How Does Abigail Williams Use Abuse Of Power In The Crucible

“Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment,” this quote stated by Mahatma Gandhi completely describes Abigail Williams. As she is one of the most complex characters in the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Abby is an innocent character in the beginning and then with her responsibility and discovered passion, she turns into the corrupted snake that she is. Because of Abigail's inner battle between passion and responsibilities, she ends the lives of the innocent and creates more problems for herself than there were in the beginning. Her responsibility to those that she loves and to hide the truth is what drives the plot forward, but her passion for power is what leads to her demise. In the beginning, she using her power for the love of her sister, but when she starts to use

it for herself and to save herself from harm, she quickly loses all that she has gained.
First, Abby moves the plot by acting on her deep passion for love of Betty and John. She also has a passion for herself past the normal point to selfish needs. In the beginning Betty refuses to move from her bed and the doctor states that it has to be witchcraft and when it is conformed to be such, Abigail has an obligation to Betty. If Betty was lying about it, then Betty would be damned for lying and hanged for starting the snowball that lead to the death of many people. “I would never hurt Betty. I love her dearly,” This is Abigail telling her father that she loves her cousin and would never cause her any harm, and later this need to protect her cousin leads to Abby lying about witchcraft. So in from Act One Abigail is only trying to protect her cousin, simply because she loves her. She even conveys to John that there is no witchcraft when they are alone. Then in Act Two she uses her power that her cousin help her get to murder the wife of John. She hopes that this will make John run to her and love her as he did before. At the time that John had known her, she was innocent, she is only a child who believes that since he has known her, he will love her. This gives her an innocent beginning, even when she was dancing in the woods, she wasn’t involved in anything bad, just child’s play and pretending that she could have her lover. Abigail in the beginning was simply an innocent and gullible child and then grew into a monster when her passions became questioned. If no one would love her, she would teach them to fear her instead. Again she acts out because she loves someone and wants to make their life better in her sick and twisted way with her included in it. Lastly, she loves herself and shows it when she tries to kill John’s wife as well as when her safety is in jeopardy and runs away without John or her cousin. In the end she loved herself more than John or her cousin, because of the power that was given to her, her morals changed throughout the play into the last resort of survival.

Her second passion is hatched when she realizes the influence she has on the townspeople and court. She slither around the court and uses her power too much, this is what ultimately leads to her demise. Her main goal in the beginning was not for power; however, she went into the forest to have the power of controlling John’s emotions, but her goal was to protect her cousin from harm. Once she admitted to witchcraft among the town she began to play with the girls’ minds and the first hanging showed her how much influence she had on the court. With her new found power she decided that she had a new way to get John. Mary Warren even tries to stand up to her and admit it was all fake, but she is too scared of the power that Abby holds and so she takes the one thing that Abby holds dear just so that she will stop the murdering. “I have no power!” Mary shouts as the girls claim that she is bewitching them, here Mary sees that no matter what she says the court will believe the girls instead of her, pushing her to a break point. This is where she convicts John. Mary may have been just trying to get out being hanged, but she knew that Abby’s passion for him so it wasn’t logical for her to convict John unless she was unaware of Abby’s love for John. The reason she did it was because she knew the real power was in the court and if they killed John, Abby would stop the endless killing spree. The irony of it all is that Mary was the one who wanted to be truthful from the very beginning, “Abigail, we’ve got to tell. Witchery’s a hangin’ error, a hangin’ like they done in Boston two year ago! We must tell the truth, Abigail!” And in this scene she is yelled by all the people in the room, telling her to tell the truth when she is. Once she finally lies, they accept it as the truth. Over time there were several hangings and people began to see Abigail for what she really was. With the loss of her power, she took her father’s only true passion, money, and ran away. The irony is how he only cared about the money and in the end he was left with nothing. She lived with a man for years who saw power in money, because it gave him influence so maybe when she took every last cent is was in desperation for more power.

The last passion of Abigail Williams is to hide the truth or else she will be known as a harlot and a demonic snake. There is something bigger behind what she is hiding, not only is she protecting herself, but she tries to protect John. He says to her in Act One, “But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of mind. We never touched, Abby,” and the irony in it is that she obeys him even when it means he will die. Almost as if to show him her power or to prove something to him even though she was never the one to convict him. This not only ties in with her love of power and her love of John, but more importantly the love of herself and for her name to stay white in the village. Another reason she fights to hang John is it is the only way to continue to have any influence, because if she says he is telling the truth then she is a harlot and not to be trusted and all her claims of witchcraft are lies. At this point, Abby must be very conflicted on what to do, but in the end she makes her choice of power and herself over the love of her life.

In conclusion, Abigail Williams uses her power for love in the beginning and so it is strong, but when it turns for selfish means, she quickly loses it.

The quote by Mahatma Gandhi directly relates to how Abigail handles herself in the play. She is only trying to save her cousin when she becomes drunk with power and Mary is the one who finally sets her straight. It wasn’t until Abby found her passion of power that she became evil. Even if Mary wasn’t aware of the amount of power she held when she convicted John, she still solved the problem within the town by ridding them of Abigail. Abigail’s passions started innocent, to protect her cousin, but lead to the need for power. When she finally had her power, she came to a place where she could either die for those that she loved or continue to have influence. She was weaker than John ever was because he died protecting what he loved most and she ran away when her power was in question. It was her responsibilities that lead to her passion, in which she found her corrupted snake

self.