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.
People fear of things they don’t know. This fear can grow to a size that people start to get rid of the subject of the unknown and sometimes it can end up a Salem witch hunt or McCarthyism. There are many people that use lies to get what they want and there are even more people who would believe in those lies. That is the case of Abigail in The Crucible. It starts when she is lying to save herself from being accused of practicing witchcraft but after some time she is starting to use power of the fact that others believe in her lies.
The moment Elizabeth was accused, John immediately sought Mary for help since she was the one that gave Elizabeth the poppet. Mary kept saying that she was unsure of it, until Proctor demanded she go to court with him and tell them how the poppet came to their home and who stuck the needle in the doll. At court Mary stated that she and Abigail were sitting next to each other while the doll made and how Abigail and the girls’ accusations were phony. When Abigail was questioned about it, she said it was merely a lie and then she and the girls moments later started acting up and acting as if witchcraft were occurring. Once the girls were screaming about a “cold wind,” a “shadow,” and a “bird” that was Mary, she broke, Mary told Abigail she was sorry and that Proctor made her confess to the “lies” and saying, “You’re the Devil’s man!” (Crucible, Act 3, Line 469).
Abigail then admits to seeing the devil and that they were doing rituals, but that she did not want to she then blamed it on Parris’s slave Tituba, Abigail said that she obligated her to. Abigail then tells John Proctor (a man she had been having an affair with in the past) that the ill girls had nothing to with witchcraft. Elizabeth tells John to tell Reverend Hale what she had said, but he claimed that they would not believe him. The girls then started blaming innocent people of witchcraft from all ages claiming they saw the devil with them. There were many people who were hung pleading that they had nothing to do with witchcraft.
Abigail accused many innocent people of witchcraft and she also told lies about the people she thought were witches. She made her accusations very believable for the judges to put innocent people to death. In conclusion, I say Abigail Williams was the most to blame for the events of the Salem Witch Trails. Her character flaws of dishonesty, envy, and lust costed many innocent people their lives and left survivors of the Salem Witch Trails wretched
The witch trials started when Abigail and the girls started accusing the other women in Salem, Sarah Good, Rebecca Nurse, and Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail’s main goal was to have Elizabeth dead at her feet. She was so drunk from the power she acquired and her love for John, that she didn’t think her plans through. One by one, the people accused were sentenced to hang. Due to her mistakes, even her beloved John Proctor was now sentenced to be hanged.
journal #1- narrative Today I went into town in order to see what all this witchcraft commotion was all about. According to Reverend Parris his daughter, Betty, has been bewitched. All this sounds a bit crazy to me because the details do not add up. I see Abigail and hope not to make conversation with her, but eventually I am alone with her and she explains everything to me. She begins by declaring her love for me and how much she misses me and does not go a day without thinking about me.
Although the court believed Abigail’s accusation about Elizabeth, she did not get what she wanted because John was hanged with Elizabeth. The story never really told if Mary got what she wanted, Abigail ran away and the other girls weren't mentioned after that. Whether the outcome is what was planned or
In The Crucible, many people take advantage of the fact that witchcraft is an invisible crime, earning the accusers trust and letting them take control of any situation that a witch hunt opposer is beginning to dominate. Almost every time John Proctor is in the play, he almost ends the girls’ crusade, so they repeatedly have to find ways to stop him. During the trial with Mary Warren, when the girls see the proceedings begin to go Proctor’s way, Abigail wants to draw away the attention of the court and destroy Mary’s credibility. In an extravagant attempt to achieve this, she screams like a crazed banshee, “Why do you come, yellow bird?” and “Mary, please don’t hurt me” (Miller 191). Abigail creates a false, yet believable, sense of fear and suspense in the courthouse, so when she blames Mary, nobody thinks to
Many if not most people are confused and are desperate for an answer. As a town full of godly people who fear the wrath of Satan. people are quick to make assumptions. This story falls in the hands of a teenage girl named abigail where the village rides on her beliefs and will arrest whoever is guilty of witchcraft. There is a lot not to like of abigail who was seen in the forest “dancing with the devil” with other girls and the servant of the parris family Tituba who apparently forced abigal to perform the black magic with her.