Abigail Williams: The First True Witch of Salem, Massachusetts “Controlled hysteria is what’s required. To exist constantly in a state of controlled hysteria. It’s agony. But everyone has agony. The difference is that I try to take my agony home and teach it to sing” (Arthur Miller, AZ Quotes). In the play, the Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Salem, Massachusetts was a place of constant hysteria in the 1600s because of what would come to be commonly known as the Salem Witch Trials. This was a full-blown witch hunt for people found to display signs of witchcraft. Abigail Williams was the main person to blame for this pursuit of witches in Salem because, first off, she was the one who caused hysteria about witchcraft just to cover up the fact that …show more content…
“Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you,” (Act I, 160). She was the first person in the play to accuse a person of seeing people summon spirits of the Devil. This caused a massive, wide-scale witch hunt to take place; families torn apart, mothers, fathers, and even children murdered for what was considered to be the greater good. Now, others began to accuse people of witchcraft and people who had been lifelong friends to each other now had no choice other than to point fingers at each other or be put to death. Widespread panic and unreasonable action was sweeping through everyone in Salem, all because of a little lie by …show more content…
Afterwards, she was willing to destroy anyone in the way of her getting to be with him. Proctor definitely wishes he had never laid with Abigail, and everyone else was paying for his mistake, as she ruined everyone’s lives, “I have known her, sir. I have known her.” (Act III, 378). A single lie snowballed, leaving death and terror in its wake, all because Abigail could not, and likely did not want to control herself. Every single death of the Salem Witch Trials happened because of one night of infidelity between Proctor and
The Crucible’s Abigail Williams is best known for her involvement in the Salem Witch Trials just as Senator Joseph McCarthy is best known for his involvement in the Red Scare. Abigail Williams was known in her society as a saint. She had supposedly committed some form of witchcraft and had redeemed herself by giving the names of other “witches”. She, and several other girls, were largely responsible for the conviction and deaths of nineteen innocent villagers. Abigail and McCarthy both had caused mass hysteria in their communities in order to draw attention to themselves, further their reputations, and to get rid of people they saw unfit to live in their society.
The Power of Influence In the Crucible by Arthur Miller Abigail Williams demonstrates the great influence one vengeful person can make. In the Holocaust Adolf Hitler demonstrates how one person can change the course of many peoples lives. Abigail and Adolf have a great impact on the acts others commit they show how fear and influence can have great consequences.
In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller the Salem trials come about in a deeply religious and superstitious society of puritans. The majority of the characters in the play become convinced that the removal of the devils spirit and witches from their community is the work of God. However, there are many intense feuds and rivalries in the small town that arise, which leads to the Salem residents taking advantage of the witch trials to express animosity and to plot the perfect revenge on their enemies. Abigail Williams was the original source of the hysteria in Salem. Abigail's hysteria was fueled by her hatred toward Elizabeth Proctor "She hates me, uncle; she must, for I would not be her slave.
She didn’t think anything through nor did she know exactly what she was getting into. Abigail was desperate for love and as everyone knows, love can make you do crazy things. “I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart!” From start to finish, it was all miss Abigail Williams. She created this mass hysteria that blanketed Salem like low hanging
In the Salem Witch Trials, 141 people were arrested, 19 people were hanged, and one person was crushed to death. In the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the witch trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. Abigail was the initial accuser of the witchcraft when she and a few other girls broke the rules. Abby had lied about what happened so she didn’t get punished. Abigail displays her villainous characteristics by telling lies, being manipulative, and leading nineteen innocent people to their untimely death.
The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, focuses on the town of Salem, Massachusetts, during the deplorable witch trials revolving around the 1600's. Within these trials, there were multiple accusations that were made about who was really involved in the witch trials, many of the characters who were falsely and baselessly accused were innocent. The falsification that were created by the main character of The Crucible, Abigail Williams were only for her own benefit to protect herself from being accused as one of the “witches” or had she had been there in the forest the night there was witchcraft . For example, in (Act 1.Scene 3)ABIGAIL: She sends her spirit on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayer! ABIGAIL:
“Vengeance is walking Salem.” (John Proctor, Pg. 77) John Proctor was correct when he said that. The people of Salem abused the law forbidding the practice of witch craft. For example, Abigail Williams made an allegation against John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth because she fired her as their servant and John ended their affair.
Abigail had the power to suppress her attraction towards John Proctor and prevent herself from trying to seduce him at his weakest point. John Proctor could have very well had the control to refuse Abigail’s seduction, but then again, she had proposed herself when his relationship with his wife was at a weak stage due to her lack of affection for him. When targeted at a vulnerable point, it is comprehensible that someone, just like John Proctor did, could give into an excessive amount of temptation. Abigail wanted him to give into that temptation for her own
Abigail was born as an “orphan” (Abigail Williams, seventeen, enters - a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan), because of this she never experienced much love until she met proctor, and this made her value love a lot. In act 1 scene 1, Abigail said, “I know how you clutched my back behind your house and …… and you loved me then and you do now!” (Miller, Scene 1, Pg.22) This quote shows that Abigail still want john proctor. Because of Elizabeth; Abigail couldn’t become Proctor’s lover (Abigail’s thought), this made her feel that Elizabeth took her love away, this drove Abigail to a vindictive person, and try to take revenge by accusing Elizabeth of doing witchcraft.
The play the Crucible, by Arthur Miller was set in 17th century in the town of Salem. People in the town were very spiritual. Most of them believed in not only God, but also the devil. Additionally, they thought that witches existed and they thought that they were guided by the devil. there was often talk of witchcraft in Salem, especially in the weeks leading up to the story.
The first act of The Crucible sets up the play to showcase Salem’s infamous case of mass hysteria, caused by the fear of so-called witches. In the town of Salem, religion is the law, and the land is controlled by strict priests and ministers. As for how strict they were, Miller gave an example, “Their creed forbade anything resembling a theater or ‘vain enjoyment’. They did not celebrate Christmas, and a holiday from work meant only that they must concentrate even more upon prayer” (Miller 4). For the children growing up in Salem, pure fun was not common, and their boredom led to an event that led to dozens of trials and some deaths; this boredom, for lack of a better word, led some girls and a slave-woman, named Tituba, into going to the
(Miller,). Abigail Williams planned from the beginning to kill Elizabeth Proctor and repeatedly lied in order to manipulate everyone into believing it was all witchcraft, showing that she is not insane but a sociopath. Insanity
Abigail seeks vengeance after her affair with John Proctor. She is still madly obsessed with him. After John rejected her, she makes up lies in court in desperate attempt to get Goody Proctor hanged. She thinks if she gets rid of Goody Proctor she will be able to have John all to herself. One quote that supports this is “I do sir.
The 17th century was an eerie period for the small village of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, especially for the common villagers. The Puritans were a strict group of voyageurs who traveled from England to escape the persecution of their religious beliefs. Ironically enough, the Puritans had been hostile to individuals who didn’t believe in their beliefs, such as Christians. Relative to how they lived, the Puritans of Salem have restricted any type of enjoyment. A vacation for them merely meant that they had to concentrate more on their prayer.
In Act 1 of the play, Abigail Williams was the person who was most responsible for the pandemonium in Salem about witchcraft.