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Essay on the characters of the crucible
The crucible essay characters
Discuss character study in the crucible
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A Cold Heart Evil can come in many different shapes, sizes and colors. Most people believe that only the mean people are seen as evil. I on the other hand disagree because even the nicest looking people can have the darkest soul, such as Abigail Williams. I believe that she has got to be the most despicable and cruel person in “The Crucible”. 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.
The Crucible How does an individual gain so much power through trials? In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrays Abigail Williams as a powerful individual by revealing her control over the younger girls and the continuous accusations she makes until the end of the play. Throughout the entire play, it is made clear that Abigail has control over the younger girls in the village. In Act 1, it is right away noticed that her way of controlling them is through causing fear by making threats.
In the Crucible there was three characters that stood out from all the other ones in this wicked story. Abigail Williams was a big influence in this story she would lie and lie to get out of things and she was also the leader of the girls in the woods. Furthermore she also had an affair with John Proctor which made John and Elizabeth relationship unstable. Also John Proctor runs into a situation at the end of the story where he is put in the position if he wants his pride of not signing that paper full of lies or die knowing he did the right thing of not lying. Additionally, Elizabeth Proctor has never lied ever until the day John was being prosecuted for his witchcraft and possibly adultery and Elizabeth lied so that his name wouldn't be ruined.
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 town. Abigail doesn't want anyone to find out that she was in the forest so
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 is the niece of Reverend Parris and the cousin of Betty Parris; she used to work as a servant for the Proctors, before being sent away by Elizabeth Proctor; she is the ringleader of the “afflicted” girls. Abigail Williams was the initial instigator of the witch hunt in Salem in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible. She lied and accused others of witchcraft in order to save herself. During the Salem Witch Trials over 200 people were accused of witchcraft and 20 were executed (Blumberg). Abigail Williams is a member of a strict Puritan society. Witnessing her parents being murdered right in front of her, being forced to live with her selfish inconsiderate uncle, and having a love for a man she
Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is both the vehicle that drives the play as well as the antagonist. She points fingers, manipulates, and ends up being the fall of Salem all in her scheme to get rid of Goody Proctor and make John Proctor her own. Abigail’s motivation to be with Proctor reveals her true self: a vindictive, manipulative young woman rebelling against a restrictive Puritan society.
“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
Imagine living a Puritan lifestyle in seventeenth century Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem Witch Trial. Puritans have very strict religious laws where certain things like dancing and other infractions of the sort are considered to be worship of the devil or witchcraft. The ultimate punishment for these violations is death. In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams is a young girl who lives in Salem during the Puritan era. Abigail and a group of other girls are caught dancing in the woods; which is considered by the townspeople and especially her uncle, Reverend Paris, as worshiping the devil. Abigail and the other girls decide to say they are being witched and falsely accusing innocent people of being witches so they do not have to face the consequences coming their way. Abigail gains a great deal of power through persuading people into thinking she is actually under a witches spell, and soon becomes hungry for power.
“I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart! 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!”In the Crucible Abigail Williams is portrayed as a villain for the way she accused
“People don’t change, they show who they really are.” In the book “The Crucible” written by Arthur Miller, published January 22, 1953 the character Abigail Williams is vengeful, selfish, devious, and a great liar. She is the vehicle that drives the play, and she is responsible for many things that keeps the action continuous in the play. She has her own mischievous motives.
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.
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
How can a girl who condemned seventy two to a death sentence and drank a charm to kill a man’s wife, a man she has slept with on more than one occasion be the victim? It’s possible when the town she lives in is worse than her. Although Abigail Williams is typically thought of as the antagonist of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, she is in fact a victim as much as any other tragic character in the play.
superstition among the puritan community. The Crucible reveals the intriguing and malicious character of Abigail Williams to be a manipulative and unabashed liar, who possesses the remarkable quality of self preservation even among what seem to be