell and Aldous Huxley depicted female characters to compliment the women of the present day, Arthur Miller built his character female lead off of a previously existing puritan woman, Abigail Williams. In ‘The Crucible’, a play by Arthur Miller, transforms the witch hunt for Communists in the Cold War Era, into the Salem witch hunts in the early Puritan society. Rather than creating a dystopic novel to compare societies, Miller used the preexisting Puritan society to show how American society mirrored that of the Salem Witch Trials. With that to work with, Miller used real people from history to create a storyline for the play. In the play, Abigail Williams is a spunky seventeen year old from out of town, living with her cousin.