Abigail's Reputation In The Crucible

Reverend Parris’s main motivation is to preserve his reputation at any cost, whether by unbelievable behavior or through falsehood. For example, when Reverend Parris discovers the girls dancing in the forest, he hastily warns Abigail that his reputation is in jeopardy by conveying, “Now look you, child, your punishment will come in its time. But if you trafficked with spirits in the forest I must know it now, for surely my enemies will, and they will ruin me with it” (10). Since Abigail is family, Parris has no tolerance when it comes to his reputation so he willingly enforces discipline to maintain his status. Also, as a minister, his role is

Reverend Samuel Parris is motivated to sustain his reputation because he took years to build up his name. Some of the folks already see him as unfit as the reverend. Having the assumption that there are sinful practices taking place under his roof, he, at first, denies the involvement of witchcraft with the odd behavior Betty displays. However, when a majority of the townspeople believe in the involvement of witchery. He does not want his name and reputation to be tarnished due to witchcraft, so he plays along and supports Betty’s and Abigail’s accusations. He uses Tituba as a scapegoat to divert the suspicion towards him. Parris threatens to whip Tituba if she does not confess that she has dealings with the Devil, and pushes her to her breaking point. Parris is motivated to uphold his reputation and tries to divert the possible blame and suspicion towards him to

To begin, Abigail’s background story must be explained for anybody to truly understand her character. Abigail is an orphan who witnessed her parents’ brutal murder as a young child and was taken in by her uncle Reverend Parris (148). Abigail has grown up without a proper mother and father figure to guide her through the trials of life. When Abigail is first introduced into the scene, the narrator uses an intriguing choice of words to describe her. Some literary analysts may argue that Abigail’s childhood living situation is the reason that she behaves the way she does; however this is not the case. Abigail has a tendency to victimize herself to gain and receive attention whenever she pleases. Throughout acts I and II, Abigail has made herself the victim in a multitude of different ways. For example, Reverend Parris accuses Abigail of having a blemished reputation around the town of Salem. She denies this statement; however, when Parris calls her bluff, she blames the

In Act II Parris states, “...I pray you feel the weight of truth upon you for now my ministry’s at stake…” to Abigail (Act II). In this scene Parris is trying to compel Abigail to tell him the truth about what he saw, something that she does not do. Parris, on account of his insecurities, never tells of his encounter as he fears this will taint his good name. Instead of telling the people of Salem the truth, he keeps it in, making him somewhat liable for the deaths of innocent men and women. Eventually, when it is known that he withheld information he loses respect from the

(12)” This quote shows that Parris is more concerned with his name in the village than about Abigail. He’s not concerned with what the girls were doing, or his daughter really, but what it might do to soil his reputation if they were discovered. In act three

The central character for The Crucible could be Abigail. Abigail is characterized as being a fabricator with destructive tendencies. Though she refuses to admit her name has been tainted in the town, Abigail knows of her carnage in the village has ruined it for good. Abigail is accused of witchcraft in the beginning of the act and therefore attempting to lie her way through it, she ends up admitting it. But alternately of taking the punishment, she blames someone else for pressuring her into it. The quote “Don’t lie! She comes to me while I sleep; she’s always making me dream corruptions!” (Miller 14) shows that Abby had admitted dreaming and doing corrupt things, but puts the blame on others. At the end of the act, the blame switches from

The seventeen year old niece of Reverend Parris prompts the story to turn into a giant snowball effect. Abigail violates multiple virtuous acts, some of which break the rules of her religion. These ruined acts include honesty, love and humanity. “PROCTOR, his smile widening: Ah, you're wicked yet, aren't y'! (A trill of expectant laughter escapes her, and she dares come closer, feverishly looking into his eyes.) You'll be clapped in the stocks before you're twenty. He takes a step to go, and she springs into his path. ABIGAIL: Give me a word, John. A soft word. (Her concentrated desire destroys his smile.) PROCTOR: No, no,

When Parris is having a conversation with Abigail regarding the dancing in the woods and his incapacitated daughter he screams at her rather than demanding she admits to some sort of foul play in her actions and even vaguely threatens her saying, “Now tell me true, Abigail. And I pray you feel the weight of truth upon you, for now my ministry’s at stake and perhaps your life. Whatever abomination you have done, give me all of it now, for I dare not be taken unaware when I go before them down there.’” (Miller 170) With all of this evidence presented, it's glaringly clear that Parris actions only provide full evidence of the wrongdoings of Abigail's actions; if anything, he manipulated her and pressured her into admitting to a belief he had when there was no truth to that credence. Abigail, as misguided and naive as she is, knows it's natural to do anything to protect herself, and as a result of that, she lies about the action of that fateful evening.

