preview

Who Is Abigail Selfish In The Crucible

Decent Essays

Meghan Sweeney 12- 18- 15 Crucible Essay Arthur Miller’s play ‘The Crucible’ is based on the Salem witch trials of the late 1600s. It is also a symbol of the 1950s Communism trials in America, which Miller was questioned in. The play begins with the town reverend’s daughter laying unconscious, supposedly bewitched, after being caught dancing naked in the forest with numerous other girls, one of which was Reverend Parris’s niece, Abigail Williams. This false accusation, and numerous others, lead to many being condemned to death. In addition, it is the beginning of a series of false accusations that control Salem, spreading paranoia and frenzy throughout the village, before resulting in the deaths of the play’s foremost moral characters, …show more content…

Her selfishness is apparent in Act 1, when she says to her friends, “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” (19). She won't let her friends tell the truth unless they get caught for what they did. Parris is her only parent figure, due to the murder of her parents in her childhood, which is discovered when she is labeled, “...a strikingly beautiful girl, and orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling” (6). When she is first introduced, the audience is made to feel compassion towards her when it is indicated that she is an orphan. In addition, her [Puritan] religion is intolerant of anything against the social norm. This [her religion] has taught Abigail how she should act and she knows self-indulgence isn’t allowed. However in the beginning, she lets herself appear more naïve and vulnerable, especially in the company of John Proctor, than further on in the

Get Access