The Innocence Of Abigail Williams In The Salem Witch Trials

Abigail Williams was a teenaged girl living in Salem, Massachusetts during the infamous Witch Trials. Her role in these trials was that she was one of the instigators, meaning she started condemning people. She and a few of the other girls in the town would have convulsions or visions, that were all untrue, and then claimed that they were bewitching them. They would point out a random man or woman living in the town, usually outcasts, and then the girls would say that the person was cursing them (IV. 978-1138).

After the trials ended in 1692, Abigail fled Salem, realizing that the people were finally catching onto her lies. She completely disappeared, leaving not a single trace behind. Her last recorded testimony was on June 3, 1692. Since then, her name and entire existence disappeared from all history and records. It were as if she had vanished into thin air.

Since this occurrence, there is no record of her actual death, or cause thereof. There are rumors, of course. Some of these state that she fled to a city far away, somewhere along the East coast. Other rumors suggest that she turned to prostitution as a means of surviving, and then died before the end of 1697, at the mere age of seventeen. There are no clear explanations, nor is there evidence, of her death at all, or her whereabouts after the Salem Trials. Also, because of her disappearance, there is

Abigail Williams is clearly a person who would fall apart under pressure (I. 1050-1075). Any sense of morals or honesty are crushed by the weight of the views of society or danger around her. In today’s world the pressures of society are as strong as ever, and through the evidence presented in her life, Abigail would without a doubt conform to whatever society says in order to preserve her