Fear is an unshakable feeling that is driven by both rational, and irrational causes, but in the heat of the moment differentiating the rational, from the irrational can be nearly impossible. When control is given into the hands of fear, no matter how pure or genuine the intention, the outcome will be horrific. The Crusades and The Salem Witch Trials are two historical events that started with the idea of holy purification, but because of the corruption of man both events turned into hellish conquests, that resulted in hysteria, and murder. But it all begins with one individual convincing the others that what they are doing is right, true and pure. Even with the purest intentions to begin with The Salem Witch Trials and the Crusades still occurred, but only because they were grounded in lies, and in fear. Abigail was caught dancing in the woods, a major sin, and is believed to have sold herself to the devil, so her father figure Paris, a preacher, is interrogating her and threatening to ruin her life if she doesn't confess to talking to the devil, “Abigail: I never sold myself! I’m a good girl! I’m a proper girl! Mrs. Putnam enters with Tituba, and instantly Abigail points at Tituba” (Miller 43). Abigail is full of fear of what will happen to her because she broke her society's rules, and she allows this fear to consume her for an instant, just long enough for her to blame another, in an attempt to cover up her own wrong doings. Her intentions are good, to save her own
Apart from being obsessive Abigail is also shown as a dishonest person. When reverend Hale comes to the town of salem to visit Betty and see if the devil had been affecting her. When Hale gets to the house he starts to accuse Abigail of using witchcraft while they were out in the woods. “She made me do it! She made Betty do it!” (44). After Abigail sees that Hale is accusing her of working with the devil, she gets the idea of blaming Tituba for the events of the woods. TItuba claims that Abigail had drank the chicken blood so blaming Tituba seemed better than getting in trouble for doing it in the first
In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Abigail is most to blame for the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail is a seventeen year old girl in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. She lives with Reverend Parris, her uncle, because her parents were killed by Indians when she was younger. Miller demonstrated that it was Abigail’s flaws- dishonesty, jealousy, and lust – that led her to be most responsible for the witch hunt in Salem.
Abigail Williams is introduced as an innocent seventeen-year-old girl who was mistreated by the male figure. Since she has an affair with John Proctor, a thirty two year old married man, she becomes manipulative and power hungry. Her thought process and actions are driven by the jealousy she has over Elizabeth. The first occurrence of Abigail’s abuse of power is near the end of Act 1 regarding the activities being done in the woods. Abigail knows the dancing around the caldron is no longer a secret after her uncle Reverend Parris saw them “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”(10). Soon after Abigail is questioned about the so-called dancing that occurred in the woods. When Reverend Hale arrives he starts questioning everybody and the answers make her look bad. She starts putting all the blame on Tituba by saying “I never called him! Tituba, Tituba . . .” Reverend Hale responds in shock” She called the Devil” (42). Abigail realizes if you confess to witchcraft and start-naming names you’ll be okay, if you deny it they will think you are trying to
One reason why Abigail is responsible for the death of innocent Salemites is because she makes up lies and stories about the people involved in the witchcraft. “Sometimes I wake and find myself standing in the open doorway and not a stich on my body. I always hear her laughing in my sleep. I hear her singing her Barbados songs and tempting me with-” (Miller, 156). In this quote Abigail is talking about Tituba, the slave of Mr. and Mrs. Proctor, to Mr. Danforth. She made up a story about Tituba putting her under a spell and doing things to her at night. Abigail is also the first person to accuse someone of
Abigail Williams is to be considered a strikingly beautiful young woman. She was the cause of the whole madness of witch-craft by her immaturity because Abigail and with the rest of her friends went out into the woods while having Tituba conjure spirits so the girls could get guys to fall in love with them. Once they were caught by Reverend Parris (which is Abigail's uncle) instead of confessing the truth on what they were doing and owning up to it, Abigail decides to blame Tituba. She blames her for making the girls go into the woods to conjure spirits and help the devil. When John Proctor hears about this though, she quickly tells him in private that its nothing but lie. She wants John Proctor to see her as a women but when she cannot even own
Between February of 1692 and May of 1963 in Salem, Massachusetts, approximately 200 citizens were accused, arrested, and imprisoned for being suspected of acts of witchcraft. Of the 200, fourteen women and five men were hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem Village, one man was stoned to death while more than seventeen died in prison. It all began in 1691 when a few girls in town began experimenting with magic by surrounding themselves around a crystal ball in order to find an answer to a question. During June and September of the year 1692, hundreds of citizens were wrongfully executed after illogical trails found them guilty of acts of witchcraft. These trials occurred because of religious imatations, tainted food supply, property disputes, congregational feuds and young immature girls lacking attention.
