In the play “The Crucible” written by Arthur Miller is about a town called Salem, Massachusetts during the times of 1692-1693 where witchcraft was very common at the time. The main character Abigail Williams and her friends decided to go out in the woods and dance around which was not allowed in Salem. Abigail and her friends ended up starting rumors that they can see evil and started accusing innocent people for witchcraft. Abigail has an affair with John Proctor. The purpose of writing this story is to inform people was really happened in witchcraft trials. In the play the author Arthur Miller tells how even the most innocent people were to be hung since they didn’t want to confess to witchcraft just like Rebecca Nurse who helped people get better. In Act four Rebecca says, “why, it is a lie, it is a lie; how may I damn myself? I cannot, I cannot” (Miller 537). During this time Rebecca is accused of being a witch and how they want her to confess for what she has done. Also in the act it shows out Abigail is willing to do to the extend just have people believe her when she says in act 3 on page 519 “I have been hurt, I have seen my blood runnin’ out! I have been near to murdered every day because I done my duty pointing out the Devil’s people.” There Abigail has shown how she says she has done nothing wrong and want people to believe …show more content…
All the girls ended up acting all crazy because of what Tituba had put in the drink that abigail has made her make so that John Proctor would fall in love with her. Later on Betty ends up sick and doesn’t wake up and call in Reverend Hale for signs of witchcraft. The girls later on confess about seeing the devil and start making up rumors about who is involved with witchcraft. In the play the girls start to accuse people “ I saw Goody Sibber with the devil , I saw Goody Howe with the devil “ Betty and Abigail start to
Abigail Williams, a seventeen year old girl is the antagonist of this play because she tells lies and wrongfully accuses innocent people to hide her affair and to ultimately get John Proctor back. The Crucible by Arthur Miller, is a play about the Salem Witch Trials based off of the historic event in 1692, where many people fall victim to Abigail’s accusations. Her motivation to accuse is driven by her feelings for John Proctor and her determination to go to great lengths to steal Elizabeth's place as his wife. However, her plan to have John Proctor fails because of her careless actions. Abigail is considered as the evil villain of this play, because of her deceiving lies, her selfishness and her manipulativeness to satisfy her desires.
The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the year of 1692 and during this time, the Salem witch-hunts began. The Salem witch-hunt was one of the oddest and most fearsome epochs in human history. The numerous amounts of people that were prosecuted were all innocent and their lives were taken away due to the fallacious accusations of the Puritan’s belief in superstition and their paranoia that witches had walked among them. One accuser that is the reason this all started was Abigail Williams. Abigail Williams is to blame because she possesses the evil qualities of being remorselessness, jealous, and also having the quality of vengefulness. These qualities that Abigail have are direct contributions to the murder of many people who were unjustly hanged to death.
Sara Shepard wrote in her book Flawless “The sweetest smiles hold the darkest secrets…” This quote relates to the main character Abigail in a play called The Crucible. This play was written about the Salem Witch Trials and inspired by the McCarthy Hearings in which Arthur Miller—the author—was living through. In The Crucible, Miller portrays Abigail Williams as a troubled orphan who is manipulative, cunning, and has a propensity to victimize herself in every situation that does not fall her way.
I always hear her laughing in my sleep. I hear her singing her Barbados songs and tempting me with-”(p.44). Abigail is lying that she never gave herself to the devil, and that Tituba forced her and Betty to do witchcraft, and that Tituba forced her to drink the charm even though Abby drank the charm to kill Mr.Proctor's wife because Abigail used to have an affair with John and Elizabeth kicked her out of their house because she realized they had an affair and now Abby wants Elizabeth dead so she can have John. Then Abigail continues to be dishonest by saying Tituba comes to her at night and start singing her barbados songs and tempting her even though thats a lie. Also in the play it states, “The girl, the Williams girl, Abigail Williams, sir. She sat to dinner in Reverend Parris house tonight, and without word nor warnin’ she falls to the floor. Like a struck beast, he says, and screamed a scream that a bull would weep to hear, And he goes to save her, and, stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out. And
Since Abigail is the Reverends niece and grew up with a pastor in the household it seems as if she should be very humble and a good person but her human nature took a toll making her greedy therefore making her dishonest and deceptive. She is afraid that people won’t agree with her, that motivates her to get people on her side. She then falsely accuses others of witchcraft and her being the victim. Witchcraft was taken very seriously back then and it ended up ripping apart the town and caused non stop fighting by almost everyone. Abigail’s main motive is John Proctor so she tries to lie to John about his wife to get him to fall for her “She is blackening my name in the village she is telling lies about me she’s a cold swiveling
Although, Abigail is accusing innocent people for being witches, but the judges doesn't know that Abigail is lying because she want to hide her affair with John proctor. In the beginning of the play, Abigail first accuse Tituba for witchcraft. For example Abigail said “ she made me do it! She made betty do it!” (miller page 482). Abigail is telling Mr hale and Mr. parris that tituba is making abigail and betty to do witchcraft, but actually Abigail want tituba to make love potion for John proctor to love her. Everyone in salem town is believe her with big lies. Everyone is scared of Abigail because they can be accuse. Abigail and her friend are blaming others for witchcraft and pretending they are getting hurt. People are getting arrest or getting hang up because abigail and her friends doesn't like them. According to cheever “ There be so many cows wanderin’ the highroads, now their master are in jail and much disagreement who they will
All in all, this girl was trouble from the beginning, it didn't matter who she hurt or killed and she liked getting her way no matter what it took. Abigail Adams is a very active character in this play. She wanted a maid named Tituba to make a blood charm to kill Mrs. Proctor, the wife of a man she had an affair with. Abby wanted him to herself and she was willing to kill in order to do that. When the girls were caught dancing they were confronted she didn't want to get in trouble and so Abby decided that she was taken over by the devil and “wrote in his book”. She sparked something that would cause a lot of trouble and pain for
In the crucible Abigail williams is one of the main characters and she did a lot to form the story.These are three most dominant traits that Abigail williams had in the book.