He will do anything to protect his youngest daughter and little niece.in the begginging of the play we see Parris being proctective over parris and making sure Tituba doesnt come near her: “scrambling his feet in a fury: Out of my sight! she is gone”(832). We could also see by the stage directions that he is very soft when it comes to his little girl. He doesn't stop praying or weeping. He tries to wake her up and get answers: “ Betty. child. Dear child. Will you wake, will you open up your eyes! Betty, little one...”(803). Parris is also the minister of the town so many people will of course believe what he tells them. Towards the end of act one we see Parris becoming frustrated with Tituba “Pressing in on her: Who? who? their names, their name!”(848). He is mad that she hurt his little girls and won't confess what the peoples names are. Abigail has power over the other girls that are also in the lie. She threatens them and says she'll kill them with no remorse because she saw her mother get parents get killed by the natives “Let either of you breathe a word, or 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”(837). The girls have no choice but to do as she wishes. Mary Warren's only goes against Abigail and the other girls because she has John Proctor to protect her.

Her actions killed the man she once loved. She contradicted love for herself and love for another. Threatening the lives of others for her benefit. This manipulative girl that has an affair with a respectable and honest man. The deceptive girl, Abigail is the cause of a major incident in salem. “The Crucible” written by Arthur Miller tells the story of how theocracy in courts failed the innocent people. Abigails true nature is shown in the play, while trying to show her love proctor.

Abigail Williams is a cowardly, manipulative, desperate, stubborn, and dishonorable young girl. Abigail would get every single person she knows in trouble before herself and she rarely tells the truth. When her Puritan uncle Parris the reverend caught Abigail and her friends dancing in the woods naked, she denied it. “No one was naked! You mistake yourself, uncle!” (17). Abigail acted like the victim and made people think her uncle was just seeing things by saying “you mistake yourself, uncle”. This helps to show how cowardly Abigail acted and instead turned the blame on her uncle for incorrectly seeing what was happening in the woods. When Parris leaped out the woods Betty was frightened so bad that she spent the next day in bed acting crazy. In order for Abigail to stay out of trouble the girls started to accuse women in the town of being witches, starting with their servant Tituba. “ I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil”

Finally, Parris is a paranoid and fearful man. He thinks that everyone is out to get him and relieve him of his position as minister. He thinks that there is a faction within his church that wishes to overthrow him and would do anything to get him removed. He knows that if this faction discovers what his niece and daughter did it could lead him to be fired from his job, as he says to Thomas

Abigail Williams, a seventeen year old orphan being raised by her uncle Revered Parris, is a pivotal character in bringing about irrational fear in the people of Salem through her false accusations and struggle for acceptance. In the beginning of the play, Reverend Parris is questioning Abigail Williams on the topic of whether

When Abigail was accused of being involved in the events that happened in the forest, she took a proactive role in the situation. Abigail was able to manipulate others to make them believe she was innocent. One of the major factors that motivated Abigail in her lies was fear. She did not want to be punished or whipped for what she did in the forest. She also made the other girls fear her by threating them with their lives if they contradicted her story. Abigail did not want to bring shame to her name. When Reverend Parris approached her with the events that happened in the forest, she placed all of the attention on everyone but herself. Revan Parris also asks her why Goody Proctor fired her, and her

Parris’s concern to keep his name clean and his respect intact leads him to create the beginning of the witchcraft hysteria. Parris doesn’t want Abigail to do something crazy or something that is frowned upon because if they do something bad then his good reputation would be lost and all of his respect and power would be too. Parris is overly strict with Abigail and Betty for this reason, leading them to fear him. One example of how Abigail feared Parris is shown when they were discussing what happened in the woods. Abigail says, “But we never conjured spirits.” Parris furiously replies, “Then why can she not move herself since midnight? This child is desperate! It must come out- my enemies will bring it out. Let me know what you done, Abigail do you know I have many enemies?” (Act I pg. 10). Abigail and Betty know that if Parris finds out they did something to damage his reputation they would also be damaging his power. Parris would be absolutely furious if that happened. When Parris inquired about dancing in the woods Abigail made up a story because she fears Parris so much and she didn’t want to get in trouble.