Theme Of Archetypes In The Crucible

“Knowledge is power, power to do evil or to do good.”- Veronica Roth In the play “The

In The Crucible, John Proctor the protagonist, becomes a victim of the witch trials when his wife Elizabeth, is accused of witchcraft. In order to free his wife, Proctor must convince Judge Danforth of his wife’s innocence. Judge Danforth does not sign condemnations lightly and takes meticulous inspection of his cases to determine the guilty party. He is also a highly religious man who takes matters between God and men seriously. It is because of Danforth’s dedication to the law and God that Proctor utilizes ethos, logos, and pathos to persuade him. Ultimately, Proctor uses ethos, logos, and pathos to convince Danforth to free his wife, but is unsuccessful.

Arthur Miller purposefully stereotypes the women in the Crucible to make a statement concerning the treatment of women in modern society. Miller is making the statement that most women is modern society are viewed as having many negative characteristics, just because of their gender. In the Crucible, Miller primarily used Elizabeth Proctor, Mary Warren, and Abigail Williams to show how negative stereotypes are used against women in modern society.

In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams, an unmarried orphan in the Massachusetts town of Salem, increasingly grows more jealousy of Elizabeth Proctor intensifies in attempt to realize her desire for Elizabeth's husband John Proctor. Her ambition for vengeance only grows stronger, and her selfishness escalates. She repeatedly lies to save herself by denying her involvement in witchcraft. In order to save herself she accuses the innocent, without any sense of ethical violation. Abigail proves to be a selfish antagonist in The Crucible that shows no sense of right and wrong.

In the play Abigail only cares about herself and what she can do to protect herself. When the girls talk in Betty’s room and Mary shows weakness and wants to tell everyone about what they did in the forest, Abigail gets really angry. She threatens the girls and is not afraid to show what she is willing to do. “Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this – let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it; I saw Indians smash my dear parents’ head on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!” (Miller 12). This quote shows how Abigail has changed and what she’d do if she was confronted with such a situation. She made the decision quickly and opted to only save herself. Over the course of the book it gets represented pretty well that she is capable of doing everything to hold up her reputation: she wants to be a saint. Every decision she makes is like a little test that shows what kind of person and friend she is. Coming off of this she doesn’t perform well as an example as either of

Arthur Miller is a commonly-known playwright, most famous for his 1953 play, The Crucible. The basis for The Crucible came from the witch trials which occurred in Salem, Massachusetts during the puritan era. Miller even uses some of the same characters in his dramatized play that were a part of the original witch trials in Salem. However, Miller made a few alterations to the historical members of the Salem society in order to suit his dramatic purpose in The Crucible, particularly Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Reverend Samuel Parris.

One final trait about Abigail Williams is those who oppose her end up like John Proctor, dead. Abigail is not shy about telling her friends to side with her. “Let either of you breath a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning what will shudder you,” (20). This threat benefits Abigail later in the play when Mary Warren turns against John and call him a man of the

She is mean. She shows that she is mean by threatening the lives of the girls if they say anything about witchcraft. “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” (act 1 line 460) She also shows that she is mean when she is coping Mary making the pastors in the court believe that Mary is a witch. “Mary- Abby stop it, Abby- Abby stop it”.(act 3) Abby is a killer. She killed a lot of people during the salem witch trials including John Procter. Finally Abby is a liar. Abby lies many times in the play. One of those times is when Abby tells her uncle, Parris, that she was just dancing when she really was practicing witchcraft. “ It were spart uncle.” (act 1 line 124) Abigail is a very bad example to

Abigail Williams, one of the main characters in the play, becomes one to the biggest contenders for the theme of revenge. It is revealed in the beginning of the play that Abigail has committed adultery with John Proctor. This becomes the root of the revenge because Abigail now thinks that “there is promise in such sweat.” She wants to get rid of Proctor’s wife Elizabeth, shown when Betty said, accusing her, “You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctors wife!

