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.
John Proctor and Abigail Williams have a very complicated relationship, that heavily influences the events throughout the play, The Crucible. Without these few events, the witch trials may have never begun. But what were these few events? For one, Abigail and Proctor had an affair. Abigail was a house maid for Elizabeth and John Proctor. Elizabeth is a very religious and go by the book person. She never lies and always tries to do the Christian thing. This led to her creating a “cold home” with her husband, John. John was lacking excitement and lust in his marriage, so he turned to Abigail, who was more than happy to oblige. Elizabeth finds out about the affair and confronts John. John feels guilty and realizes
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. Abigail displays three character flaws: dishonesty, envy, and lust.
In the play, act one describes the relationship between Abigail Williams and John Proctor creating the quality of arrogance. Before the play begins, Abigail and Proctor have an affair; however, feeling guilty, Proctor decides to end the affair in order to focus on his marriage with Elizabeth. Now in a room alone with Abigail, Proctor stands over Betty, Paris’ daughter who cannot wake from her sleep. Abigail walks over to Proctor and leans over him to admire his strength. As soon as she complements him, he gives a small grin. Proctor then ask what has happened to Betty because he has heard a small rumor about witchcraft lurking in the town. Abigail, moving closer to Proctor, states how she and a few other girls were dancing in the woods before they were
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. Abigail is willing to accuse any one in her path of witchcraft even if it means taking the lives of those close to her. Abigail Williams’ emotional desire guides her actions even if it conflicts with morality.
A lesson that can never taught enough is to be careful of what you say about others. Miller demonstrates this with the characters of Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams, they are foil characters, meaning they are polar opposites and bring out the worst in each other. Elizabeth is a strong Christian woman who doesn 't hardly hold a grudge against anyone, always tells the truth, and is selfless. Abigail however is full of hate and revenge, lies to get what she wants, and thinks she runs the town of Salem during the trials.The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play set in the 1600’s in the puritan village of Salem, Massachusetts. This play shows how a little lie can spread into something uncontrollable and out of hand.
“Inside each of us there is the seed of both good and evil. It’s a constant struggle as to which one will win. And on cannot exist without the other”. (Eric Burdon) In Miller’s play The Crucible Abigail and Elizabeth both had to choose between good and evil. In the play Abby tries to do witchcraft to kill John Proctor's wife Elizabeth. She almost gets caught doing it so she accuses many people of bewitching her and got many people hanged. She accuses Elizabeth of bewitching her to kill her. The court will not kill her because she is pregnant but John Procter ends up being hanged because he was accused. In the play Elizabeth the example of good. She is kind, loving, and selfless. Abigail is the example of evil. She is mean, a killer, and a liar.
Cruelty is a recurrent theme in literature that often acts as a critical factor in a novel’s development. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, the occurrence of cruelty is seen to be gradually increasing as the story goes on from accusations of witchcraft that lead into chaos and death. Through Miller’s depiction of the merciless accusations and murders of innocent people, cruelty reveals a high extent of people’s animosity and vengeance that is greatly influenced by the attitude of the surrounding atmosphere.
In The Crucible, the protagonist John Proctor was. In the town of Salem, in 1692, a group of young ladies by the names of Betty Williams, Abigail Williams and Tituba were found dancing in the forest naked by Reverend Parris, Abigail’s’ uncle. Reverend Parris assumed that they were participating in witchcraft. This idea of witchcraft spread through the city of Salem and the citizens began accusing each other of being witches. This started a series of court cases known as the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail Williams accused John Proctor of participating in witchcraft. Seven months earlier Proctor had an affair with Abigail who worked as his maid. When John’s wife Elizabeth Proctor found out, she fired Abigail immediately. This left Elizabeth feeling doubtful of John.
In The Crucible, there could be many suspects to blame for the innocent deaths that happened in Salem. Proctor could be blamed for the innocent deaths because he lied about his affair with Abigail. Speaking of Abigail... in my opinion Abigail Williams is the one to blame for the innocent deaths because of the lies she told, the accusations she made, and the affair she had with John Proctor.
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.
Millions of people are in unhealthy relationships, which can be identified in certain ways. In the tragedy, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor, and his wife, Elizabeth Proctor have issues in their marriage. John has an affair with a girl named Abigail Williams while Elizabeth is sick. As a result, this breaks her trust in him, making her come off as cold and reserved. The nature of John and Elizabeth’s relationship is unhealthy because their words and actions towards each other reveal a sense of hostility, mistrust, and lack of affection.
Fear is strong and manipulative, it can cause individuals to do the wrong things for their own safety and protection. In other words; souls lie for their own well being and secureness. The Crucible has an exceeding amount of lies throughout the entire book followed by characters. However most of the lies are a result from conflicts with one of the main characters who is the reason for the whole chaos; Abigail. A popular saying, “One lie leads to another”, this saying describes The Crucible sufficiently, the book consists of lies, that lead another and another, eventually by the end of the book families and relationships are torn apart.
John Proctor and Abigail Williams’ affair led to many things. One of the main consequences of their affair was the arrest of Elizabeth, John Proctor’s wife. Abigail has hated Elizabeth for as long as she’s known her, because she wants John all to herself. She loves John and feels as if Elizabeth is the reason as to why she’s not with John. Of course Elizabeth is not the only reason, because John realizes that the affair with Abigail was wrong of him to do. He wishes he had never done it because it has led to the arrest of his wife and he now realizes what a manipulative girl Abigail is. Abigail believes that if Elizabeth is hanged for accusation of witchcraft, then she will have John to herself. In a sense, Abigail is mainly just trying to
As time has passed, throughout history, during different periods of time there are parallels. There are three eras that we are focussed on, where there are three types of people during each era. The three different eras that we’re focusing on, are The Salem Witch Trials (1600s), The McCarthy Era (1950s), and Today (2000s); the three types of people are the people who are the reasons why there’s accusations towards the accused, the accused, and finally the accusers.