The Crucible: Abigail Williams In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Abigail Williams is one of the most influential people in this play. Even though she is a very underrated character, the power she has over everyone is tremendous. She deceived everyone to believe that there’s a large amount of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. So once things started to get out of hand, she had no other choice but to just go with it. You see, Abigail’s a very good liar, so when people got in the way of what she wanted, they got accused immediately. Though Abigail only wanted one thing from the beginning and that was John Proctor. Because of her lying, she had thrown herself into a big mess by her lying, no remorse, and her selfishness desires. Her first trait is how she slanders people in Salem. Since she’s playing the victim, the false accusations make her seem like she’s telling the truth. The time Abigail accuses Goody Osbourne of witchcraft just to save her from getting in trouble. Even if Goody Osbourne told the truth, the town wouldn’t have believed her since she’s a beggar. When people started to call her out or catch on to her lies, she accused them of witchcraft. If if she would have told the truth from the very beginning none of the trials would have happened. …show more content…
She said she would kill them at night, cause she has nothing to lose. In her case it's good to have no remorse. It keeps her in the clear and also gets rid of the people suspicious of her. Not only does it affect her throughout the story, but also affects everyone around her. In Act II Scene 4, Abigail plants a needle in Mary Warren’s poppet to frame her of being with the devil by stabbing herself with a needle to prove that it’s real. She’s fearless at the point to where she’ll do anything for her desires. Which brings me to the next
From the beginning, she established a licentious and conniving character by having intercourse with John Proctor, while she was out of wedlock, and while he was married to Elizabeth. While ranting, Abigail says, “ 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! Let her turn you like a -” (23-24). One of the only things Abigail ever cared about was her “name” within the village. Williams went to extreme lengths to protect her “name” and she was fine with destroying other people's’ lives, reputation, and dignity. Abigail also says, “You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet! John, pity me, pity me” (24)! By blinding herself with the false idea of someone loving her, Abigail she destroys her self value by asking for the pity of the man who fails to love her back. She would rather have her name pure than admit she danced in the woods, and receive a light whipping. Instead, she seeks revenge on a legitimate housewife, and takes the entire village with her to the
Abigail Williams is motivated to lie about her affair with John Proctor. What motivates her to lie is the thought of getting hung. Another big reason that she could be lying is for vengeance. Abigail loves John Proctor and one night they had an affair and touched. Since then, Abigail has been jealous towards John’s wife, Elizabeth. Abigail goes into the forest with some other young girls and Tituba, who makes a potion to have boys fall in love with them. This is a great example, “ABIGAIL, pulling her away from the window: I told him everything; he knows now, he knows everything we—BETTY: You drank blood, Abby! You didn't tell him that! ABIGAIL: Betty, you never say that
Abigail Williams forms a continuous string of deceitful lies about the presence of witchcraft in Salem and her involvement with it, triggering the beginning of the trials and causing mayhem to permeate the town. Playwright Arthur Miller characterizes Abigail as "a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling"(8). Her fabrications induce calamity in Salem, and entangles many innocent people in her slanderous web of stories. In most cases, Abigail lies to evade discomfort or punishment. This pattern is first displayed when Reverend Hale interrogates Abigail:
In every family, there is one child that is always very misleading and evil, and besides that, they get away with everything that they do that is unsound. The certain person in the family may break on of you mom’s favorite plate, and then end up placing the blame on you, and then persuades your parents that he or she is telling the true. Abigail Williams is the poor duplicate of that sibling or relative. She influences everyone that she is an innocent teenage girl, but that is not the case throughout the play. In the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Abigail is the bona fide misleading and evil teenage girl.
In The Crucible, two characters that serve as a foil for each other are Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail. Elizabeth Proctor is known as an honest woman, while Abigail is consistently seen as a dishonest person whose lies result in the widespread paranoia of the Salem witch trials. For instance, after she dances in the forest with other girls, she forbids them from telling the townsfolk about it and accuses other people of witchcraft, which leads to their deaths. Another example is the fact that she had an affair with John Proctor, Elizabeth’s husband, and tries to conceal it because she does not want her reputation to get ruined. Her motive for accusing others of witchcraft is because she wants to get rid of Elizabeth so that she could be John’s “perfect wife,” and because she does not want to get in trouble. Abigail is the perfect foil for anyone who is even slightly honest.
First, In the book The Crucible Abigail Williams is the vengeful, manipulative, and a liar. She seems to be uniquely gifted at spreading death and destruction wherever she goes. She has a sense of how to manipulate others and gain control over them. All these things add up to make her one good antagonist with a dark side. In Act I, her skills at manipulation are on full display. When she's on the brink of getting busted for witchcraft, she skillfully manages to pin the whole thing on Tituba and several of Salems other second class citizens. Also since Abigail's affair with John Proctor, she's been out to get Elizabeth, his wife. She convinced Tituba to put a curse on Elizabeth, hoping to get rid of her and take
The true antagonist of the play is the town of Salem itself, because of the judgemental and self concerned peoples, and its oppressive views. Abigail;s outrageous actions are due to her desensitized views on death and actions otherwise viewed as unethical. From her youth ABigail recalls: “ I saw indians smash my dear parents’ head on the pillow next to mine and i have seen some reddish work at night” (Miller 20), because of this Abigail is numb to death and suffering and is in fact quite morbid. There is no problem in condemning other to death in Abigail’s eyes because she doesn’t see the issue with it. Abigail does not seem to comprehend that it is unethical to let people be hanged and stoned to death and has no issue telling others that she “ can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down” (Miller 20). Not only is Abigail desensitized to murder and death, she is also numb to other unethical dilemmas. Abigail is desensitized to corrupting the Proctor’s marriage because of her childish lust and obsession for John Proctor. Such desires can be seen through her encounters with Proctor. In regards to their so called “relationship” she says: “it’s she put me out, you cannot pretend it were you. I saw your face when she put me out, and you loved me then and you love me now!” (Miller 22). Abigail does not view her behavior t...
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.
Comparison of Elizabeth Proctor with Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor, the leading female characters in 'The Crucible'. Both show determination in order to get what they want. Abigail, a cunning girl that is out for revenge, feels she has superiority over many of the other characters even though she is only a young girl. Elizabeth's character portrays a wife in distress after she finds out about her husband's affair, yet she still has courage throughout the play. She shows determination when she is in need of strength to keep her going, after Abigail accused her of witchcraft.
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,
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
I disagree with Winona Ryder, but only to an extent. Abigail is villain of Arthur Miller's The Crucible. She is a liar and a selfish person who is ready to dispose of anyone who gets in the way of she wants. For example, in act one on page 1137, she tells her friends that she'll kill them if they say anything about what really happened in the woods. While the example very clearly shows Abigail as a vicious person, I do not believe that Abigail is alone in making herself the villain. Abby's parents were brutally murdered when she was a child and now she lives with a man that is distant and not very affectionate. Therefor, more than likely she has developed an all consuming need for attention and affirmation. So, when John Proctor seduces her
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
Abigail Williams may seem like a nice young woman but looks can be very deceiving. Although she comes from the household of the Reverend of the town, she is a heartless and a horrible person that will do anything to get the man that she wants.” You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!” (Miller,1137). Abigail obviously cares about nobody, only John Proctor.