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 …show more content…
Reverend Parris is full of greed and self-want. After convincing the towns’ people that he needed money to buy gold candlestick holders, he had a multiple masses about the candlestick holders. In mass they were talked about so much that John Proctor stopped going to church on Sundays and stayed at home. There was no purpose for the candlestick holders but he still insisted. Reverend Parris also wants to cover up what he saw in the forest the night the girls were dancing. He changes some facts so that he can protect his family and himself. He does not want to get a bad name because of what his daughter and others did, he has too much greed. This makes him take an active role in the witch trials. He will continue taking an active role until someone admits that they compacted with the devil, making the trial seem real. He did not care who confessed, all he wanted was for someone to confess. In this case, it was John Proctor but before the trials can end, Proctor rejected it. Reverend Parris, only looked for a way to save himself, and he manipulated as many people, as he need to for they cannot find out the
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
In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller Abigail Williams is responsible for the tragedy in Salem due to her relentless desire to be loved by John Proctor, her direful childhood, and her dissembling character towards others. The tragedy in Salem is majorly affected by Abigail's accusations and lies in order to be loved by John Proctor. Abigail used to work for John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth as a servant. It wasn’t until John had an affair with Abigail, that she was kicked out due to Elizabeth’s jealousy. Abigail was infuriated by such an act, so she exclaimed that she would get rid of Elizabeth in order to keep John all to herself. As a sign of revenge, Abigail proclaimed that she had worked with the devil, so she can accuse anyone in
In Salem during the 1600s, the government was a theocracy, meaning the priests rule in the name of God. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, theocracy’s role shows the tyranny and the bias in the witch trials. Since Reverend Parris is the head of the Church and can control the trials, he will most likely believe the accusations that his niece, Abigail Williams, claims. John Proctor and Reverend Parris are enemies so when Goody Proctor is accused of witchcraft, there is slim chance she would be set free due to their rivalry. Moreover, Parris is secretive and therefore warps the decisions he makes with his partisan stance.
Throughout the narrative presented in The Crucible, the dichotomy of character morals seen by actions is among the most applied literary devices. From the juxtaposition of the reverends’ actions on what was truly righteous and what was socially beneficial, to the girls’ virtuous facade used to further the devil’s grasp in Salem. However, the most notable example of this pattern is found within the characters Abigail Williams and Goodwife Elizabeth Proctor. As the boundaries of true Christian virtue are twisted and manipulated throughout the play, these two characters will act as the driving catalysts for the message. To begin to analyze the characters at hand, it is clearly portrayed that Abigail Williams is an evil and conniving girl just in the first few lines of Act 1.
Abigail Williams only cares for the wellbeing of herself. In act 1 of the crucible Abigail lies about what happened in the woods. She threatens the other girls, if they told about what happened in the woods, she would “come to you in the black of some terrible night and will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you”. Which then leads to the other girls accusing others of witchcraft to take attention off of themselves. Abigail continues to act selfish by pursuing John Proctor even though he is married. Her accusing Elizabeth of stabbing her in the stomach was selfish, because she did it to get Elizabeth out of the way so she could have John to herself. In addition to all of her other selfish acts, she leads the
In the play The Crucible many of the characters learn things about themselves as well as others. Discuss the insight gained by the characters of Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale, and John Proctor.
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.
