Who Is Abigail Williams A Puritan Woman

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an elaborate play that tells the story of the village of Salem and how the community slowly falls apart because of a strategic witch hunt ploy. The fear of witchcraft turns the once peaceful village upside down and accusations destroy the lives and reputations of so many people. Different characters’ actions have different impacts on the community, but one character stands out the most. Abigail Williams from The Crucible is a clear representation of how impactful the power of manipulation and deception is in a vulnerable society to create mass hysteria.

Through the characterization of Abigail’s Machiavellian nature, playing her uncle for a fool and using lies and her deceit to achieve power, Miller enables the reader to draw a direct feministic comparison between her and the powerless woman in The Crucible. The use of adultery and its connection to humiliation and lack of respect allows for a greater representation of Elizabeth’s and Proctor’s relationship with respect to Abigail. Elizabeth is victimised as she finds herself stumbling through her husband’s evident adultery “(Abigail) charge lechery on you, Mr. Proctor! and his reprimands “Enough… Elizabeth! “I’ll whip you”. Submissive to his anger and with her own “She’d dare not call out such a farmer’s wife!” Elizabeth understands that it is Abigail who has driven a wedge between her and Proctor’s marriage. As a result, her situation contrives sympathy, a reaction that is similar to the highly respected Rebecca Nurse who Hale has “heard of your giving great charities”. Nurse, as a direct result of Abigail’s machinations is thrown in jail, labelled a “witch”. The helplessness of these woman is directly attributable Abigail’s lust for influence and recognition and represents the power imbalance between the woman of Salem.

Due to her fear of punishment, selfishness, and envy, hundreds of innocent villagers were accused, several were killed, and an entire society was left traumatized and afraid in the late Seventeenth Century New England. Her actions resulted in absolute tumult and chaos. You may be wondering, “Who?”, or, “How could one person possibly have such a huge affect on an entire community?” The infamous Abigail Williams, who lied and took advantage of the fearful, suspicious society in which she lived purely for her own benefit.

The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the year of 1692 and during this time, the Salem witch-hunts began. The Salem witch-hunt was one of the oddest and most fearsome epochs in human history. The numerous amounts of people that were prosecuted were all innocent and their lives were taken away due to the fallacious accusations of the Puritan’s belief in superstition and their paranoia that witches had walked among them. One accuser that is the reason this all started was Abigail Williams. Abigail Williams is to blame because she possesses the evil qualities of being remorselessness, jealous, and also having the quality of vengefulness. These qualities that Abigail have are direct contributions to the murder of many people who were unjustly hanged to death.

Abigail is not only a liar she is selfish. She tells lies that hurt others in order to help herself and she is devious. In the court room she announces, "I want to open myself! . . . I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil, I saw him, I wrote in his book, I go back to Jesus, I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah

"Some are not who they say they are, and some are not who they seem to be." The author Ellen Raskin wrote. The reader can easily see this in Arthur Miller drama The Crucible, which is set in Salem Massachusetts in 1692 and 1693 during the Puritan era. In the play The Crucible was about a village who thinks they are under siege by witches. During the first few acts the people of Salem are beginning to be suspicious of how the young girls are acting. Later on in drama the girl begin accusing people in the village of with craft. So then the accused were put on trial. if they confessed to being a witch they lived but, if they did not the accused were sentenced to death. Miller shows us with the character Abigail Williams, as she is nothing like the perfect Puritan woman she was supposed to be.

“The most memorable characters in fiction are not people most of us would choose as our friends” (Allen 1). Readers find it intriguing to learn about a character that lacks predictability: they could do no wrong in one scene, then turn around and become a backstabbing liar in the next. The same characteristics that would not make the best of friends. Irregularity makes a character and the story, for that matter, interesting. Abigail Williams from The Crucible develops into a character that readers love to hate. Her anger, her cunning, her passion, every twist and turn she brings throughout the play brings fascination with it. She would not be an especially remarkable candidate for a best friend, however, but it perusers find it extremely easy to remember her. Abigail exhibits memorability not because of the qualities that prove a good friend, but because of her intransigence, her passion, her accusatory behavior, and her manipulation.

