Who Is Abigail Williams Play In The Crucible

The play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, takes place in the town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. This time in Salem, witchcraft was suspected of almost everyone in the town. Preserving one’s reputation becomes recurring concept throughout the play. The witchcraft accusations are usually made by people that have a biased view against others, which is why everyone tries to make sure their reputation looks well with the rest of the town. This concept is proven through the characters of John Proctor, Reverend Parris and Reverend Hale. These three characters go to great lengths to protect what the town of Salem thinks of them.

In the play The Crucible many of the characters learn things about themselves as well as others. Discuss the insight gained by the characters of Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale, and John Proctor.

This is later confirmed when she threatens to “come to [them] in the black of some terrible night and … bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder” (Pg.175) Mary Warren and Betty Parris if they dare to tell the truth. This shows her determination at killing Elizabeth Proctor and securing her own reputation. Unlike many naive villains in other literatures, Abigail sets out a meticulous scheme to frame Elizabeth. First, she witnesses Mary Warren leaving a needle in a doll. Then she “[sticks] two inches [of a needle] in the flesh of her belly”(pg. 203) to frame Elizabeth of performing witchcraft. So mendacious is Abigail that she is willing to injure herself to accomplish her plan. Under her beautiful appearance also lays a manipulative heart. She is capable of manipulating not only the girls into doing things her way, but also the members of the court to her advantage. When questioned by Danforth whether the spirits she has seen are illusion, Abigail steps it up a notch by making the members of the court feel sorry for her and madly refutes, “I have been near to murdered every day because I done my duty pointing out the Devil’s people—and this is my reward? To be mistrusted, denied, questioned like a—” (Pg.210) This, following by Elizabeth's failure to tell the truth and the girl’s verisimilar acting toward the “yellow bird”, further demonstrates her manipulative power which brings the court in her favor. Altogether, many

Abigail Williams is a little girl who is corrupted by the power and authority she is given due to the lack of knowledge of the people in her time period. The play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, shows how Abigail transforms from a normal person into a monster. Abigail may be a little girl, but she is far more powerful, corrupt and evil than she seems, because she receives high authority and is able to do whatever she wants.

The second person that is responsible for the witch hysteria is Reverend Parris. Parris is a very greedy man that only cares about his reputation. “But if you trafficked with the spirits in the forest I must know it now, for surely my enemies will, and they will ruin me with it.” (Miller 1.9). When he says this his daughter is laying in bed in a death like state, and all he cares about is if the townspeople will use his daughter being sick to overthrow him. The first reason that makes him responsible is that he is an instigator. He is always trying to make people look bad, especially John Proctor. “Such a Christian that will not come to church but once in a month.” (Miller 3.41). When Parris is saying this he is trying to make Proctor out to be an unholy man. Parris is trying to make it seem like John’s word is not truthful because he doesn’t come to church often. Another reason that Parris is responsible for the hysteria is that he lied about finding the girls dancing naked in the woods. He says to Danforth in act three “I do not, sir, but I never saw any of them naked.” (Miller 47), but in act one he say to Abigail “I saw a dress lying on the grass. And I thought I saw someone naked running through

In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, it takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during colonial America. Throughout the story a group of girls makes accusations a mass of people of practicing witchcraft, one of the worst crimes to commit during that period, and people are being sentenced to hang for denying witchery. In the Crucible there are many lessons that Arthur Miller wants to teach you. To me a lot of the lessons that were taught in this story are important but I feel like one of them is the most important. Arthur Miller demonstrates that one of the lessons implied in the story is people’s character and how it affects those people and others. Examples of character are Giles Corey, John Proctor, Abigail Williams.

In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller was based on the Salem, witch trials when the people of the town where accusing each other of witchcraft and those held for questioning would stand trial had a choice to be valor. In Miller’s portrayal of the ghastly, sickening inquiry of witchcraft many people in the 1690’s were people of the township were maintaining guard for their beliefs; while others of the community of Salem were cowards who took the easy out of the accusations they were on trial. The townspeople of Salem are going through a day people are courageous even in a way others could not be or were never suppose to be. Those characters display their courage in the town at the time of need, John Proctor is a selfless man when only stating

American playwright and theatrical figure in the twentieth-century, Arthur Miller, once said, “Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.” Though he did not include this quote in the context of his famous work, The Crucible, his wise words can also be relevant in this play. The play takes place during the era of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. In his composition, he includes the story of Mr. and Mrs. Proctor, a married couple living outside of Salem in the time period of the trials. Abigail Williams, the family’s servant, has an affair with Mr. Proctor, which becomes a greatly kept secret before prior to the events of the play. Proctor then fully experiences the consequences of betraying his wife, which include shame of betrayal and fear of

