The Puritans have an extremely strict and religious way of life. They do not accept any forms nor signs of witchery. Although Puritans, John Proctor, and Abigail commit a sin in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible; Thus, leading to the Salem witch trials. Abigail is responsible for the deaths of innocent puritans in Salem during the witch trials, in which 20 people were accused and executed for being a witch. She is the first to cry out witchcraft, which give her complete control over the situation, Yet, John Proctor only plays a small role in this nonsense.
Salem, Massachusetts, 1692. A village of the Puritans where religion ran every aspect of society, also the place where the historic Salem Witch Trials occurred. The Salem Witch Trials were a mass hysteria where the villagers wildly accused their neighbors of conspiring with the Devil and casting spells to ruin daily life. The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller because of his personal experience. Earlier in his life, Miller was being trialed by a court for being a communist put through his own personal crucible about his beliefs which inspired him to write this play. Abigail and John both counter their religious expectations through their individualism due to Abby’s desire of vengeance and power and John’s contradicting actions in society.
In the late sixteen hundreds, the mania of the Salem witch trials affected various families and individuals. In order for such terrible events to take place, an array of people catalyzed the trials. In Arthur Miller’s theatrical work The Crucible, Miller creates a specific group of young girls who accuses countless amount of men and women of witchcraft. Abigail, the leader of the girls, testifies in many of the executions taken place by lying about the people’s collaboration with the devil. As one of the antagonists of the story, she intends to kill Elizabeth, the wife of her paramour, John Proctor. The Crucible exemplifies a “fall” story through Abigail because her jealousy begets her own demise.
I do not agree with Ryder's assessment of Abigail. Initially, I think Abigail is selfish and is doing everything for herself so that she can have John Proctor. Abigail says, specifically, "oh, I marvel how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife be -." The quote supports what I think because Abigail wants John. Another one is, she started blaming other people to keep from getting whipped. For instance, she says " I saw Sarah Good with the devil." Abigail thinks that she can just blame someone else and she will get out of trouble. Abigail is the villain for blaming other people instead of saying she lied to try and get what she wanted.
The witch trials in Salem occurred because of Abigail and it is her fault. She started something she could not finish and by starting it killed many innocent people and ruined many reputations. Abigail is at blame because she was the one who is basically the "psycho girlfriend" who is obsessed with her ex. But because she is desperately in love with John Proctor, she is willing to do anything to have him all to herself. Just like how she drank a chicken blood charm to kill Elizabeth, which is against her religion. She is willing to go against her religion to satisfy her desperation for John. But obviously John does not want this because he knows his affair with her was a mistake. She is not the victim in the crucible. She is the person who
One of the most powerful human emotions is desire. Everyone is constantly trying to fulfill their own desires. A desire or passion may be so strong it can conflict with morality. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams, is driven to go against her moral duty and pursue John Proctor. She will stop at nothing to see her plan through. Abigail is willing to accuse any one in her path of witchcraft even if it means taking the lives of those close to her. Abigail Williams’ emotional desire guides her actions even if it conflicts with morality.
The spring of 1692, the Salem witch trials began after a group of young girls claimed to be possessed by the Devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. The tragic death of many people was caused by just a few young girls just as it was in the play. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the main character responsible for the tragedy in Salem was Abigail Williams. Abigail was the reason for the start of many of the things that happened, such as: being caught in the woods, leading to the idea of witchcraft; pretending to get stabbed by Elizabeth’s spirit, leading to respected people being accused; and threatening people with her authority, leading to the death of many people.
Abigail Williams calls Elizabeth’s name in court accusing her of witchcraft: “she (Abigail) wants me dead, john, you know it” Elizabeth said. Abigail started this hysteria hoping to kill Elizabeth so she could have her husband. By looking at The Crucible by Arthur Miller, one can see how the people were being accused of witchcraft in Salem, which is important because it all started upon John’s adultery with Abigail Williams and ended up causing innocent people to die.
Abigail was not looked as a very good person in the community. You could say that she was immaculate. She was suspected to lechery or must have done something that was very wrong, but it was not ascertain to the community what she had done. All they knew was that Elizabeth Proctor had to arbitrate to thrown her out of her house and no one knew why. This made the people of the community notice that she had done something wrong and then no one would hire her back as a
In Author Miller’s The Crucible, Abigail Williams is the most to blame for the events of the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail is one of the main characters in the play. She is eighteen years old, she had an affair with a man named John Proctor, and she cannot be trusted. Abigail displays three character flaws: dishonesty, envy, and lust.
“’She makes me drink blood”’ says Abigail (Miller 160). The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller. The play takes place during the Salem Witch Trials, where many people were accused of witchcraft. The accused were either jailed or hanged. In the play many characters are blind to the truth and are changing the path of life. In The Crucible the characters who are blind to the truth, do not realize they are being deceived and they end up deceiving others, which is best illustrated by Judge Danforth, Reverend Parris, and Abigail Williams.
Although Abigail Williams does not physically appear in Act 2, her presence is felt throughout The Crucible. She affects and hurts the lives of her family. She is the main source of trouble. If she wants something, she'll get it. At the beginning, there is a lot of closeness between her and the proctor family. Now we learn that all of the problems lead directly to Abigail. She is not to be trusted and would just bring pain.
Abigail was the cause of everything that is happening in Salem, from the witch trials beginning to the killing of innocent people, but it wasn’t only her who had accused people. Abigail was a flapper as they called it back in the days, and she began to cause all of this dramatic non-sence because she wanted John Proctor. “You have taught me goodness John Proctor, therefore you are good.”, Abigail was crazy in love with
Out of all the characters in the book, there are many that contributed to the hysteria of the witch trials, however, of these characters Abigail Williams contributed the most. In the beginning of the play, we see Abigail and a collection of other girls dancing and making a charm in the woods. Abigail made this charm in order to kill Mr.Proctor 's wife. If Abigail wasn 't so crazy in love with John this scene in the woods probably wouldn 't have taken place. Therefor, Parris would have never caught the girls and there wouldn’t be rumours of witchcraft. Also, throughout the play Abigail accuses many people of witchcraft in order to save herself. An example of this is when Hale questions Abigail in act 1, and Abigail accuses several girls of
Abigail is deeply in love with John that she resents Elizabeth for being his wife. Abigail despises Elizabeth that Betty confirmed saying, “You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!”(Miller, 19). Abigail wishes death on Elizabeth so much that she was willing to drink blood from a chicken just so she can be with John. Once the hysteria began and many people were