Abigail Williams is a character in the tragedy, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, who exhibits deceiving and dishonest traits throughout the play. Abigail Williams portrays to be a 17 year old female in Salem, and the niece of the minister of the Salem church, Reverend Parris. Abigail was once the servant of the Proctor household until Elizabeth Proctor, the wife of John Proctor, head of house and local farmer, discovered that her husband John was having an affair with young Abigail Williams. When Abigail gets fired she then brings a group of local girls with her to the woods with Tituba, Reverend Parris’ slave from the Barbados, to wish death upon Elizabeth Proctor because of what she had done to her and John Proctor’s ‘relationship’. This event that happens in the play is the main event that carries on the play because if it hadn’t happened, the rest of the events in the play wouldn’t have happened. Right from the start of the play, Abigail is not telling the whole story of her and the local girls and their night in the woods to her uncle, Reverend Parris. “Uncle, we did dance; let you tell them I confessed it---and I’ll be whipped if I must be. But they’re speakin’ of witchcraft. Betty’s not witched”(10). Reverend Parris’ 10 year old daughter, Betty was one of the local girls with Abigail that night in the woods, and ever since has been in a strange illness that Reverend Parris believes to be witchcraft in the woods, although, Abigail bares to differ. Reverend Parris names off things that he was seeing when he caught the girls and Tituba in the woods, but Abigail denies all of it and ends the conversation saying, “There is nothin’ more. I swear it, uncle”(11), leaving Reverend Parris half convinced. Although, still in Act I of the play, Abigail says to the girls,”----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 edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come get you in the black of some terrible night----”(20). This therefore shows to the readers of the play that she is not telling the whole truth and is deceiving her uncle and everyone else that she has told her story to. In The Crucible, Abigail shows that she is
Abigail Williams seems to be a despicable character in the story The Crucible. She causes do much trouble throughout the story starting from when the girls were in the woods dancing naked with Tituba. Abby says “She sends her spirit on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayer” (Miller,1154). Abigail uses Tituba to take the blame for all the girls speaking spirits and being in the woods. She manipulates people into believing and seeing what she wants them to see she is a very decisive
According to Maya Angelou, “Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean” which explains why the bitterness and anger in Abigail Williams over losing John proctor in The Crucible by Arthur Miller causes her to seek attention by accusing many of witchcraft. Guided by their strict puritan beliefs, many of the townspeople believe her, causing several to die and countless more to suffer. Set in 1692, the town of Salem is very religious, and their puritan beliefs guide their everyday life; however, by living in such a strict environment, small arguments affecting only a few people can turn into a tragedy for the whole time. The girl most responsible for the death in Salem is Abigail Williams. She
“If you know that’s a sin then why won’t you stop doing it?” In the play The Crucible a group of girls were caught dancing in the forest by the minister Reverend Parris who’s daughter Betty and his niece Abigail Williams were involved. The girls knew that they have sinned so they claim that they were bewitched by members in Salem. They claim the members sent spirits out for them, they did this to save themselves from being hung. A court had to be set up to determine if the accused are guilty or innocent. Because of Abigail’s actions in the play she should be the one who is blamed for the outcome of the play.
"He was the kind of man - powerful of body, even - tempered, and not
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.
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”
Patty Jenkins, an American film director and screenwriter wrote,“Every villain has their belief system that makes perfect sense to them.” This quote is reminiscent of Abigail Williams, a character in The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller. In Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, four girls were caught doing witchcraft. The girls accused other innocents of witchcraft, so they would not be framed for it. Due to the girl's actions, many of them, accused were hanged to death. Abigail Williams was a villain in The Crucible.
In “The Crucible” the story has taught us about how great and powerful fear can easily take over one another and show how people turn against one another just to protect themselves. One of the characters in the story has shown a great example of this and you can see the great evil that is inside of this person who just lets good innocent people die to protect themselves. Cruel and selfish is what you think or maybe it is the other way around for you. Maybe you think you got to do whatever you got to do to keep going in this puzzle of life. Yes that is true but in this story a girl named Abigail Williams deserves to take all the blame that needs to be taken for all of what has been done in the little town of Salem.
think and do. As an audience, at this stage we have a mixed opinion of
Being related to a priest doesn't mean you are a good person. Abigail Williams was the niece of Reverend Parris, but she was no Puritan. Arthur Miller understood and used this truth while writing his play, The Crucible. Abigail did some things that were not only unspeakable by Puritan standards, but also illegal at the time. She had Tituba use voodoo magic in an attempt to kill John Proctors wife, and had an affair with him while she was living there as a servant. To top it all off, she threatened the other girls who saw and knew what actually happened in the forest. These are all very strong reasons for why Abigail is not a true Puritan.
Within today’s society, an individual’s morals determines how one is scrutinized, judged, and reprimanded. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Abigail Williams is a character with compelling moral principles. Abigail’s disoriented moral constitution allows the theme, the detrimental effects of mass hysteria, to be constantly reassured throughout the play. Through the egotistical, manipulative, and deceitful rhetoric of Abigail Williams, Arthur Miller is successful in conveying how the spread of misinformation can tear apart a small town.
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.
In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible Abigail Williams, an unmarried orphan in the Massachusetts town of Salem, incessantly grows more jealous, her desire for vengeance only grows stronger, and her selfishness escalates. She repeatedly lies to save herself by denying her involvement in witchcraft. Abigail's Jealousy of Elizabeth Proctor intensifies in attempt to realize her desire for Elizabeth's husband John Proctor. 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.
Abigail Williams is an evil, lying witch responsible for the deaths of innocent citizens in Salem, Massachusetts. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible the young, beautiful Abigail has an affair with married John Proctor. She will stop at nothing to get what she wants, including practicing witchcraft. Abigail is an obsessive, selfish, manipulative liar, who brings destruction wherever she goes.