Abigail Williams is the cause to all of the hysteria in Arthur Miller’s book The Crucible. In The Crucible Abigail’s parents are killed by Native Indian’s which leaves her character as a deceitful, untrustworthy, selfish, delusional, and excessively manipulative woman. Due to these character traits Abigail William’s is given cause as to why she was the reason for Salem being left in a state of hysteria. Abigail manipulated her salve Tituba, and a cluster of girls to practice witchcraft in the forest in an attempt to kill her lover’s wife, Elizabeth. When she is gets caught both her slave, Tituba, and Abigail falsely list names of women who committed witchcraft.

The main character in the play Abigail Williams is to blame for the 1692 witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. She was seen as a hero and a saint instead of a mean and cruel person who always wants things to go her way, no matter who she hurts in the process. Through out the play her lies cause many people suffering and death, but she never cared what happened to any of them except John Proctor. He had an affair with Abigail a few months from the beginning of the play. John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth used to hire Abigail, until Elizabeth found out about the affair and fired Abigail. Although John told Abigail that he was done with the affair and he would never go back to her again, she tried very hard to get back his love. "Abby, I may

In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller Abigail Williams is responsible for the tragedy in Salem due to her relentless desire to be loved by John Proctor, her direful childhood, and her dissembling character towards others. The tragedy in Salem is majorly affected by Abigail's accusations and lies in order to be loved by John Proctor. Abigail used to work for John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth as a servant. It wasn’t until John had an affair with Abigail, that she was kicked out due to Elizabeth’s jealousy. Abigail was infuriated by such an act, so she exclaimed that she would get rid of Elizabeth in order to keep John all to herself. As a sign of revenge, Abigail proclaimed that she had worked with the devil, so she can accuse anyone in

In Salem during the 1600s, the government was a theocracy, meaning the priests rule in the name of God. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, theocracy’s role shows the tyranny and the bias in the witch trials. Since Reverend Parris is the head of the Church and can control the trials, he will most likely believe the accusations that his niece, Abigail Williams, claims. John Proctor and Reverend Parris are enemies so when Goody Proctor is accused of witchcraft, there is slim chance she would be set free due to their rivalry. Moreover, Parris is secretive and therefore warps the decisions he makes with his partisan stance.

Abigail Williams was responsible for creating most of the hysteria in The Crucible. She was the niece of Reverend Parris and the leader of the group of girls who begin accusing the townspeople of witchcraft. Abigail and John Proctor, revealed in the first act, had an affair approximately seven months before the start of the play. As it turns out, Proctor had been avoiding Abigail and even tells her that he had “hardly stepped off my farm this sevenmonth” (Miller 22). Abigail grew attached to Proctor during their affair and was appalled and furious when she found out he didn’t

A crowd of 1,319 people watches in awe as Javier Muñoz sings the line “I’ll write my way out,” emotion vibrating through the Richard Rodger Theater. In the Pulitzer Prize winning musical Hamilton by Lin Manuel Miranda, the protagonist, Alexander Hamilton, faces the decision of confessing his affair to save himself from allegations of a higher crime, treason. The character John Proctor faces a similar predicament in The Crucible. Based on the actual events of the Salem Witch Trials, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible, where Abigail Williams, a young girl, accused several men and women in the town of Salem with the charge of witchcraft, resulting in the hanging of 19 people (Bigsby vii-xx). Abigail, eleven years old historically, becomes a 17-year-old girl allowing her to have an affair with John Proctor, a Salem farmer (Bigsby xiv). Miller develops Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor’s wife, creating a relationship between Elizabeth and Abigail. Miller uses Elizabeth’s relationship with Abigail, influence on Proctor, and moral character to construct Elizabeth Proctor as a device to further emotional context.

A fundamental and timeless part of literature, evil antagonists provide a source of conflict for a story from the Salem Witch Trials to the Red Scare to present day Disney movies. Instilling villainous qualities in one of his main characters, Arthur Miller initiates conflict. The Crucible, a story written by Arthur Miller about the Salem Witch Trials, demonstrates the power of those who strive for omnipotence compared to the outcasts living in Salem during those times. In charge of accusing men and woman of involvement with the devil, the main antagonist Abigail creates conflict in the story. Abigail’s core values and traits mirror those of various Disney villains. Abigail’s traits include omnipotent power, manipulation, vengeance, and motivation.