Examples Of Abigail Williams In The Crucible

Nicole Schaefer Mr. Becker American Literature October 29, 2014 Two Women for Two Different Worlds In the novel the crucible, Elizabeth, wife of John Proctor, and Abigail Williams, mistress of John Proctor are two main roles. Elizabeth, a woman who is loyal and true, or manipulative and ruthless liar, Abigail. She pretends to see spirits and commands the other girls to pretend as well.

It all starts because Abigail and the girls do not want to be in trouble for dancing, one without clothes, and drinking blood. So Abigail starts accusing people, and then everyone starts accusing people to avoid

During the late 1600’s tragic events took place in a town called Salem. A few girls fell ill, falling victim to hallucinations and seizures, which caused Salem a religious town to start thinking someone was casting spells. “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, was created because of the witch trials and the effects it had on the colony. There were lots of men and women accused of this "witchcraft"; however, less than 20 were hung. Although the town of Salem embraced these trials as a template for their envy and hate, one young woman; Abigail Williams, who is the ringleader of it all.

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.

The Salem Witch Trials, as portrayed by The Crucible, were a terrifying and confusing time. It’s hard to say who caused this whole debacle, but it was most likely Abigail Williams. Because of her lies about her involvement with the girls in the forest, or her blatant manipulation of others to pull blame off of herself and onto other. Because of this, and her treachery, the Salem Witch Trials spiralled into the chaos that it is known for today. Without her, the Salem Witch Trials may have been less horrifying than it is known for today, and the town better off.

Have you ever encountered a person who just seemed to care about themselves, kept things secret, or even put the blame on others? In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the main character Abigail Williams is to blame for the 1692 witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Abigail is a mean and vindictive person who always wants her way no matter who she hurts. Her lies and accusations cause a lot of people pain and suffering. She never cared about any of them except for John Proctor because she had an affair with him.

What if the most loved and cared for people were punished and killed because of a girl trying to cover up her own mistakes she made, but created an even bigger one by doing so. A girl named Abigail Williams went against the law along with many other girls and practiced witchery, knowing you could be killed for it. Once confronted, she took many innocent people down along with her, in hopes of covering her mistake up. By doing so, she created a mass hysteria in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts, just to save her own life. A thought out plan containing selfish acts, manipulation and hatred created a tragic mess in a once beloved town.

What if someone you care about was accused of doing a horrific act that they are indisputably innocent of and there is no way to prove it? What if you were accused of doing a horrific act that you certainly did and you could not prove it? What if you lived in a town where there was so much hysteria that the justice system relied on accusations solely as evidence? What if the punishment for these horrific acts was death? In The Crucible, these events occurred and resulted in over twenty innocents accused of being with the devil that resulted in most of those innocents to their deaths by being hanged or being pressed by large stones.

Abigail is clearly a sociopath, and cannot be considered insane because of this. The difference between insanity and a sociopath is that sociopaths are aware of what they are doing: lying, manipulating and planning their actions to get what they want. Abigail lied to the whole town; making up these stories about witches and the devil in order to cover up her trying to use charms to kill Elizabeth Proctor:"You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!"

William Shenstone, a wise English poet, once said “A liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood.” As you read you see that Abigail is just telling lie after lie and the majority believe her. When someone goes against what Abigail is saying and says the actual truth, everyone, of course, thinks of it as a lie. Abigail successfully changes their ways of thinking and manipulates them into trusting her. If Abigail had been taken out of the picture this situation would have been avoided.

I think Abigail is to blame for the hysteria at the end of Act 1, because she accuses other people, lies, and tries to get what she wants. First, when Abigail says, “If they be questioning us tell them we danced- I told him as much already.”(18). Abigail is telling the other girls to lie to Reverend Parris about what happened in the woods that night he saw them. Fear is used to scare the girls into lying even though what they did was wrong, Abigail doesn’t want to lose the power of controlling and “witchcraft”. Secondly, Abigail is speaking to John Proctor saying, “Oh, I marvel how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife be-.”(24).

The Crucible Miller illustrated a significant story about the Puritans in Salem Massachusetts in 1692. One of the worst events that happened in Salem Massachusetts were the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials took place when people were being convicted as being a witch or other hands being the devil. The people that were prosecuted were the poor, the aids, and the old people of the little town of Salem. As Miller interpreted the moral behind the historical event, he made a similar connection with the play.

In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible (1952), there are many examples of aspects of the Salem witch trials repeating themselves today. One example in specific was the similarity between President Trump banning seven countries, mainly Muslims countries, and Abigail Williams accusing people she does not like of being witches, they both abuse the power they are given and when doing so it negatively affects others. Trump judges people based on their religion and the color of their skin by the banning seven countries from entering the U.S. because he thought they are terrorists. He abuses his power, by unfairly judging people and trying to keep them out of the country. Likewise, Abigail misuses her power when she accuses innocent people of being

There are three types of people in this world, those who fake it to make it, those who want it and go get it, and those who manipulate others to achieve it. Arthur Miller's classic, The Crucible, presents Abigail Williams as a despicable character in the play through her manipulative, dishonest, and self-centered behavior. Throughout the play she used manipulation to bring confusion and pain to the people in Salem. Manipulation was her biggest quality. Abigail uses manipulation as a weapon to obtain the love and affection of John Proctor.

In The Crucible, Abigail accuses more than half the town of witchcraft to cover up her affair with a married man, John Proctor. She lies and accuses people to prevent being charged with attempted murder against Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor’s wife, because of jealousy. Abigail who is very similar to Joseph McCarthy, she starts to accuse people who share a glance towards her direction or even people that she dislikes or offended her in some way. The people of the town grow intimidated or fearful of her because she throws false accusations and evidence towards anyone who may have upset her. In the playwright, The Crucible, it is shown that there are accusations thrown at people, but has no supported evidence for why some people of the town