Responsible for nineteen overall deaths by the end of Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, Abigail Williams is accountable for the Salem Witch Trials and surrounding hysteria. She makes false accusations against many others, and constantly manipulates others to benefit her throughout the play. Although the outside influences from her community pressures her into making the accusations she does, the main reasoning behind her actions and reactions is her own personal agenda which is obvious throughout the play. She should be held responsible for her actions and given the appropriate punishment as a result.
Abigail Williams did not want to stop the witch trials because if they found out she was lying about most of the things she said she would have been hanged. Blaming other people, getting them killed because of her ignorance. She only was loyal to the girls. One wrong move for abigail then her life would have been over with. Abigail was full of herself in the play she was selfish, ignorant, and a back-stabbing liar, it was her way or no way she did not let nothing stop her from getting rid of who was in the way.She even told lies on Tituba, but she had the courage and was brave enough to stand up and confess about it only because she was a slave and she thought they were going to kill her. The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the author of the book put everything in play because Abigail Uses the town’s fear and Witchcraft to her own advantages. She stole Reverend Parris money and lied about it and, acts the whole shouting and screaming in court and puts the town in fear. Being so vindictive as she is, she scares herself at times because she’s afraid if anyone would find out about her lien about the witchcraft.
The devastating Salem witch trials occurred between February 1692 and May 1693. By the end of the trials many people were accused, nineteen were executed and several more died in prison. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, captures the hysteria that developed during the Salem witch trials. Crucible character, Abigail Williams, represents the repressed desires that many of the Puritans possess. Abigail’s readiness to abandon Puritan social restrictions sets her apart from the other characters, and eventually leads to her downfall. Abigail Williams uses manipulation and cruelty to create an atmosphere of terror and intimidation in her town. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Abigail Williams leads the hysteria in Salem by taking extreme measures to succeed in attaining John Proctor's love.
In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Miller demonstrated that it was Abigail’s flaws- lust, jealousy, and mendacity- that led her to be responsible the most for the tragedy of the witch-hunt in Salem. The Crucible focuses of the finding of young girls and a slave messing around in the woods, trying to conjure spirits from the dead. Rather than admit to their actions and face the consequences, the girls accuse everyone else of the crimes they were guilty of. Abigail Williams is the person who caused much of the drama in this story. She bears much responsibility for everyone meeting with Tituba in the woods. Once Parris discovers this meeting, Abigail attempts to keep her actions a secret because it would possibly reveal her affair with Proctor. Abigail lies to cover up her affair with proctor, and to stop the charges of witchcraft in order to prevent the terrible punishments that go along with the accusations.
Abigail Williams wanted what was best for her. She did not care of others. Due to Abigail’s actions a whole conflict outbursts in Salem, Massachusetts. The girls have been caught in the woods dancing and even naked. They have been caught and accused of doing witchcraft. Betty is then “very ill” and they believe she is going to die. Betty awakes. Abigail threatens the girls to stay quiet. “You did. You did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!” (Miller 18). This shows that Abigail Williams was a villain because she was hoping for the death of a person in order to get what she desired. Abigail and the girls were caught doing witchcraft. Abigail comes up with a different story to tell. “Now look 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 back of shudder
As the leader of the party, they had enormous amount of control over people and the decision they made. Adolf convinced that world would be a better place to live if all the Jewish people would be killed. Soldiers of Adolf Hitler were torturing and Jewish. The Crucible had the similar situation where Abigail Williams convinced the village that people were practising witchcraft. Trial was conducted to check if people were actually calling witches. After a while Abigail found that she has power in her hands while she was naming people. Though Abigail was a child, everyone listened to her and believed what she was telling. Influence of Abigail was greatest in children. Both Abigail and Adolf Hitler have same characteristics that enable them to
The main character in the play Abigail Williams is to blame for the 1692 witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. She was seen as a hero and a saint instead of a mean and cruel person who always wants things to go her way, no matter who she hurts in the process. Through out the play her lies cause many people suffering and death, but she never cared what happened to any of them except John Proctor. He had an affair with Abigail a few months from the beginning of the play. John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth used to hire Abigail, until Elizabeth found out about the affair and fired Abigail. Although John told Abigail that he was done with the affair and he would never go back to her again, she tried very hard to get back his love. "Abby, I may