Abigail Lies In The Crucible Essay

If turmoil comes over your town, would you take advantage of it? The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a shocking novel about witchcraft in Salem in the late 1600s. Many girls, including Abigail, were caught in the woods doing what was thought to be “witchcraft”. Once the rest of the town hears of this the accusations start. With little evidence to prove innocence, confessing or hanging were the only options. The people of Salem see Abigail as a perfect person, but we know that she is far from it. She truly outsmarts the town with her witty lies, persuasion of everyone, and she gets power and money by any means necessary.

Abigail lies her way through all the problems she faces. It starts with a simple lie of defending herself of the accusations of witchcraft, but will spiral out of control as the novel and her lies progress. When Hale is questioning Abigail, he asks about the liquid in the kettle that was in the woods with them, “Did you drink it?” She responds “No sir!” Then Hale asks “Did Tituba ask you to drink it?” She quickly comes back with “She tried, but I refused”(pg. 43 Act 1). These simple

She lies, uses strong persuasion and then she gets power and money. Towards the end of the novel, The Crucible, Abigail Williams ran away with another girl and was not heard of again. Her lies work so well from the beginning, but spiraled out of control, if she came clean at the start it would have been so simple. The novel relates to today's society because both societies, now and then, have corruption in the government and the greed for power. Although the occurrence which took place in Salem could not happen now it relates to other problems we face, such as convicting or killing someone without evidence. The lesson that Abby teaches is that even with all of the power and money it is nothing if you have no one to share it with and especially when you get the power in inexcusable