The affair John and Abigail had caused her to fall hard for him. She has it set in her mind that she will go to unbelievable measures to try and get Elizabeth Proctor out of the picture so she can be with John. Abigail is found dancing in the woods with the other girls at night. When she is later questioned, she said it was just fun and games. Her soul purpose of being in the woods that night was to drink a charm that hopefully would kill Goody Proctor. John was constantly on Abby’s mind

Abigail seeks vengeance after her affair with John Proctor. She is still madly obsessed with him. After John rejected her, she makes up lies in court in desperate attempt to get Goody Proctor hanged. She thinks if she gets rid of Goody Proctor she will be able to have John all to herself. One quote that supports this is “I do sir. I believe she means to murder”. John says this because he knows Abigail’s true intention, and he knows she is seeking revenge. Another quote that supports her flaw is “Goody Proctor always keeps poppets”. This is Abigail’s attempt to blame Goody Proctor for the wound to her stomach. Vengeance is a terrible characteristic to have, and Abigail has obtained this characteristic. This will spark the main conflict in the play, and Abby caused it all because of her

Abigail is the villain in this play. She’s the woman who holds grudges, is selfish, and a great liar. Abigail seems to be especially gifted at spreading destruction and chaos wherever she goes. She is able to manipulate others, for example, all her friends and the whole town. In addition, she obtains control over all of them and sends nineteen uninvolved people to their deaths. All these things add up. Abigail 's heartless attitude is shown in act two when she frames and accuses Elizabeth Proctor for witchcraft. She desired and longed for this revenge on poor Proctors innocent wife, aiming for her through out the play. Later on in Act Three she seems to lose her last attachment of society by destroying John Proctor, who she claims to love with all her heart. When John attempts and threatens to expose Abigail’s wrong doings, she skillfully manages to turn the whole problem around on him, sending him off

Abigail finally sees the outturn of her lies she has made for what she wants. Proctor is hanged which she didn’t attend to do, but now pays the price. She also found out what lying can do “They’re pretending, Mr. Danforth...Mary, please don’t hurt me!.”(miller 120-121). Lying has made her corrupt and is used to persuade to make harm with. She has learned that lying is her weapon and her untruthfulness makes her the person she is and shows the growth of a vigorous character. She experiences the power to kill anyone off such as framing Elizabeth for the voodoo doll of herself which had a needle through it. She had also accused 40 more women she hated in the village “I saw Goody sibber with the Devil!...I saw Goody hawkins with the devil!...I saw Goody booth with the Devil!”(Miller 51). A dynamic character like Abigail has lied before in the past and now has experiences something more sinister which is unique for a character in the story and makes the plot better with Abigail’s wickedness.

She will be angry until she sees that Elizabeth Proctor is dead for calling out suspicion between her and John Proctor. Abigail is known for threatening people if it does not go her way. When Abigail is in the courtroom, she could get asked the most simple question by the judge and she would take it way out of proportion. Abigail just wants Proctor all to herself. With Abigail's "friends" she is always angry with them and constantly threatening them; just so they will not tell the truth about Abigail Williams and John Proctor. Abigail wants John Proctor all to herself. Overall, Abigail is just angry with everybody around

She does not care about the consequences her choices have on other people. In the beginning she endangers the other girls who were in the woods by turning the dancing into witchcraft when she drinks chicken’s blood and does not warn them of what she was going to do. Even so, compared to her following actions, that one would seem almost innocent. She has a complete disregard of the sanctity of life or any Christian values that she had been taught. She accuses or witnesses how innocent after innocent is sentenced to death or to a long time in prison. She managed to infiltrate herself into the justice system and convince the court of her lies, and then the court forces the people to either accuse neighbours or friends or to risk being hanged. Mass hysteria takes on the village, changing the social landscape completely, destroying friendships, families and taking human lives. Abigail just sits by through all of that, being more motivated by seeing her plans succeed and she enjoys the power her lies obtain her. This exemplifies that Abigail does not have love or simple lust, she is not just a bad person, but that she has pathological obsession and is living in her own mind, still thinking that John will come back to her and that would be the ultimate fulfillment of her