Abigail Williams

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder often characterized by abnormal social behaviour and failure to recognize what is real. Common symptoms include false beliefs, unclear or confused thinking, auditory hallucinations, reduced social engagement and emotional expression, and inactivity. A person with schizophrenia often hears voices, experiences delusions and hallucinations and may believe thoughts, feelings and actions are controlled or shared by someone else.

Throughout the year we have read about a varied amount of characters who have had many different personalities. There have been heroes like Frederick Douglass who has helped make the United States into a better place. Also we have had many villains like Abigail Williams who is a deceptive and vengeance-seeking person. Lastly we have the victim, Desdemona who is sweet and innocent, but not in the eyes of her lover. All of these people have big roles in each of the readings we have looked at.

Abigail Williams: Villain or Victim? In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Abigail Williams is a defiant young woman who tends to boss around other people. Through her love for John Proctor she releases her inner demons on the other girls of Salem when they are accused of witchcraft. She actually becomes more villainous as the play progresses because the man she loves turns against her.

In a puritan society, children do not often get to play around or have fun like a child would in a more modern American society. Often times the young girls live with close relative's to learn how to be a midwife; one of the only acceptable professions for a female to have. Abigail Williams was an example of a young girl doing just that. She lived with her Uncle, a local Reverend named Samuel Parris. Reverend Parris also had a daughter of his own named Betty. Abigail (11) and her younger cousin Betty (9) started to show illness sometime during January, 1692. The young girls started having hallucinations of spirits pinching them and attempting to cause bodily harm. The girls, later joined by Anne Putnam Jr, also screamed out in pain over seemingly

Emma Wisbeck Humanities II Mrs. Moreno February 13, 2017 Abigail Williams Abigail Williams is described as a manipulative and vindictive person. Abigail Williams, throughout Arthur Miller’s The Cruicible, contradicts the value of a communitarian. She tends to hurt others around her to get what she wants. She first commits adultery with John Proctor, Elizabeth’s husband.

Abigail Williams is the craziest, most interesting, and most dynamic character in The Crucible. Without her adding to the story, I don’t know if it would be as interesting. Arthur Miller created The Crucible to give an insight as to what life was like in Salem during the time of accused witchcraft. Using characters like John Proctor, Reverend Parris, Elizabeth Proctor, Hale, and Abigail, Arthur Miller was able to tell an interesting story and at the same time inform us with important history. Abigail Williams, however, is the most dynamic character because of who the reader thinks she is at the beginning and how different she is at the end.

People do behave differently in groups than they would alone. This is because of the human desire for attention and the desire to fit in. Also, this is due to the peer pressure and the desire to improve self image. This is demonstrated many times in the play, such as when people were accused of being witches, and how they decided to deal with the situation.

“The most memorable characters in fiction are not people most of us would choose as our friends” (Allen 1). Readers find it intriguing to learn about a character that lacks predictability: they could do no wrong in one scene, then turn around and become a backstabbing liar in the next. The same characteristics that would not make the best of friends. Irregularity makes a character and the story, for that matter, interesting. Abigail Williams from The Crucible develops into a character that readers love to hate. Her anger, her cunning, her passion, every twist and turn she brings throughout the play brings fascination with it. She would not be an especially remarkable candidate for a best friend, however, but it perusers find it extremely easy to remember her. Abigail exhibits memorability not because of the qualities that prove a good friend, but because of her intransigence, her passion, her accusatory behavior, and her manipulation.

Is it possible for one person to be capable of bringing down an entire society? Arthur Miller’s novel The Crucible, gives an accurate representation of how one act and one person can be the catalyst for so many atrocious crimes. When we closely examine the motives and actions of Abigail Williams we see just how corrupt and evil a scorned lover can be. She portrays these types of qualities, vengefulness,jealousy, and mendacity through her actions and speech.

In the play, The Crucible, Abigail Williams is a very interesting character. Abigail’s main motivation throughout the play was enviness and revenge. At the beginning of the play it was well known that Abigail had an affair with John Proctor and was dismissed from her job because his wife had found out about them. Abigail was very angry at John’s wife Elizabeth because she was “blackening” her name in the village and “telling lies” about her. Abigail was very envious of Elizabeth, because she was in love John, and believed Elizabeth was the only thing coming between their “relationship”. The night Abigail and the girls were dancing in the woods, she went as far as drinking a “blood charm” in hope of it killing Elizabeth.

Would you have innocent people die so that you could be with a married man that had kids? Well that is exactly what Abigail Williams did in the play, The Crucible. The play took place in the 1600's in Salem, Massachusetts. Abigail Williams was so exhilarated with this guy, who was married with kids, that she would do anything to be with him. She spoke one lie, and it soon became a monster that she could not tame. Anyone who reads The Crucible knows to not follow by Abigail's precedent because her attention seeking personality, lust for guys, and craven behavior destroyed her town and peoples lives.

Abigail Williams is a young girl and hands down one of the most important characters in the play The Crucible by Arthur miller. Her main role throughout the script is to corrupt, disrupt and destroy everyone and everything that doesn’t favor her. So with that, she plays a simple but villainous role more sinister than them all; and without her, the play likely wouldn't be viewed as anything more than lackluster. What sticks out most about Abigail is her immortality , lack of ethics and compassion which leads the audience to believe she’s the villain and main evil attraction of the play.

Imagine causing the deaths of sixteen innocent people for the love of a man. Arthur Miller describes Abigail Williams in, “The Crucible” as a very manipulative and vindictive woman. She tends to be decisive but makes the wrong decisions. She hurts others around her to get what she wants. Abigail thinks very highly of herself and that she can do no wrong. All of her actions are due to her affair with John Proctor. When the Salem trials broke ground Abigail was confident however as they began to demise she seemed like a coward.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an elaborate play that tells the story of the village of Salem and how the community slowly falls apart because of a strategic witch hunt ploy. The fear of witchcraft turns the once peaceful village upside down and accusations destroy the lives and reputations of so many people. Different characters’ actions have different impacts on the community, but one character stands out the most. Abigail Williams from The Crucible is a clear representation of how impactful the power of manipulation and deception is in a vulnerable society to create mass hysteria.

Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder that affects a person’s thinking, language, emotions, social behavior and perception (Herzog & Varcarolis, 2014). The diagnosis involves identifying a range of signs and symptoms that leads to impaired occupational or social functioning (American Psychiatry Association [APA], 2014).