The Crucible Abigail Williams Quotes

It’s important to note why and how Abigail inherited her selfish behavior in the first place, and what caused her to act a certain way. Abigail claims that she is in love with John Proctor, and the two characters were discovered to have an affair with each other. John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor, finds out about the affair and

Abigail Williams, a seventeen year old girl is the antagonist of this play because she tells lies and wrongfully accuses innocent people to hide her affair and to ultimately get John Proctor back. The Crucible by Arthur Miller, is a play about the Salem Witch Trials based off of the historic event in 1692, where many people fall victim to Abigail’s accusations. Her motivation to accuse is driven by her feelings for John Proctor and her determination to go to great lengths to steal Elizabeth's place as his wife. However, her plan to have John Proctor fails because of her careless actions. Abigail is considered as the evil villain of this play, because of her deceiving lies, her selfishness and her manipulativeness to satisfy her desires.

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.

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.

Throughout the play we see instances where Abigail shows she still has feelings for John saying things like “ Give me a word, John. A soft word.”, but she is only met with rejection from John “ No, no, Abby. That’s done with.”. (Miller 22) as he has moved on and is trying to live a more righteous life. Even though John has made his intentions clear Abby continuously attempts to sway him “...do you tell me you’ve never looked up at my window?” (Miller 23) believing he will still come back to her. After still facing rejection from John, Abigail believes the only reason he denies her is because of his wife. Knowing that she has the power to condemn people by accusing them of witchcraft, Abigail decides that it is the only option she has to be with John. As time goes on the Proctor family is torn apart when Cheever, a clerk of the court, comes with a warrant for Elizabeth. The Proctor’s find out the reason for the arrest is because of attempted murder through the use of witchcraft. It is to our understanding that a poppet that is in the possession of Elizabeth, given to her by their servant, Mary, was used to attempt to murder Abigail . As the situation goes on we discover the entire ordeal was an elaborate plan by Abigail when Mary says “...she saw me sewin’ it in court. Or better still: Ask Abby, Abby sat beside me when I made it.” revealing that it was a plan by Abigail. Abigail saw Mary making a poppet for Elizabeth and came to the realization that it would probably be her best chance to get Elizabeth out of the picture. By placing blame on Elizabeth, Abigail is able to further her own personal goal of being with

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

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.

The two characters John Proctor and Abigail portray contrast between the characteristics of fear/courage. When Abigail and her friends are caught dancing in the woods with animal blood and children, she is scared. She begins pointing fingers at others to distract from her own faults. This shows that Abigail is a coward for not accepting her own mistakes. Out of fear of losing what she has with John she begins to blame his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, of witchcraft. She blames Elizabeth and hopes to get her out of her life so she can be with John. Her fear caused her to see no other option but to run away. Parris says, “Mark it, sir, Abigail had close knowledge of the town, and since the news of Andover had broken here-”(Miller 127). Throughout the play John Proctor shows an extreme amount of courage. He confesses to having an affair with Abigail in order to save his wife's life. He speaks up to Reverend Parris even though no one has the guts to. He chooses to be hanged rather than living in shame with his name on the church door. “Because it is my name! Because i cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because i am not worth the dust on the fet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given my soul; leave me my name!”(Miller 143) Proctor sacrifices his good name

He feels that he can never be with Abigail again. He is haunted by this because when he talks to her, he is nervous. “Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of mind. We never touched” (Page 22). In this quote, two betrayals are revealed by Proctor. First, his betrayal of his wife and second his betrayal of Abigail.  These two betrayals are crucial to the play seeing as it is due to Proctor’s betrayal of his wife, by cheating on her, and his betrayal of Abigail, by leaving her without taking responsibility, that initiated the conflict. Furthermore, because Proctor is not willing to admit his deceit, both he and his wife got caught in disorder. Ultimately, Proctor’s betrayal and dishonesty lead to his downfall.

Abigail proclaims her guilt by revealing her character and purpose. She is mad in love with John Proctor, and attempts to sway his feelings for her. She speaks to him with a brimming passion, and even cries for his attention (Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Act I, 21,22). Even though Proctor is a married man, she strives to make him fall in love with her. Proctor’s wife Elizabeth asserts that, “...She (Abigail) cannot pass you in church but you will blush” and she believes he blushes, feeling the guilt of being too close to Abigail while she is beside him (Act II, 58,59). Abigail’s conduct is improper and shows her obvious guilt.

First and foremost, Abigail is obsessive. Evidence for this is shown when she refuses to believe that her relationship with John Proctor is over. In a heated argument she openly states, “You love me John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!”(Miller 146). Not only does this statement prove she is head over heels for John but that she does not care at all that he has a wife. She even tries to guilt the poor man into continuing the love affair. Abigail tries to get Elizabeth out of the picture by falsely accusing her of witchcraft, so she can have John to herself.

After having an affair with John Proctor, she couldn’t accept not being without him. Abigail also admires “how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife” like Elizabeth be unaware of the affair she had with John Proctor(act1pg#). As a result to the affair, Proctor is trying to rebuild his marriage with his wife. Abigail continues to intervene in John Proctors marriage and attempts to manipulate Proctor so he would confess his love for her. Proctor admits his love for her, but does not continue his affection because Abigail seeps of vengeance for other individuals. He portrays her “as a lump of vanity” who thinks to dance on his “wife’s grave!”(act 3). For her own selfish desires, Abigail accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft and tries to intentionally sabotage her. She does this for the purpose of her own selfish and fictitious relationship that she has with Proctor. Abigail believes she has the capability to influence Proctor, but her egoistic actions to win his undefining love makes her appear as the criminal in the

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.

Despite Abigail’s huge role in the Salem Witch Trials, John Proctor is a person who is clearly not innocent. Proctor himself is a smart man who can sometimes just make stupid decisions. He could have easily charged Abigail with fraud at a part in the play, but decides not to. John had an affair with Abigail when Elizabeth was ill which started Abigail on a wild fantasy. She strategically eliminated people to work her way up to Elizabeth to get her out of the way. Proctor always feels guilty about sleeping with Abigail and he is one who will never forgive himself. He feels it is his fault that the Witch Trials are occurring and that God is angry with him for being unfaithful. Despite the

John Proctor. John begins the play as average puritan on the surface, he was well respected by the town and always spoke his mind, often exposing hypocrisy in the village. Though John may seem like a good man, he was hiding a dark secret from his wife and the village. In Act One Abigail and John meet up shortly after the witch accusations started. During this conversation we find that John had committed adultery with Abigail, and although John tells her that they are through, it is possible to tell that he still has feelings for her through his body language when she tells him of her