Compare And Contrast Chillingworth And Abigail Williams

Some of the worst forms of malice come from love. Abigail Williams from The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a great example of this. Abigail is a young girl who was caught practicing witchcraft in order to make John only love her. In the puritan times this would mean death. So, to combat this she calls multiple townspeople witches, saying she had seen them with the devil. One of the people she accused was Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctors wife. John and Abigail had an affair and Abigail was upset because she loves John and is now trying to get rid of his wife, which would allow her to replace Elizabeth. Similarly, Chillingworth from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne also shows awful malice. Chillingworth is a well educated man who was obsessed with being intelligent. To gain more knowledge he goes overseas to study and becomes shipwrecked, leaving his wife Hester alone. Hester assumes that has has died and has an affair with the minister of her town, Dimmesdale. He later comes back, unharmed and finds out about the affair. He then threatens to get his revenge upon Dimmesdale. Although Abigail and Chillingworth are alike in the way they respond to their affairs, but they differ in why they respond that way. Both Abigail and Chillingworth reacted wickedly to their affairs. After Abigail and her friends had been found out they were all placed together in one room. They began to think of what they should do to get in the least amount of trouble. One suggestested that

They both attempt to put plans to action that are hateful and deceitful, Abigail with trying to curse Elizabeth, and Chillingworth with torturing Dimmesdale. However, Abigail is jealous of elizabeth for getting to keep John, while Chillingsworth is angry at dimmesdale for having the affair. Throughout both stories the two characters are both act evil but it has come from their