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Character Analysis of Abigail Williams in The Crucible “All is fair in love and war” is a saying that has been present for centuries. It suggests that nothing is out of bounds when involving these two vital parts of a person’s mind, and in a war between love and hate, anything is acceptable or fair. The character Abigail Williams from Arthur Miller’s The Crucible gives a whole new meaning to the well-known phrase. By making Abigail a selfish yet mature character, she proves to be more complex, and therefore more developed than villains of past literature. Abigail proves to be the force that drives the story, time and time again. In order to prevent charges of witchcraft from dancing in the woods, she casts the focus away from herself by falsely accusing others around her of witchcraft with complete ease. What starts out as a desperate act of self-preservation ultimately becomes her greatest power, which is her ability to tell false stories. Abigail falsely accuses Tituba of witchcraft, exclaiming that “she comes to me every night to go and drink blood!” (418) Tituba is shocked, not knowing how to react, as she is innocent. The scene lays the foundation for Abigail’s desire to tell huge lies that ruin people’s lives, all for her own benefit. …show more content…
The way that Abigail connives her plan is brilliant and well-thought out, even mature. Abigail gets to her pinnacle point in Act I where she states that she wants to go back to Jesus. Abigail breaks down and accuses, “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil!” (485) Abigail carefully selects the people she accuses in order to increase her credibility. Thus, she accuses the town drunk and outcasts, knowing that society is already prone to convicting them. Abigail carries out her well-crafted plan to kill Elizabeth and have John Proctor for herself, which is cunning and mature for her
Abigail asks Tituba to help her cast a love spell on John Proctor. Abigail tells the girls who were also involved to keep quiet. Mary Warren begins to feel guilty and tries to persuade the girls to tell the truth. Abigail disagrees with Mary and browbeats the girls “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things… I will bring a pointy reckoning and shutter you”. (Miller 1137) Abigail is threatening the girls that if they say anything about her drinking blood she will harm them. Abigail threatens the girls for her own selfish reasons, Abigail Williams is a villain because she would rather lie and hurt people than tell the truth.
Abigail's necessity for revenge makes her threaten the young ladies into following her idea of deception. “Let either of you breathe a word,” Abigail threatens, “or the edge of a word about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you”(835). Abigail knows that all the girls in the woods fear her to death. Which made the witch trials easier for her to get by. Another thing is that Abigail ends her affair with John Proctor to try to get revenge on him. “A man may think God
Throughout the many acts of the play, we sense the anger rolling off Abigail’s words. “I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men! And now you bid me tear the light out of my eyes? I will not, I cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!” By these words, we know that Abigail Williams is angry. She’s angry at John Proctor for trying to hide the crime he committed with her, and for the lack of closure she
The absence of a healthy mind also can make a person evil, or do evil acts.Throughout the play, Abigail’s main objective is to replace Elizabeth Proctor and to save herself. She turns to extreme plans to do accomplish this. Convinced that she is doing the right thing, Abigail attempts to call upon the Devil to kill Goody Proctor. This delusion and ignorance to the severity of the situation is evil. Williams does not realize that calling the death upon another is a sinful act of harming one's neighbor. Instead she believes it is for the greater good. In Arthur Miller’s deleted scene, he touches upon Abigail's possible mental issue in another encounter with John Proctor. Displaying both a vulnerable side of Abigail and a violent one was deleted in hopes of stopping the reader to view her as innocent. However her mental state helps give reason to her actions. Abigail grabs and shouts at John, yelling, “Never in this world! I know you John-- you are this moment singing secret hallelujahs that your wife will hang!” (Miller 143). She manipulates her own mind to believe that the arrest of Elizabeth will be good for the two of them. With these thoughts Abigail continues with the evil acts of manipulation. The story sways her goals of killing a woman for her own advantage to killing others in order to save herself. Due to her feelings toward John, she not only schemes a plan to accuse Elizabeth of
The hysteria surrounding the witchtrials causes Abigail to lie in order to save herself. She is affected by the hysteria because she does not want to exposed as a liar. She forgets about the people that are close to her in order to protect her reputation and identity. Abigail abandons Tituba, and accuses her of "sending her spirit on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayer" (41). Abigail also says Tituba "comes to me every night to go and drink blood (41). Abigail reacts like this only to save her fro...
Abigail is wicked and confident and is not afraid to take control of situations. This is shown when she is with Parris, Abigail is respectful on the surface but she hides her resentment and disrespect. She talks back to defend her name and in Act One, she suggests to Parris," Uncle, the rumour of witchcraft is all about; I think you'd best go down and deny it yourself." She is also aggressive and forceful, the other girls are afraid of her. When Mary Warren suggested that they should confess to dancing in the woods. Abigail threatens them,."..I have seen some reddish work done at night and i can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!"
