Does Abigail Williams Cause Mass Hysteria In The Crucible

Everybody makes mistakes in their lives, but how they react to them exposes who they really are. In the play "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, the Puritan citizens of Salem are caught in a perilous storm of terror and accusations of witchcraft. The sins and choices of other characters in the play fuel the fire of injustice and cost the lives of many. There are two tested characters who played large roles in the outbreak of witchcraft accusations; they either passed or failed this test. John Proctor passed the trial of his sins, and Abigail Williams failed her test.

In 1692 a terrible tragedy occurred, it killed many and lead a town into ruins. This tragedy was the Salem Witch Trials. The witch trials started with two girls, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, who were thought to have fallen ill. their illness was classified as bewitchment due to their abnormal symptoms such as twitching, choking, and contorting their bodies in abnormal shapes. They soon began to accuse people in the town of witchcraft. Others in the town began to join in on the accusations and the town was terrified.

Abigail Williams: The Conniving Woman of the Crucible The Salem Witch Trials began in Salem Massachusetts in 1629. Many people were accused of being a witch and many lives were lost. 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.

n The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, the play involved various themes. A very popular theme in the play is lies and deceit. The small town of Salem was all fouled that witchery was happening by a group of girls. Many people got involved in the court cases, and some people had very bad consequences then just being blamed. Lying only leads to the truth being told and having worse consequences for the people committing the lies.

(act 3) Abby is a killer. She killed a lot of people during the salem witch trials including John Procter. Finally Abby is a liar. Abby lies many times in the play. One of those times is when Abby tells her uncle, Parris, that she was just dancing when she really was practicing witchcraft.

Elia Kazan a Greek-American director once said, “Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy” In The Crucible by Arthur Miller the town of Salem gets warped into a loop of lies and false accusations. A group of girls claim to be able to see spirits to avoid being called witches, and accuse others of being witches, starting a chain reaction. Now others accuse people of being witches in order to get rid of those they don‘t like, and so they be hanged. Hysteria and conformity cause an uproar of lies that kill innocent people in Salem. Hysteria makes people become irrational , and innocent people die because of false accusations.

When Hale attends court with Mary and Proctor, so they can tell Danforth that all of the accusations are false, Hale starts to believe that the girls are all a fraud. Abigail and the girls begin in frenzy when they are accused of lying in the court and about all of the convicted they believe were partaking in witchcraft. At that point Hale becomes annoyed at the pity and belief that Danforth is giving them that he quits the court. Hale proclaims as he leaves, “I denounce these proceedings, I quit this court!” (1213). Hale’s confusion gets the best of him, but shows that he does not agree with the girls’ beliefs anymore that the devil has scouted the accused.

All through history millions of individuals have been shunned, arrested, brutally tortured, prosecuted, and persecuted as witches. One would think that post colonization of the United States these unjust acts to human kind would have ended, but that was not so. In 1692 the Salem Witch Trials took place, an event that was a major catastrophe in United States history. It began when a group of young girls in Salem, Massachusetts declared that they were possessed by the devil and made accusations that several older women were practicing witchcraft and fraternizing with the Devil. The strict Puritan discipline is what incited the girl’s interest in magic and superstitious acts which caused strange behavior starting the witchcraft delirium in

All references to witchcraft are connected with fear, suspicion and the collapse of normal social values. In the fervor of the witch trials, Abigail is put on a pedestal by the people of Salem and treated as though she has a direct connection with the Divine. Through cold calculation, Abigail carefully selects the people that she accuses in order to establish her credibility. Thus, she first accuses the town’s social deviants, as she knows the court is already predisposed to convict them. Soon a mere accusation from her becomes enough reason to convict even important, influential people.

The emotions a person feels can cause people to do unimaginable things to themselves and other people. Throughout the book, people's emotions bring out the worst of the people of Salem. The people of Salem begin accusing people of witchcraft for their own personal vendettas and gain. In the book “ The Crucible” by Arthur Miller the people demonstrate, When reason fails, emotions control and results in the destruction of what is morally right or good. Before the book begins, Abigail Williams was fired by the Proctors because of her affair with John Proctor, the husband of the Elizabeth Proctor.