Abigail's Control In The Crucible

Abigail Williams was the goody two shoes that kept her reputation high, until she turned on many with a single lie. In The Crucible By Arthur Miller, is set in the year of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts where a witch outbreak has jailed many of the women from a fault of one girl named Abigail. It causes havoc in Salem that will lead to death in the village. Abigail has shown many transformations and showed that she is very dynamic from her emotions, to her actions, and to her experiences throughout the story of The Crucible.

In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”, Abigail is most to blame in the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials is based on a period of time where the devil’s work has found its way into the Christian city of Salem, causing everybody accused of witchcraft to confess, or be hanged. Abigail, a teenage girl at the time, has fell madly in love with a man by the name of John Proctor. John is a married man, but in his past he has had an affair with Abigail which nobody knew of. Abigail’s immaturity shows throughout the story, along with major jealousy over Elizabeth Proctor, John’s wife. All these events of hanging and sin in Salem lead back around to Abigail’s jealousy overall

In the book that handle is known as “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, goes into detail about what happened in the Salem WItch trials in the duration of 1692. Miller used the Red Scare as motivation to write the book. In the book Abigail and some of her friends are dancing in the woods, when Mr. Parris ( her uncle) catches them. At this point Betty, Mr. Parris daughter and Abigail’s cousin, faints. We later find a doctor trying to wake her, then someone starts singing psalms and she tries to jump out a window for she wants her mommy ( who is dead but we don't know how she died) then all the girls start to accuse people of witchcraft ( none of them are a witch) then they call in several different people including Judge Danforth and Mr Hale. One thing leads to another and there are 33 different deaths, 19 hanged, one squished to death, and 13 died in prison. Is Abigail Williams responsible for the events that took place in the Crucible? I believe not, for I believe that she is a part of the reason but not the only reason, and why this is the case.

Rather than seeing herself as a seventeen-year-old who took authority of one man’s heartache and doubt while his wife was sick, Abigail sees herself as John Proctor true lover. She believes that if she lies on Elizabeth to get rid of her that John will want to be with her in the end. Abigail is a young seventeen-year-old girl daydreaming about the optimal male. By all means, she reveals false information on a majority of the other characters. Throwing witchcraft unto everyone gives her all the authority and the power she wants because she has the judges and some of the people in the town in the palms of her hand. Abigail uses her power to make everyone have fear and to be intimidating by her and the girls. She basically threatens the other girls if they decided to go against her and she would not hesitate to accuse them of witchcraft of they did just like she did Mary

Abigail Williams was historically quite different from how she was depicted in The Crucible and yet her character remained faithful to the original. The real Abigail Williams was only a child of eleven years old at the time of the Salem Witch Trials, not a teenage girl seeking revenge in order to be with the man that she loves (“About Abigail Williams”). Williams was likely an orphan as she lived with her uncle. Not much is known about her parents or how she came to live with Reverend Parris (“The “Afflicted””). Her lack of a stable two parent home may have contributed to her psychological need for attention and her role as the foremost of the “targeted” and “harassed” accusing girls.

In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the setting is Salem, Massachusetts during the late 1600s where the town’s pious Puritan beliefs directly influence their government. A 17-year-old girl named Abigail Williams had an affair with John Proctor, a wealthy, married man. Abigail is told by John to move on but instead, Abigail starts accusing the townspeople of witchcraft, including John Proctor’s wife Elizabeth. As this hysteria begins to rise, other people such as Thomas Putnam, a rich landowner, start to also allege Salem villagers. In this play, the author illustrates the central idea that people should not allow jealousy to control their actions.

In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller was a chaos between the Salem town and witchcraft. This play took place during the witch trails in Salem. Which the witch trials were a bunch of hearings and prostitutions of people accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts in the spring of the year 1962. Abigail Williams was responsible for witchcraft because she was a liar, a manipulator, and an accuser.

Before we look at the different Social/Psychological Determinants of Health it is important firstly to define what a social determinant of health is. According to the World Health Organization (2017) “The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age.” These conditions are as a result of a wide range of factors that are ultimately governed by the way in which money, power and specific resources are shared at different levels including those at global, national and local levels. We have all been a part of and will experience different social determinants of health throughout our lives but it is the standard at which we experience these determinants that will ultimately lead onto them affecting our health or ultimately leaving us unaffected.

Can one girl make an entire town go crazy about witchcraft? Based on the facts found in the book “The Crusible”, most would say that many could be held responsible for the mass witchcraft hysteria. However, I strongly believe that Abigail Williams is the most responsible for the salem witch trials. Not only does she lie to the court and town’s people she also manipulates a few girls to go along with her plan.

Upon the entrance of Abigail Williams one might think she appears as a behaved, but occasionally deceptive child, on the edge of maturity. One might be right, but there be more than what meets the eye. Is Abigail a victim or the culprit? It is evident that Abigail Williams is a victim of Salem due to her emotional scars from her past, the strict, overwhelming environment of the Puritan community, and the symptoms of insanity and power hunger she displayed.

In the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail and her friends participate in activities that, in their society, are associated with devil worship and aren’t looked upon favorably, such as singing, dancing and being naked. In an attempt to avoid punishment, the girls cruelly tell the townspeople that other residents of the town, people that the girls didn’t particularly like, were possessed and forced the girls to dance for the devil. After his wife is accused, John Proctor is faced with the decision to tell the truth in order to free his wife from persecution or keep quiet for Abigail who he had an affair with. The author of this play, Arthur Miller, displays cruelty through Abigail’s accusations of innocent people

The society of Salem in the 17th century was a state of deterioration. Some citizens of Salem were forced to lie about a crime they didn’t commit, or be killed because another citizen didn’t like them. What made this worse was the types of people who made these decisions on whether they were innocent or not. People who were regarded as having little influence under normal circumstances were making decision on people's’ lives. Everyone in Salem was paranoid about the devil, or that they might be the next person to be blamed of a fake crime. In The Crucible, the Salem witch trials fuel the imbalance of power among Salem’s citizens and allow citizens who previous had no influence in the community to

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play which contains a multitude of complex characters . In the play, the characters’ motivations and inner processes are explored. Because of the historical setting, the characters live in a society of judgement and extreme religious devotion. This is a factor that places any of the characters’ choices and morals in a public balance to be judged by others. Abigail Williams is the main character of the play and acts with an utter selfishness and obsession.

In the famous Playwright The Crucible by Arthur Miller we are introduced to Abigail Williams, who is a complex character that is portrayed as the main antagonist of the play. She is responsible for the deaths of many innocent victims during the trials and spread fake information about people to get vengeance on them. Abigail is shown to be evil, inhuman, and egocentric. However, Abigail was forced into a life or death situation where the only thing she could have done was to falsely accuse others to save herself. This causes Abigail to become the victim of this whole hysteria. Which causes Abigail to change her personality and the decisions she makes.

Abigail in The Crucible is a selfish woman filled with jealousy, hate, and mischief. She is the antagonist of the story, starting all the witch trials for the purpose of getting revenge on Elizabeth.