This is later confirmed when she threatens to “come to [them] in the black of some terrible night and … bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder” (Pg.175) Mary Warren and Betty Parris if they dare to tell the truth. This shows her determination at killing Elizabeth Proctor and securing her own reputation. Unlike many naive villains in other literatures, Abigail sets out a meticulous scheme to frame Elizabeth. First, she witnesses Mary Warren leaving a needle in a doll. Then she “[sticks] two inches [of a needle] in the flesh of her belly”(pg. 203) to frame Elizabeth of performing witchcraft. So mendacious is Abigail that she is willing to injure herself to accomplish her plan. Under her beautiful appearance also lays a manipulative heart. She is capable of manipulating not only the girls into doing things her way, but also the members of the court to her advantage. When questioned by Danforth whether the spirits she has seen are illusion, Abigail steps it up a notch by making the members of the court feel sorry for her and madly refutes, “I have been near to murdered every day because I done my duty pointing out the Devil’s people—and this is my reward? To be mistrusted, denied, questioned like a—” (Pg.210) This, following by Elizabeth's failure to tell the truth and the girl’s verisimilar acting toward the “yellow bird”, further demonstrates her manipulative power which brings the court in her favor. Altogether, many
There is a constant mass hysteria and craze in the town of Salem, Massachusetts, in Arthur Miller play “The Crucible”. All of this commotion in Salem can be blamed all on a few people, but the person who holds the most responsibility for all of it is arguably Abigail Williams. Abigail is so consumed by wanting to accomplish a particle thing, she does not care who she hurts along the way. All of the hysteria in Salem can all be traced back to this young conniving girl. If I was able to write a letter to Abigail to somehow persuade her to do, what she did, I would give her a lot of advice.
Abigail Williams: An Antagonist but an Entertainer Abigail Williams is by far the most intriguing character in The Crucible because of her love for John Proctor, her control over the town, and her hardheaded personality. To start, Abigail has a deep attraction to John Proctor. Abby makes it clear that she will do anything to be with John; she even acts as if she will kill Elizabeth Proctor, John’s wife, if she has to. Abby’s constant threat to Elizabeth adds an entertaining element of suspense to the play. The next reason that Abigail Williams is the best character in The Crucible is her newfound control of the town.
The main character in the play Abigail Williams is to blame for the 1692 witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. She was seen as a hero and a saint instead of a mean and cruel person who always wants things to go her way, no matter who she hurts in the process. Through out the play her lies cause many people suffering and death, but she never cared what happened to any of them except John Proctor. He had an affair with Abigail a few months from the beginning of the play. John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth used to hire Abigail, until Elizabeth found out about the affair and fired Abigail. Although John told Abigail that he was done with the affair and he would never go back to her again, she tried very hard to get back his love. "Abby, I may
Abigail Williams was responsible for creating most of the hysteria in The Crucible. She was the niece of Reverend Parris and the leader of the group of girls who begin accusing the townspeople of witchcraft. Abigail and John Proctor, revealed in the first act, had an affair approximately seven months before the start of the play. As it turns out, Proctor had been avoiding Abigail and even tells her that he had “hardly stepped off my farm this sevenmonth” (Miller 22). Abigail grew attached to Proctor during their affair and was appalled and furious when she found out he didn’t
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.
A crowd of 1,319 people watches in awe as Javier Muñoz sings the line “I’ll write my way out,” emotion vibrating through the Richard Rodger Theater. In the Pulitzer Prize winning musical Hamilton by Lin Manuel Miranda, the protagonist, Alexander Hamilton, faces the decision of confessing his affair to save himself from allegations of a higher crime, treason. The character John Proctor faces a similar predicament in The Crucible. Based on the actual events of the Salem Witch Trials, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible, where Abigail Williams, a young girl, accused several men and women in the town of Salem with the charge of witchcraft, resulting in the hanging of 19 people (Bigsby vii-xx). Abigail, eleven years old historically, becomes a 17-year-old girl allowing her to have an affair with John Proctor, a Salem farmer (Bigsby xiv). Miller develops Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor’s wife, creating a relationship between Elizabeth and Abigail. Miller uses Elizabeth’s relationship with Abigail, influence on Proctor, and moral character to construct Elizabeth Proctor as a device to further emotional context.
A fundamental and timeless part of literature, evil antagonists provide a source of conflict for a story from the Salem Witch Trials to the Red Scare to present day Disney movies. Instilling villainous qualities in one of his main characters, Arthur Miller initiates conflict. The Crucible, a story written by Arthur Miller about the Salem Witch Trials, demonstrates the power of those who strive for omnipotence compared to the outcasts living in Salem during those times. In charge of accusing men and woman of involvement with the devil, the main antagonist Abigail creates conflict in the story. Abigail’s core values and traits mirror those of various Disney villains. Abigail’s traits include omnipotent power, manipulation, vengeance, and motivation.