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 a town full of religious-imposed justice, is the crimes happening in the towns actually considered true crimes? Should the people that committed the crimes be held responsible? In Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible” the town “Salem” many are being are being accused of witchery, which is a crime in their society.The problem is that they aren't witches but normal people to be hanged. The executioner behind these accusations were a group of salem girls, but the one who leads is Abigail Williams.The witch court that soon comes, makes the punishment of theses crimes hanging or confess of witchery. Another problem occurs when the accusations that the salem girls say are false.So are there any “True” crimes being committed in this play.Should the people who committed these crimes be held responsible?With the crimes of perjury, involuntary manslaughter, and theft, the people who committees these crimes should be held responsible and should be punished on how severe their crimes are.

During the late 1600’s, 19 people were hung and and hundreds more arrested and jailed on the account of conjuring with the devil and divulging into witchcraft. In 1692, a hysteria broke out in Salem, Massachusetts. Witchcraft was being uttered in every inch of the small Puritan town, spiraling Salem down a dark path from which they would have no chance of returning. Names of accused were flying around faster than the winds rolling in from the ocean. Mass panic drove people to find any way to survive the Salem Witch Trials, as we now know them. These actions are what playwright Arthur Miller covers in his play The Crucible; clearly, the literary character Abigail Williams emerges to manipulate the Puritanical society of Salem using their superstition

The witch trials allowed for those whose reputation was lowly to elevate to a position of power and authority. Abigail Williams is the character who takes advantage of this. She is consumed with having a good reputation because for her to rise to a position of power she must be someone who has a pure name. When Parris questions about her dismissal from the Proctor household she is enraged and insists that she did nothing wrong. “My Name is good in the village! I will not have it said my name is soiled! Goody Proctor is a gossiping liar!” (Miller 13). Therefore, Abigail accuses Elizabeth of damaging her reputation. Abigail is cautious about her reputation because if rumors are going around that her name is soiled, surely people would not believe

In a puritan society, children do not often get to play around or have fun like a child would in a more modern American society. Often times the young girls live with close relative's to learn how to be a midwife; one of the only acceptable professions for a female to have. Abigail Williams was an example of a young girl doing just that. She lived with her Uncle, a local Reverend named Samuel Parris. Reverend Parris also had a daughter of his own named Betty. Abigail (11) and her younger cousin Betty (9) started to show illness sometime during January, 1692. The young girls started having hallucinations of spirits pinching them and attempting to cause bodily harm. The girls, later joined by Anne Putnam Jr, also screamed out in pain over seemingly

Abigail had many flaws throughout the story. One of her flaws includes lust. Abigail was involved in a secret affair with John Proctor, who happened to be married to Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail illustrated lust by telling John, “John- I am waitin’ for you every night.” This suggests that Abigail does have something secret going on with John. Abigail also says, “I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I come near!” This justifies that they have a relationship because she told John that he

Abigail Williams is the craziest, most interesting, and most dynamic character in The Crucible. Without her adding to the story, I don’t know if it would be as interesting. Arthur Miller created The Crucible to give an insight as to what life was like in Salem during the time of accused witchcraft. Using characters like John Proctor, Reverend Parris, Elizabeth Proctor, Hale, and Abigail, Arthur Miller was able to tell an interesting story and at the same time inform us with important history. Abigail Williams, however, is the most dynamic character because of who the reader thinks she is at the beginning and how different she is at the end.

I believe the person at fault mostly for the trials is Abigail Williams, who's intentions from the start were never honesty. Of all the girls affiliated with the witchcraft trials, Abigail Williams purposefully faultily accused many citizens when she saw the impact of her confessions in the community. In court, she realized how easy it was to get away with her false confessions given after every one the courts were quick to interrogate that person and push them to confess. The amount of attention given to her by the townsmen made her feel powerful and gave her a sense of superiority when she realized the fear she struck into people. The rest of the girls' voices were hushed by Abigail's dominant personality and relentlessness to accuse multiple