A play written by Arthur Miller is about The Salem Witch Trials. The character who basically caused and is responsible for The Salem Witch Trials is girl named Abigail; “Abigail Williams, seventeen, a striking beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling. ”page 462. Abigail is absolutely responsible for the salem witch trials. Even though she lives in the victimizing puritan society and does not deserve to be excused.
We see Abigail have this characteristics many times throughout the book and many of these lies cause deaths. When they first getted blamed for witchcraft she says, “I never call him Tituba, Tituba....” Here she tries to act innocent and blame it all on tituba even though she is the one to ask for the the potion. There was absolutely no witchcraft involved in what they did yet she blames witchcraft on her. This causes more problems because tituba then confesses to something she didn't do and starts blaming more people in town who are innocent in order to save her. Once tituba confessed she saw an opportunity to blame people she didn't like so she says, “I danced for the Devil”, even though she never did. Once she said that she had the ability to blame people she “saw” with the devil. This causes deaths because many innocent people don't confess to witchcraft because they did nothing wrong. Since she was also sort of the leader many girls followed her lead and started blaming people her family didn't
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
Fear is an integral part of human society, a vital part of human emotions, and can drive people to do certain things that they would hardly do when thinking clearly. Fear is the belief that something or someone is dangerous and poses as a threat, or the action of being afraid of something. This emotion is present throughout history, in literature, and still exists as of now. From the Salem Witch Trials to the Holocaust, fear was always an important factor. Even in present times, it is still a major influence for many events. Fear is the driving force behind the large number of accusations in The Crucible, the reason why people desperately seek for scapegoats in “Extended Forecast: Bloodshed”, and it causes defensive behavior and feeds hysteria
Abigail also accuses innocent people of doing witchcraft. She uses the Salem Witch Trials to put out all the resentment she has toward everyone. Abigail takes advantage of the society’s communitarian values for her own selfish interest. Abigail contradicts the society’s beliefs of community through manipulation.
The last and most significant test Abigail experienced was how far she would go to save her reputation, and get revenge on Elizabeth forever daring to wrecking it. This test is also one that proves the kind of diabolical things she would do to pretend she was saintly. The first stage of Abigail’s test was when she was discovered in the woods. She and the other girls decided to be deceitful about this event, and to remain godly in the eyes of the town, even though they were disappointing God in doing so. Abigail and the other girls were soonly accused of witchcraft, which she immediately turned the blame around of Tituba, in hopes of keeping any goodness to her name. Then, when she had the chance to accuse others of witchcraft,
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.
1. Throughout The Crucible, the theme of mass hysteria is presented. For example, after Tituba “confessed” to have been working under pressure, Abigail screams “I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him, I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” (54) The reason why Abigail suddenly “confesses” starts with Tituba. Tituba was under extreme pressure when Reverend Hale and many others were screaming at her; therefore she decided to just give them what they want – a confession – so they would stop. Seeing this, Abigail joins in that she will not be interrogated later, thus adding to the overall hysteria and madness of a witch hunt. In addition, the theme of vengeance is also displayed when John Proctor blatantly states “I'll tell you what's walking Salem - vengeance is walking Salem… now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom,
In the story “The Crucible” Abigail and her cousin are accused of being witches. IN act one it states “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” (Abigail Page 1). They got caught dancing and doing things they were forbidden to do. Since that day the entire town thinks of then as witches. That being said Abigail tries to make things right. Additionally in act one Abigail states “let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word about a thing or I will came to you in the black of some terrible night” (Page 19). From there forward Abigail started to accuse Tituba. Tituba then confessed “He say Mr. Parris must be killed! And No! I don’t hate that man. I don’t want to kill that man”. But he says, “You work for me, Tituba, and I make you free!”(Page 44).This confession and accession give’s Abigail and Betty a chance to act Innocent and accuse random people as well.