Abigails vigorous greed gets her power in the corrupt town of Salem. She got her power from the lies she told to the mystified people of the court and town. Her lies are simple yet compelling. The way she receives this power is similar to the tyrant Adolf Hitler, he said “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.” Even though Abby gets the power this way it is not enough for her. She then proceeds to steal her uncle's money and vanishes. Her uncle Parris tells Judge Danforth “I believe she has vanished, I discovered my - my strongbox is broke into.”(pg.126 Act 4) Abby is so greedy that she steals from her father who caught her when it was too late. The power was not enough for Abby and she left
Abigail Williams achieves power through her affair with John Proctor and her strong leadership role with her friends, and through her self seeking manner, she lets it corrupt her. In the beginning of the play, the author reveals that Abigail has involved herself with a married man. Although John breaks off the affair, Abigail now has a certain power over him because she reminds him of his unfaithful past. Abigail decides to use her power selfishly to avoid conviction and attempt to have John’s wife, Elizabeth convicted so she can be with John. Her first major use of power is when she threatens the girls who are suspected of witchcraft that if they do not lie she “will come to you in the black of some terrible night and … bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” (20). She continues with the threats saying ,“I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!” (20). The harsh diction shows how serious Abigail is about the girls sticking to the story. She uses the fear factor to make sure the girls will comply and also shows the girls who’s in charge. The overwhelming amount of threats that Abigail uses show that she really needs to get her point across and make the girls have an incentive for lying. Once Abigail gains
“ For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, who art as black as hell, as dark as night” (Shakespeare). Salem, Massachusetts, 1692, a town full of outrage and mischief and a belief of such sin to conjuring spirits is the setting for Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible. Abigail Williams is 17 years of age, and the niece of the town’s minister. A very lonely and conniving girl participates in an ungodly act. Raising the town’s suspicion and severe consequences, Abigail finds her life in danger. Abigail is strongly motivated by protecting herself from the madness of the town’s with lies, false accusations, and the hanging of innocent people, even the man she loves.
Abigail’s motive for confessing and accusing people of witchcraft is to avoid gain power in the room, and possibly to avoid getting killed. Tituba earlier admitted to being acquainted with the devil and names some people that she saw with the devil. After that, it is stated that Tituba is blessed by God. Then, Abigail stands up from her seat and confesses herself as well by yelling out names that she saw with the devil. She wants it to be known that she is a threat to the people. A consequence of this could be that she could have been hanged for admitting being with the devil, whereas Tituba only witnesses rather than actually being part of the devil’s actions like Abigail says. If Abigail had not said this, it is possible that she could have
most individuals will sometimes go any lengths to get what they want. Abigail is a prime
Have you ever wanted something so badly, that you would do anything to get it? Abigail Williams, one of the main protagonists in the play The Crucible, is a prime example of this. The Crucible takes place in Salem village, where over twenty people are being persecuted for witchcraft. She wanted to be with John Proctor, a married man with three children, more than anything. The extent that she was willing to go is belligerently horrific. Abigail's flaws of immaturity, jealousy, and deceitfulness led to her ultimate downfall of her beloved John being sentenced to death.
Abigail is one of the least complex characters in the Crucible, her role is that of a Jezebel figure; she is driven by her lust and controlled by her desire for power. She is the main antagonist of the story, she lies and manipulates the whole town, sending Salem into a state of hysteria that would eventually result in the death of nineteen people. Her motivations never seem to go deeper than desire for John and a hatred for Elizabeth. However, there is reasoning behind her desires. Abigail is an unmarried female, meaning her place in the hierarchy of Salem is low. Her uncle, Parris, has just informed her that the town has been gossiping about her affair with Proctor. Knowing her reputation is at risk makes her more desperate for a way to climb the social ladder and one way to do so was to marry into it, making her more desperate for John’s love to save her reputation.
From the start of the play, Abigail already has a bad reputation for committing adultery. Elizabeth Proctor had kicked her out of their home because Elizabeth knew of the affair that was going on between Abigail and John. This tarnished her reputation and for that, Abigail wanted to get revenge on Elizabeth Proctor. “She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! She is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her!” This is the remark Abigail makes to John Proctor about Elizabeth and what she is doing to her reputation. The main reason behind Abigail accusing so many people is so that eventually the blame is put on Elizabeth. Abigail’s hopes are to have Elizabeth killed so her and John can go on living their lives together. Not only does she want to live her life with John Proctor, but Abigail is also angered at Elizabeth because of the reputation she has given her throughout the village. Her actions go to show how willing she is to ruin numerous lives in order to get revenge on Elizabeth and also get rid of Elizabeth to carry on her dreams of marrying John Proctor. Obviously, Abigail Williams was very serious about getting vengeance on Elizabeth for destroying her reputation in the village of Salem,
Abigail’s struggles come from many of her personal desires that are forbidden in her society, causing her to lie. However, this also creates further social problems, such as the initiation of the witch trials. After Betty is stuck in a coma, Reverend Parris questions Abigail about the night in the woods, because he is suspicious and she denies that it had anything to do with witchcraft. Abigail replies to Parris saying, “ We never conjured spirits” (24). Abigail lies to Parris, denies the statement that witchcraft ever occurred, and says that all they did was danced. Witchcraft and dancing both are sins in the society, and she knows that her reputation is at stake and finds the need to lie to look innocent. Parris wants to be sure and calls Reverend Hale to look further into the issue. Once Reverend Hale comes into town, he questions Abigail about the night, and she once again denies everything he asks her. Abigail is being questioned by Hale, and once Tituba enters she screams, “ She made me do it! She made Betty do it! She makes me drink blood!” (45). Abigail denies every...