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The crucible abigail williams as a villian
The crucible abigail williams summary
The crucible abigail williams summary
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The movie The Crucible is based on a 1953 piece written by American playwright Arthur Miller. The entirety of this play is an exaggerated, mostly fabricated tale based on the Salem witch trials that took place in Massachusetts during 1692. It's story surrounds our main protagonist, John Proctor, our main antagonist, Abigail Williams, and their discontinued love affair. Misguided judgement, evil manipulation and deadly jealousy seem to be the main turning screws in the events that unfold. Abigail Williams, the obvious villain of the play, is petty, jealous, and revenge-driven. Throughout the film, we clearly see her intentions and motives as she seeks out to have John Proctor all to herself. It seems that she has deluded herself into believing that she and Proctor are “meant to be,” and this is the main foundation for which she builds her plans. Originally, Abigail joins in on what seems to be some kind of cult ritual sacrifice out in the woods, led by her uncle's slave, Tituba, along with many other of the town's young girls. Williams pleads with whatever entity they're attempting to call, wishing for the death of Goody Proctor (John Proctor's wife), going as far as drinking the blood of her chicken sacrifice. At the point in which she and her friends are sought and suspected of witchery, Abigail's tactics take a swift turn. …show more content…
Abigail's lust-driven desires and thirst for power become evident early on in the film.
She begins to manipulate her friends with threats of violence, lying to judge and jury, and eventually sending a multitude of innocent people to their deaths. She shows no remorse for her actions, and seems to enjoy the hold of empowerment she has over her peers. Her ability to manipulate becomes so influential that a mere whisper of an accusation from Abigail and her group could send even the most well-respected townspeople to hang. Williams abuses this well, all in the name of her “love“ for John
Proctor. John Proctor, the hero of our play, is truthful, honorable, and morally-just. Upon first glance, we clearly see the infatuation Abigail has for this man, as he is handsome and righteous. Unfortunately, our main protagonist once held the same feelings Abigail now holds fervently for him. Proctor's lust for Williams had led to their affair, planting the seed of jealousy against his wife, which is the driving force of Abigail's actions during the film. As the trials unfold and Proctor becomes aware of Abigail's lies and manipulation, he knows he must speak up. We see the internal battle that takes place in John — whether or not he destroys his good name to put on end to Abigail's plans. Adultery would ruin his reputation among the townspeople, but these very same townspeople could be sent to their deaths if he doesn't put a stop to it.
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.
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
May it please the court, counsel, members of the jury; this is a case of conspiracy of the murder of Elizabeth Proctor. In the spring of the year 1692, Abigail Williams was accused of plotting the murder of Elizabeth Proctor.
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.
She does everything that is physically possible to get rid of her. She drinks a charm to kill Elizabeth, she stabs herself with a needle to accuse Elizabeth of a crime, Abigail also accuses Elizabeth of being a witch. The whole play, those were the only intentions that Abigail had, exterminate Elizabeth Proctor. Even though John decided to attempt to make the court look differently at Abigail and see what she has done to many people in the city of Salem. The misleading trait that Abigail has, helps her get out of a rocky situation without harm. The threatening of the girls, drinking a charm, stabbing herself with a needle, and accusing Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft are all the reasons that Abigail is also an evil individual. Abigail was the most misleading and evil character in the play written by Arthur Miller.
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
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.
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,
Abigail would tell John about his wife and say “she is blackening my name in the village; she is a cold sniveling woman”. (Miller 23-24) John tries to end the affair but Abigail will not let him go because she is in love with
For the case of Abigail Williams, she made use of the paranoia of the witchcraft trials to her advantage to carry out personal vengeance against Elizabeth Proctor. Firstly, she amplifies the townsfolk’s’ fear of the supernatural by pretending she was being attacked by witches. By pretending she was being attacked by an invisible bird sent out by Mary Warren (“why do you come, yellow bird?”) and accusing countless people of witchcraft, Abigail sows discord and fear amongst the staunch Puritian villagers, by making them suspicious of one another and addressing their fear of the unknown. She then manipulates their fear and paranoia to work to her advantage. Since act 1, the author has shown that Abigail has harboured a hatred of Elizabeth Proctor (“It’s a bitter woman, a lying, cold, sniveling woman”) partly because she was fired from the Proctors’ service, and maybe also because she wants John...
The play contained many scenarios of good versus evil, and the characters that generally possessed these feelings and intentions. But it must be understood that there were the intentions, the incentives, and then the actions taken out on a person or a group of people. Every character could either be placed in the intentions under good or bad intentions. After that, almost every character has mixed feelings of evil or good actions. The fight between the center of evil and the center of good is the foremost important of the points. Abigail Williams is the nucleus of all evil in the story. She is the one who triggers off this sense of hate in the play. She tempts Proctor into lechery, and commits unlawful acts which all are against the Puritan religion. To escape punishment for dancing, she deflects the actions and blames them on someone else, and does not care how many lives she ruins. Later when she grows into power and influence, she seems to enjoy sending these innocent people to their deaths. She takes pleasure in her lies, and thrives on the attention and power that they bring her. All these are the aspects of being the evil character, power, attention, and acts of wrongful doing. Therefore she can...
During this time, allegations of witchcraft were being raised and this resulted in the Salem Witch Trials. One of the main characters, Abigail Williams, is a driving force in the play as a strong antagonist. Because of her jealousy and lust for John Proctor, she is motivated to seek revenge and gain power by accusing others of witchcraft in the town of Salem. She first establishes power over the other women throughout the town by engaging in witchcraft and then placing the blame on others.