Abigail Williams In The Crucible Essay

Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's, The Crucible, is at fault for the 1692 witch trials play's outcome. She deserves the blame for the outcome of this play because of her jealous and manipulative actions. Abigail is an extremely effective liar who everyone seemingly believes when they shouldn’t. She blames others, is selfish, and convinces others to follow her devious plan to marry John Proctor. She is the reason for the many witch accusations. She is the one to blame.
The play starts out with Abigail, Tituba, Betty, and others performing spells and drinking blood in the woods. Abigail tries to cast a spell on Elizabeth Proctor to kill her so she could have John Proctor to increase her status. When Betty falls into a hysterical and some what fake comma, Abigail has to think. She blames Tituba as being a witch. She even states, “Not I, sir-Tituba and Ruth.” This is said after Parris accuses her of conjuring spirits. Everyone believes Abigail, so Tituba plays along with the accusation Abigail proposed to save her soul.
When Abigail’s spell casting doesn’t work, she claims that Elizabeth is a witch. This was purely selfish of her to accuse John Proctor’s wife of witchcraft. Proctor is discombobulated and states, “I beg you, sir, I beg you-see her what she is… She thinks to dance with me on my wife’s

grave!”(pg. 102) John is begging Danforth to not consider anything Abigail is saying to him because she is lying and is out for revenge against Elizabeth. The reason she is saying these things is purely so that she can have John all to herself and he knows it.
Abigail was the accuser, so without her none of the others would’ve made these false remarks. All of these other children were convinced of being hurt and tormented in the town when really it was just Abigail being deceitful. She threatens, “Let either of you breathe a word, or 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.”(pg. 19) This shows how much of a negative influence she was. It also shows how if anyone told the truth, she had power in the court that could get them killed if she wanted.
The blaming of others, the selfishness, and the convincing of others to lie makes Abigail to blame for the play's outcome.

If she didn’t want Elizabeth Proctor dead, the play would have been unprofitable. The plot of whether or not she is a witch would not have been even talked about. If none of the girls listened to Abigail then maybe the town would have thought Abigail to be a witch instead. Lastly, Tituba wouldn’t have been accused if Abigail wouldn’t have accused her to be a witch in the first place. She will live and gain notoriety for her cruel ways and the power permitted for her to escape any judgement by the people of

Salem.