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Historical analysis of the salem witch trials
The crucible character analysis essay
The crucible character analysis essay
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From 1692 to 1693, over 200 people were accused of witchcraft, which lead to the execution of 20 people.
The Crucible follows the lives of those in the Puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts, through these witch trials. Although it keeps true to much of the actual witch trials, characters and events have been changed, added, or taken out. This version of the trials is mainly centered around a girl named Abigail Williams. While it does follow the lives of other characters, Abigail determined everyone’s fate in The Crucible.
Whether character in the book or reader, everyone despises Abigail. She is selfish, vengeful, manipulative, and has a demented life style. She uses these traits to win people, and have them believe she is the “Good Guy”.
For
The Crucible was set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. It was set in a little country town full of what everyone thought were good people. When we started reading The Crucible we were introduced to many people from this small town of Salem. There are many pros and cons to living in a small town, but this book shows us many of these pros and cons. The three main characters that we were introduced are Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Reverend Hale. In this story these characters contributed some of the most irrational things that caused most of the problems in this small town.
A motivation can be described as a character having a reason to behave or act in a particular way. Someone or something can be someone's motivation. A child obeys its parents to avoid punishment or a clerk works overtime so that he can afford a better car are examples of motivation. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, characters illustrate several types of motivations. Throughout the play, Abigail is motivated by jealousy, power, and attention.
She became intimately involved with John Proctor in an illegal love affair while employed as a servant girl in the family home of John and his wife Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail was willing to go to great measures to carry on her very intense relationship with Mr. Proctor. Once John Proctor informs Abigail that he no longer wants to be in a relationship with her, she becomes desperate. Abigail insisted that John Proctor still loved her, and I quote “ You loved me John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet.” As a means of self-preservation she was willing to sacrifice others, as well as falsely accusing many. Abigail was the leader of the girls who blamed witchcraft for their behavior.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is set in Salem in a Puritan community. John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale, Reverend Paris, and Abigail are the main characters. The book is about witchcraft or what the town thinks is witchcraft. John Proctor is the tragic hero because he is loving, loyal, authoritative, but his tragic flaw is his temper.
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
During the early years of the colonies, there was a mad witch hunt striking the heart of Salem. Anger, reputation, and even religion play an important part during the play of The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller. The author allows us to witness the vivid idea of the hysteria taking place in Salem, Massachusetts, and why it was so vulnerable during the time.
to dancing round a fire in the woods but she says that it was not
In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, the main character Abigail Williams is to blame for the 1692 witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Abigail is a mean and vindictive person who always wants her way, no matter who she hurts. Through out the play her accusations and lies cause many people pain and suffering, but she seemed to never care for any of them except John Proctor, whom she had an affair with seven months prior to the beginning of the play. John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth used to employ Abigail, until Elizabeth found out the affair and threw Abigail out. Although John told Abigail that the affair was over and he would never touch her again, she tried desperately to rekindle their romance. "Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I'll ever reach for you again." (Page 23) She claimed that she loved John and that he loved her. Before the play began, Abigail tried to kill Elizabeth with a curse. She thought that if Elizabeth were dead John would marry her. Further into the play, Abigail accused Elizabeth of witchcraft. She saw Marry Warren, the Proctor's servant, making a poppet. Mary put a needle into the doll, and Abigail used that for her accusation. She stabbed herself with a needle and claimed that Elizabeth's soul had done it. Although Abigail claimed she loved John, she may have just loved the care and attention he gave her. John cared for her like no one else had. In a way he could be described as somewhat of a father figure to her. When Abigail was just a child, she witnessed her parents' brutal murders. "I saw Indians smash my dear parent's heads on the pillow next to mine..." (page 20) After her traumatic experience, she was raised by her uncle, Reverend Parris, who is somewhat of a villain. In the play it was written, "He (Parris) was a widower with no interest in children, or talent with them." (Page 3) Parris regarded children as young adults who should be "thankful for being permitted to walk straight, eyes slightly lowered, arms at the sides, and mouths shut until bidden to speak." (Page 4) Therefore, it is obvious to see that Abigail grew up without any love or nurturing.
It is clear that Abigail Williams is portrayed as the antagonist in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, taking place in the late 1600s in Salem, Massachusetts and based on the witch-trials therein. She serves as a catalyst for the witch trials by falsely accusing innocent townspeople with the intent of maintaining the position of power she gains from them. Due to the transparency of her actions, Abigail’s ulterior motives are also distinguishable. Certain effeminate stereotypes are presented throughout the course of the play. One of which, being that of the immoral, husbandless woman, Abigail embodies. Slave to emotion and motivated by lust, Abigail falls
Abigail Williams is manipulative and wants everything to go her way. She is the main character and causes trouble everywhere she goes. The Salem Witch Trials is about hearings and prosecutions of people who were accused of witchcraft. In The Crucible Abigail is a no good villain. Abigail first commits adultery with Elizabeth’s husband. Later on Abigail begins to accuse innocent people of doing witchcraft which causes them to die. Abigail Williams uses the Salem Witch Trials to put out all the resentment she has toward everyone.
How Arthur Miller Establishes the Character and Motivation of Abigail Williams in Act One and How She is Not to be Trusted
Abigail Williams the main character in The Crucible by Arthur Miller draws the interest of the reader as she is a wicked, confident girl who lies to get what she wants and defends her name and her life.
The Crucible is the story about how Salem started the witch trials, written by Arthur Miller. The story says that the young girls were practicing witchcraft when the Rev. Parris found them. The town believed the girls that there was more witches in Salem and started to place blame on almost everyone. The main girl was in love with a farmer that she had committed adultery with, so she found a way to blame his wife of witchcraft from the start of the trials. The girls knew that known of the accused actually did witchcraft and as did the ones hang. The Crucible is filled with pride that hides the secrets of the town.
The Crucible is considered the outline of the real life events during the Salem Witch trials in 1692. Abigail Williams, the niece of Reverent Paris was found conjuring in the forest along with his nine year old daughter Betty and other girls. After that event the witch trials began. In real life, Abigail was the one who began the witc...
The play The Crucible by Arthur Miller takes place in Salem, Massachusetts. A group of girls go dancing in the forest with a Bajan slave named Tituba. While dancing they are caught by Reverend Parris. He is the local minister who believes that drama follows him wherever he goes. Rumors of witchcraft fill the town after Betty, Reverend Parris’s daughter, falls into a coma. As she is in the coma, another minister, Reverend Hale, is called in to get the demons out of Betty. Abigail, the girls ringleader threatens the others telling them not to admit to anything they are asked. While working in Proctor’s home the previous year Abigail had in an affair with John, which led to her being fired by his wife, Elizabeth. Abigail still wants him, but