Examples Of Abigail In The Crucible

Concerned that word about her affair will spread throughout the village, Abigail begins to lie and point fingers at people for witchcraft, hoping it can draw the people’s focus away from her. After she and the girls were discovered in the forest by Reverend Parris, she lies or purposely forgets to mention to that she had drank a potion that would kill John Proctor’s wife. The only thing she said to him was: “We did dance, uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there's the whole of it.” (Miller 9). In another situation where Abigail's lying is shown again, Parris is asking why she was fired from her previous job as Elizabeth Proctor’s servant, and her excuse is: “She hates me, uncle, she must, for I would not be her slave. It's a bitter woman, a lying, cold, sniveling woman, and I will not work for such woman!” (Miller 11). Clearly this is false because Elizabeth didn't fire Abigail just out of coldness, though that was part of it, she fired her because she found that Abigail was having an affair with her husband, John. These lies led to unnecessary problems and prove Abigail is a self centered person because she only wants what's best for herself.

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.

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 I, page 175, it is said, “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.” This quote occurs when accusations began and Abigail was beginning her long, tedious, process in abusing her power to manipulate the girls into lying for the sake of her reputation. Abigail is aware that she and her friends have committed a serious offense by dancing without clothes, and threatens the girls to lie about what truthfully happened that night in the woods. Abigail’s controlling and abusive mindset gets the best of her and leads her into a tricky situation within the court, and ends her trickery by moving to Boston. Her power and her ability to manipulate the people around her allowed her exploitation of not only the people, but the town as a whole. Furthermore, she goes on to say, "I have been hurt, Mr. Danforth; I have seen my blood runnin' out! I have been near to murdered every

Abigail's deception toward the people is driven by her lust for power. Abigail begins to accuse others of being witches, so she can build up her power and reliability. She carefully selects defenseless targets at first to accuse, only those that would be believable when in court. Each of the innocent people that Abigail condemns to hang gives her more credibility, gaining her more power over the court and the people. Abigail continues to grow closer to the big picture every time she gains power. Abigail is viewed as a threat; since her lust for power made her into a ruthless person. Abigail in the manner of a leader convinces the other girls to follow her; those who are frightened by her are the ones who join her. She needs more people on her

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”

On pages 10-12, it seems that Abigail was acting extremely innocent, and took no blame for what has happened. Later on, she blames Tituba and Ruth for what happened to Betty by saying, “...Not I, sir-Tituba and Ruth.” Then on page 20, Abigail tells Mercy, Betty, and Mary Warren “Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sister. And that is it. And mark it. 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...”. Abigail basically told everyone in the room that you tell everyone else this story, so we don’t get in lots of

On page 148 lines 340-350 states “ Betty: You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!” Text explain what Abigail try to do to achieve her goal. Her personality can be described as a deceptive children, who sacrifices others to achieve their greedy goal. Abigail accused other women for witchery until people are sentenced to being hanged. On the first day 14 people were jailed and on the next day over 100 were accused. She finally had the guts to accuse Elizabeth of sending her spirit to stab her in the stomach. Of course Elizabeth is arrested under a warrant from the court currently residing in

Abigail shows her need for power when she threatens the girls to not tell anyone what their plan was when they were dancing in the forest. When Abigail is talking to the girls about what had happened that night, Betty, Abigail’s cousin, shouts out that Abigail wants to kill Elizabeth Proctor to get back together with John Proctor. Then Abigail “smashes [Betty] across the face; shut it!...Now look…all of [the girls]. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And…[if] either of [the girls] breathe[s] a word…[Abigail] will come to you in the black of some terrible night and [she] will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder [the girls]” (Miller 18-19). Abigail shows her power best when threatening others to get what she wants. Abigail’s power causes the girls to follow what she says because if they tell someone that Abigail wants Elizabeth Proctor dead, they will be killed or seriously punished. This shows that Abigail is a bitter young woman who uses power to get what she wants. When Tituba was accused of being a witch by Abigail, she starts accusing other people of being witches. Then

She first appears in The Crucible in Act I. She and her uncle, Reverend Parris, are treating her cousin Betty who is asleep and will not wake up. Parris believes that Abigail conjured spirits in the woods with Betty, and that is why she is asleep. At the end of Act I Abigail is accused of witchcraft, and she immediately shifts the blame to Tituba, who confesses so she can avoid being hanged. Abigail and Tituba then start naming many others of the community who they claim to have seen with the devil. While doing so Abigail states that she “wants the light of God and the sweet love of Jesus” ( Miller 1234). Since Abigail is so young, she is perceived as being sincere when saying she wants more of the Christian faith in her life. However, her willingness to lie and blame others in order to save herself is what makes her very hypocritical. In many times throughout the play Abigail merely put on a show to try to convince others of her lies. She may seem like a pure person at heart, but the motivations behind her actions tell otherwise. Later in Act III, Abigail lies to Judge Hawthorne even after he tells her that “to God every soul is precious and His vengeance is terrible on them that take life without cause” ( Miller 1258). Abigail still continues to break the ninth commandment of not lying, even though she seems like she is telling the

Although the court and church questioned Abigail's honesty and motives, Abigail uses her lies to conceal her faults and gain authority. Therefore; she has the potential to manipulate people for her own selfish gains like clearing her reputation and winning John Proctor.

In Act I, Abigail already lies once to Reverend Parris by telling him that they only dance in the woods. When Reverend Parris asks Abigail a second time why Betty is not moving, Abigail states that they were just playing. She says, “We did dance, uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there’s the whole of it” (Miller 1130). Later on in Act I after Tituba confessed she was with the Devil, Abigail decides to confess as well and she says, “I want to open myself !... I danced for the devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand” (Miller 1156). Abigail continues to lie to cover up the story before the truth evens comes out. As soon as reader's open the book they are already fascinated, there is so much going on that they would never

In the story of “The Crucible” Abigail is guilty because she had an affair with john, she lied to others, had blamed many others than herself.

I admit to being out in the woods that night, aye, we danced but that was not all. Abigail took the chicken that she brought as a charm and drank its blood as a sacrifice to the devil to kill Goody Proctor, we all watched, Mary Warren, Tituba and myself, watched her skull that blood down for a man, a man that is now dead. “Let either of you breathe a word, about the other thins, 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, P26) These threatening words came out of her mouth, we say one thing about that night and she has our heads, we couldn’t talk about the drinking of the blood or writing her name in the devils book.

In the book, Abigail tries to make sure she does not get into any trouble by telling lies from the night she danced and her stories of seeing the devil. In the beginning, she tells her uncle parris that they were only dancing when he caught them in the woods but they were doing more involving witchcraft. In Act one page “ we did dance, uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there’s the