With her lying about being in the woods, all the way down to Goody Proctor, this never would have started without Abigail’s deceit. When accusing Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft she claims “Goody Proctor always kept poppets” (108). She does this so her whole plan can come together. The judges are already believing her dishonest stories so she digs deeper and tells more lies. When police are investigating Abigail’s stabbing incident, Abigail quickly blames Elizabeth and testify “it were your wife’s familiar spirit” (78).
Once Abigail was caught in the forest by Parris she immediately went into a frightful panic at her fate the next day. She told Betty blatantly, “Betty, you never say that again!’ ‘Shut it! Shut it”(Miller 19)! Betty is being controlled by the crushing power of fear on Abigail 's back.
and there’s the whole of it….. There is nothin’ more. I swear it, uncle..... There be no blush about my name”(Miller 25-26). First off, dancing is against their morals and can get someone in deep trouble if caught.
The Indictment this is what you could say the Salem witch trials were all about and this is how Abigail got people found guilty and excommunicated from the church. She scared all of her friends to lie and it almost made them seem subservient to her. She was the first accuser and accused Tituba and after that everything went downhill. The judges seemed like they had a lot of predilection towards her and did not want to listen to the people that were accused unless they admitted to witchcraft.
She managed to infiltrate herself into the justice system and convince the court of her lies, and then the court forces the people to either accuse neighbours or friends or to risk being hanged. Mass hysteria takes on the village, changing the social landscape completely, destroying friendships, families and taking human lives. Abigail just sits by through all of that, being more motivated by seeing her plans succeed and she enjoys the power her lies obtain her. This exemplifies that Abigail does not have love or simple lust, she is not just a bad person, but that she has pathological obsession and is living in her own mind, still thinking that John will come back to her and that would be the ultimate fulfillment of her
The Crucible is a book written by Author Miller to illustrate all the lies and deceit that took place during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-1693. There are so many different forms of lies and deceit present with in this book. But to me the three biggest are when Mary Warren and the girls, Putnam’s versusthe rest of the town and John Proctor vs Abigail. But the lies and deceit derail all of these.
Lust and jealousy is which sparked this
Throughout the entire play of the Crucible, Abigail Williams portrayed the characteristic of a selfish teenager whose actions were only to help herself. She accused many innocent people of committing the crime of witchcraft, which nineteen were later hung. Her entire motive was to get revenge on Elizabeth Proctor so she could have Elizabeth’s husband, John Proctor, all to herself. “She blacken my name in the village! She is telling lies about me!
His love for Abigail Williams created Abigail’s jealousy of Elizabeth, which starts off the entire witch hunt. When the play opens, the audience finds out that Abigail Williams and John Proctor had a secret affair. Abigail still loves john even though he is married to she tries to drink a spell to kill John’s wife, Elizabeth. The town finds out about the witchcraft that went on in the woods and this event starts mass hysteria. This is the start of Proctor’s downfall.
Abigail Williams is to Blame In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams, an unmarried orphan in the Massachusetts town of Salem, increasingly grows more jealousy of Elizabeth Proctor intensifies in attempt to realize her desire for Elizabeth's husband John Proctor. Her ambition for vengeance only grows stronger, and her selfishness escalates. She repeatedly lies to save herself by denying her involvement in witchcraft. In order to save herself she accuses the innocent, without any sense of ethical violation. Abigail proves to be a selfish antagonist in The Crucible that shows no sense of right and wrong.
Some tried to stop while others continued to build up the hysteria. However, Abigail is the most responsible for the witch hysteria. Due to her selfishness and jealousy, she created this huge chaos and the people who did not want to get involved in this would get caught in the middle of it. Even after it was over, she did not show any remorse for it. Instead of admitting to the truth, she left the town because she knew how much trouble she would be in if she stayed.
Abigail is to blame for most of the events that have took place in this play. She is the one who caused the witchcraft to be brought back up because she was dancing in the woods doing witchcraft with other girls. Abigail is a victim of her society in “The Crucible”. She is the one who made a lot of the bad things to happen.
She once said "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, Act 1, 12). Consequently, she feared discovery of her transgressions, dancing in the woods, wishing Goody Proctor dead, and drinking the blood. Elizabeth Proctor wanted to regain Proctors love and respect.
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.
Though there were many people who contributed to what happened in Salem, I believe that Abigail Williams was mostly to blame. I think this because she lied to save herself, made up false scenarios and blamed innocent people, and enjoyed the attention and power. In the beginning of the play, Abby is caught dancing in the woods. She herself drank a blood charm in which she wanted to kill Elizabeth Proctor. Though Abby wasn’t the only one who was caught, she lied to Reverend Parris so that she would not be hung once witchcraft was being talked about throughout the village.