Abigail Williams is the cause to all of the hysteria in Arthur Miller’s book The Crucible. In The Crucible Abigail’s parents are killed by Native Indian’s which leaves her character as a deceitful, untrustworthy, selfish, delusional, and excessively manipulative woman. Due to these character traits Abigail William’s is given cause as to why she was the reason for Salem being left in a state of hysteria. Abigail manipulated her salve Tituba, and a cluster of girls to practice witchcraft in the forest in an attempt to kill her lover’s wife, Elizabeth. When she is gets caught both her slave, Tituba, and Abigail falsely list names of women who committed witchcraft. Another incident was during Marry Warren’s testimony and Abigail, to relieve the …show more content…
The next day Reverend Parris is worried about his daughter, Betty, who is behaving strangely and he then questions Abigail where she was last night. Abigail says she and the girls were at the forest dancing. When Parris takes a step out of the room Abigail threatens Betty and a few of the other girls like Mercy Lewis, and Mary Warren to not tell anyone what they did in the woods. Abigail’s threatened “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” (Miller 132) and then she utters “you know I can do it; I saw Indians smash my dear parents’ heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night” (Miller 132). This shows how Abigail’s anger affects her way of thinking. Once Putnam’s enter the picture they accuse Betty of flying over the barn. This starts the witchcraft accusations that will lead to a lot of deaths later. With this new information Parris calls Reverend Hale who is supposedly an expert in the supernatural. For a while John, Abigail, and Betty are alone in the room. Abigail complements John, but John rejects her. Abigail starts to insult Elizabeth claiming that she is blackening her name. Abigail acts as though she is angry but in reality she is envious that Elizabeth …show more content…
Out of desperation to save his wife John confess “excellency, forgive me. She thinks to dance with me on my wife’s grave! And well she might! - for I thought of her softly. God help me I have lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat! (Miller ). Even though Danforth dismisses John’s confession as false Abigail finally realizes that John does not love her for he was willing to ruin his reputation to save her. The immense point that is shown to Abigail is that John chose Elizabeth over her. It is repeatedly shown that Abigail does not bode to well with rejection and that she does not handle her emotions very well either. A few months later and Parris enters the jail to tell Danforth that Abigail has gone missing. When he had awoken this morning he opened his door and a knife almost slays him, then he goes into his safe to find that all his money is gone, lastly he realizes that he heard Mercy Lewis and Abigail talk about the time the ship leaves a week earlier. This is the proof for Danforth that the bewitches were false claims made mostly by Abigail. Abigail knew it was only a matter of time before they would accuse her and to save herself she commits the most selfish act and fled the scene. Abigail never gets to be put to justice and escapes her future punishment she is never seen or heard of
In Arthur Miller 's The Crucible, the main character Abigail Williams is to blame for the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, Abigail Williams remained a static character throughout the book. Abigail is a mean, deceitful and manipulative person who always wants her way; she has no remorse about who she hurts along her journey to get her want she wants.
(Page 150, Miller). Abigail is lying about Elizabeth and expects Elizabeth to tell lies about her for payback. John doesn’t like the fact that Abigail is saying bad things about
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
When Reverend Parris asks if Abigail’s name is truly white, she states, “Why, I am sure it is, sir. There be no blush about my name” (Miller 11). Parris repeats his question once again, however, Abigail becomes righteously indignant and states, “My name is good in the village! I will not have it said my name is soiled” (Miller 12). In order to avoid retribution for witchcraft and adultery, she begins to lie and blame other innocent people.
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
Abigail: She's blackening my name in the village! She's telling lies about me! She is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her! Let her turn you like a-
Elizabeth feels that Abigail is motivated by jealousy and that she wishes Elizabeth to die. John doesn’t believe her.
As Abigail is speaking to Danforth she begins to sense a presence that is in the room with them. She pretends to act frightened and honestly scared for her life. This causes Danforth to feel guilt and worry for the child that stands before him, he has no idea that Abigail is taking control of the situation and manipulating his judgment by feeding him lies and false allegations. By the ending of the play Abigail was left with nothing, the woman she wanted Dead is alive and carrying her Lover's child. She has lost friends,family, and the town that she called home.
One of the first villainous things Abigail does in the play is drinking a charm to murder someone. She does this since she is jealous of John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth, seeing as she and John previously had an affair. Abigail rudely describes her as “a cold, sniveling woman” (Act 1, 24) who “is blackening my name in the
By the end of The Crucible, Mary Warren shouted “She’ll kill me for sayin’ that!” when Proctor insisted that she testify against Abigail in court. This exact loyalty and upper hand is what Abigail had never had before and wants so badly to
In Act II of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail has a drastic effect on the town without being present in the play by condemning many people to horrible witchcraft accusations and creating a sense of fear and paranoia in the town. To begin, Abigail makes merciless accusations of many people being bewitched. This is often solely done because Abigail has feeling of disdain towards the person. This is evident by this quote exclaimed by Elizabeth Proctor, “She will cry me out until they take me!” (Miller 1274). Elizabeth is fearful and appalled because Abigail accuses her of being a witch. There is no just cause or evidence for this claim, but Abigail Williams is a crazy girl who is engulfed with jealousy; she only accuses Elizabeth of being
People often believe respect and reputation to be the most important aspect about them. If they continuously require more, such a desire can become a fatal flaw and bring about their downfall. Abigail in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a perfect example of this mindset. She lies to save her reputation, thus commencing the Salem witch trials, and is quickly consumed by the constant need to keep up the act to continue to be respected by the people of Salem.
confesses to the court of his sin for adultery with Abigail to prove she has a desire to get rid of
Abigail Williams is the most manipulative character in The Crucible. Her disposition allows her to threaten, lie, and act to get her way. After the girls were caught in the forest dancing, singing, and participating in charms, Abigail threatens all the girls to say and go along with the witchcraft accusations. If they said anything she would deal with them, like she dealt with the chicken. The purpose she started all this was to get Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor’s wife, dead. Abigail wanted to be Abigail Proctor, she wanted to marry him, but Elizabeth was in the way. This was one step closer to getting Elizabeth executed and one step closer for Abigail to be John’s wife. The final step into getting the court convinced that Elizabeth was compacted with the devil was when Abigail was
Abigail is a highly jealous character, concentrating her jealousy on Elizabeth Proctor. This jealousy is driven by lust and her desire for John Proctor. Abigail served as a servant in the Proctor household and after an affair with her husband John, Elizabeth fired her. She still resents Elizabeth for this as she is still in love with John. She clearly says to John, "You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!" Abigail is still in love with John and she assumes the converse. Her love for John only causes her resentment for Elizabeth to strengthen. She hates John Proctor's wife and in her conniving ways she attempts to inspire the same views of Elizabeth in John's mind. Saying things to him such as, "She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me, She is a cold, sniveling woman." Abigail fabricates stories in attempt to steel John from Elizabeth. She is a manipulative liar that does and says as she pleases in order to get what she wants.