Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. During this time, many people are hung for being accused of performing witchcraft, but who is there to blame? During this time, many people feared for their lives, and others used this as a time to get rid of people. In The Crucible, Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Deputy-Governor Danforth are responsible for the witch trials in Salem.
John Proctor’s affair with Abigail Williams, a seventeen year old girl in the town of Salem, serves as his tragic flaw. The people of Salem respect John as a hard-working farmer and a good person. However, only his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, and Abigail know about the affair. John’s pride and reputation keeps this affair hidden from the rest of the town. When Abigail starts to accuse people of witchcraft, this secret catches up to John. In an attempt to take John for herself, Abigail accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft. At the end of Act III, Abigail finally accuses John of witchcraft. All of this happened because of John’s secret affair with Abigail: “God help me, I lusted.” Therefore, John must suffer the
In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”, Abigail is most to blame in the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials is based on a period of time where the devil’s work has found its way into the Christian city of Salem, causing everybody accused of witchcraft to confess, or be hanged. Abigail, a teenage girl at the time, has fell madly in love with a man by the name of John Proctor. John is a married man, but in his past he has had an affair with Abigail which nobody knew of. Abigail’s immaturity shows throughout the story, along with major jealousy over Elizabeth Proctor, John’s wife. All these events of hanging and sin in Salem lead back around to Abigail’s jealousy overall
What role did repressing women play in creating the Salem Witch Trials in Puritan society? Repression of women by the church in Puritan society lead to the women wanting power. The church was the powerhouse of the Puritan society, so if you were to get in trouble with the church you would be banished or hanged. Also, getting in trouble with the church could cost you your spot in heaven. Keeping women and young girls from the bulk of society and power made them seek power and rebellion.
In Arthur Miller's’ The Crucible, jealousy and mistrust are the most dominant emotions Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor shares for one another. Their jealousy and mistrust are rooted in their desire for John Proctor's love, which inevitably leads to the compromise of their Puritan morals of their society. At the beginning of the play, Betty Parris confirms Abigail Williams true motivation to kill Elizabeth Proctor. “You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor” (Miller 19). Abigail’s eagerness to kill Goody Proctor has displayed the depth of her desire for Proctor. She is willing to go to greater extents, such as murder to get rid of Goody Proctor and have John all to herself. This is the hidden
The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, is about real life events during the Salem Witchcraft Trials in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Though most of the events in the play are real, some things are fictional. For example, John Proctor was a real person, but his character was exaggerated to make the play more interesting. In the play John Proctor and Abigail Williams had an affair, sometime after the affair ended Abigail began accusing people of witchcraft. John Proctor’s wife is eventually accused by Abigail, because Abigail was jealous of her relationship with John. In John 's effort to save his wife, he is accused and by the end of the play he is hanged because he won’t falsely admit to being a witch. Some readers feel that John Proctor is flawed because of all the bad things he has done, he is actually honorable because he is honest.
Abigail believed that Proctor actually loved her and she waited every night for him. She was brainwashed to think he would leave his wife for her. The witchcraft accusation came from the beginning of the story when Abigail and the girls were dancing naked in the woods and chanting. She made false accusations that people in the village were worshipping the devil to cover what she had done. Many lives were taken but Abigail had no empathy for anyone who was hanged. Proctor realized the truth behind everything and decided it was time to come forward and tell Danforth, “She thinks to dance with me on my wife's grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a whore's vengeance, and you must see it now” (Miller ). John tries to reveal who Abigail really is but it does not help the lives of those who are to be hanged. Abigail uses her own personal desires to get to what she wants even though many people died in the
What would you do if you were involved in hysteria? How would you try to stop it from hurting the people who are most important to you? Would you let your own secrets stop you from doing the right thing? In The Crucible, John Proctor is dragged down by his flaws of guilt and lust. His journey shows that honesty and loyalty are very important traits to have. He redeems himself by being selfless and helping other people rather than thinking of himself. John Proctor qualifies as a tragic hero because his wrongdoings lead to his downfall. This downfall helps John to forgive himself which makes him a better person at the end of the story. In the face of hysteria, John decides not to focus on himself, instead he
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. Elizabeth is the victim of Abigail’s heartless actions and affair. These two women are almost complete opposites. Both characters struggle and fight through the story in their own ways.
During the hysteria of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, many people were accused of practicing witchcraft. Therefore, their reputation, was ruined. Other people committed many sins in order to keep their reputation clean in town. For instance, some characters had to lie, fight, and accuse other people of witchcraft which could get the individual out of trouble and keep their hands clean. when a person got accused of being a witch, the person’s reputation would get ruined and the person would go to jail or be hanged. John Proctor, Deputy Governor Danforth, and Abigail Williams were worried about their reputation in town, and they were willing to commit many sins and harm others to prevent this from happening.
The characters in the novel pretend that they have their lives all figured out, but through their successes their downfalls and emptiness can be seen, to prove that money cannot buy happiness. Jay Gatsby is the newest and upcoming star in New York during the 1920’s. Through his business and inheritance he is one of the richest men of his time. One may think that his abundance of wealth would lead him to be eternally happy, but he is the opposite. Gatsby longs for his love of Daisy, which is his personal American Dream. Gatsby knows that Daisy is a high-class individual who cares very much about status and wealth, so his entire life has been dedicated to being the best so that she will notice him. When Daisy, Gatsby’s one desire, and Nick, Gatsby’s
Abigail Williams was a very intense character in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, but according to historical documents, she may be a bit more of a nuisance than anticipated from the book. The age, things she did, and who she “loved” is all different. Some things were the same, but there have been a lot of differences.
In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Miller demonstrated that it was Abigail William’s flaws: lust, vengeance, and jealously that led her to be responsible the most for the tragedy of the witch hunts in Salem. Abigail Williams started the entire suspicion of there being active member of witchcraft throughout Salem, Massachusetts. She did this for her own benefits and used trickery to get what she wanted. Abigail was corrupt and only cared for her own desires. There are many reasons that these flaws are crucial to the outcome of the play. These flaws will be her downfall.
This affair was never fully proven, but Proctor did say, “Abby, I may think of you from time to time but I will cut off my hand before I’ll reach for you again” (Miller 1140). Abigail was madly in love with Proctor and wanted Elizabeth out of the picture so she could have Proctor all to her self. Abigail was very jealous of Elizabeth. She thought that if Elizabeth would die, she would get Proctor all to her self. She accused Elizabeth of being a “cold, sniveling woman”(Miller 1140). Betty even said that Abigail “…drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor”(Miller 1137)! All Abigail ever wanted was Proctor.
When people think of the play, “The Crucible”, they usually picture the witch trials and women being hanged, but Arthur Miller depicts the witch trials in a completely new light. He shows through a story that the witch trials were much more than just people calling others witches. There was deceit, pain, greed, and more. Through the play, we follow the character, Abigail, observe her actions and their consequences. We witness the lives of people she impacts, what happens to them, and how many times she lies to get her way. Abigail does all this for the man that she loves and had an affair with, John Proctor. If the reader begins to focus on John, his actions and what he stands for, they are easily able to recognize he portrays characteristics of the flawed nature of an individual. It is shown through the fact that he had an affair, isn’t able to forgive himself, and at the end of the book, is unable to give up something dear to him to save himself and others.