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. …show more content…
However, by the end of the play the townspeople of Salem become skeptical about the accusations Abigail and the other girls have made. When Abigail sees how skeptical the town becomes, she steals money from her uncle and boards a ship headed for Barbados. Since Abigail is motivated by her need for power, her decision to falsely accuse innocent people of being witches creates tragedy and chaos by the end of the play. Abigail Williams’ motivation in the play The Crucible is her need for power. She uses her power to convince others into thinking certain townspeople are witches. She also uses power as a fear tactic. Abigail tells the girls, “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you … and bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.” (148). Abigail uses this power to make sure she is not deceived by any of the girls so she will not get in trouble for her actions in the woods the previous night. While in the court room one day, Marry Warren testifies against Abigail and the other girls, but when Abigail realizes that Judge Danforth and Hawthorne are starting to consider Mary’s testimony she begins to pretend there is a yellow bird on the rafters and says, “Oh, Mary, this is black art to change your shape. No, I cannot, I cannot stop my mouth; it’s God’s work I do.” (195). Abigail and the other girls are quick to make a scene about the bird on the rafter. Danforth and Hawthorne begin to ask Mary why she is casting her soul out into the yellow bird and tormenting the girls. This example shows Abigail’s influence over the court and her power to manipulate Danforth and Hawthorne’s views on Mary Warren. Over the course of The Crucible, Abigail sees how much power she is gaining and becomes power hungry. This causes Abigail to dig even deeper into the lie she has created. She knows the people of Salem believe her and they think by believing her they will get rid of all the suspected witches in the town. Abigail Williams makes many little decisions that affect her outcome, but one major action she commits affects her outcome the greatest. Throughout the play Abigail lies about the dishonest accusations she and the girls make, instead of telling the truth and facing the consequences. A great example of this is when Abigail, Tituba, Reverend Paris, the Putnams, Betty, Reverend Hale, and all the other girls are upstairs in Reverend Paris’ house and all at once Abigail begins to shout, “ I saw Goody Sibber with the Devil!” (162). Abigail knows this woman is innocent but yet she accuses her anyway to save herself from the punishment she is set to receive. Abigail’s decision to lie and influence others is another major action that also affects her outcome in the play. Abigail becomes so encompassed by the lying and manipulation that she gets too caught up in it and does not see how she is affecting people’s lives and the town. When the townspeople start to become skeptical of her allegations she decides to leave town for Barbados. This example relates to the first one because in both Abigail’s decision to lie makes her run away from punishment instead of facing the consequences for lying about the witches in Salem. In the beginning of The Crucible, Abigail Williams is a nice, kind, seventeen year old orphan girl.
As the play goes on Abigail shows the viewers a different side of her. Abigail begins this lying phase and thinks nothing bad will come of it, but what she does not know is that she will completely change by the end of the play. Her choices to lie and falsely accuse innocent people of being witches make her realize what kind of power she holds in town. This action causes Abigail to become manipulative and cunning. Abigail realizes the only way she can keep herself out of trouble is to continue with this story, but by doing so she digs herself even deeper into becoming an even better liar. The audience also finds out that Abigail is a thief when Reverend Paris tells Judge Danforth, “Thirty-one pound is gone. I am penniless.” (203). In this conversation Paris tells Danforth that Abigail stole his money and left town. By the end of the play, Abigail becomes a thief, liar, manipulator, and cares about herself more than
others. Since Abigail Williams is motivated by her need for power, her decision to falsely accuse people of witchcraft causes chaos and tragedy by the end of the play. Her motivation of the need for power causes her to get caught up in lying and manipulation, and by the end of the play she goes from an innocent, teenage girl to a deceitful, cunning person who cares only about herself.
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.
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.
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:
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 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.
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 under the gender stereotypes present in Salem at this point in history. Of the many plotlines Miller follows, Abigail and John’s affair is the most relevant to this keynote. In Act I, when John and Abigail have a private exchange in Betty’s room, Abigail pleads with John for his affection, imploring, “Give me a word, John.
Abigail Williams is manipulative and wants everything to go her way. She is the main character and causes trouble everywhere she goes. The Salem Witch Trials is about hearings and prosecutions of people who were accused of witchcraft. In The Crucible Abigail is a no good villain. Abigail first commits adultery with Elizabeth’s husband. Later on Abigail begins to accuse innocent people of doing witchcraft which causes them to die. Abigail Williams uses the Salem Witch Trials to put out all the resentment she has toward everyone.
the town. Abigail doesn't want anyone to find out that she was in the forest so
Her ability to lie, her outspokenness and developing sexuality, is unlawful against the Puritan views and deemed as evil. If convicted of the acts she has committed, including her apparent interaction with the Devil, she would face severe consequences. But to avoid this, Abigail realizes that through deceiving innocence she can control and manipulate murderous acts to save herself and her reputation. This was a new opportunity for her to expand her rule over the town. Controlling the young girls around her, Abigail uses her newfound sense of power to manipulate the group in fear. Driving them to aid her accusations, she uses them in the court to prove her claims. Abigail quickly strikes fear into the girls when she begins to hit and threaten the girls screaming, “And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the 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 you a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” (Miller 19). By threatening the girls, Abigail easily frightens them enough to do her bidding. Using fear to her advantage is evil and this act of manipulation only furthers her antagonism. Abigail now has the ability to use facades and delusion with the loyalty of the other girls, to convince the people that it is not her conjuring spirits, but others in the town attacking
In the first act of The Crucible, Abigail states that she did not see the Devil (Miller 40) However, as the story progresses her tale changes along with her behavior. When the reverends, Hale and Parris, questions Abigail and the other girls about their predicament of being bewitched. Abigail spins this elaborate lie that the witches in Salem casts their spirits upon the girls in an attempt to do the Devils bidding. Abigail accuses innocent people and authority threatens the victims with death if they do not agree to admitting that they are indeed a witch, therefore nineteen members of society is killed, Parris states, " You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to your death, Tituba (Miller 42). Causing fear and panic to arise among the town and the vital question of who will be next? The girls then start accusing town members who were outliers and then begin delving within the community spreading lies and fear among the towns
Abigail is wicked and confident and is not afraid to take control of situations. This is shown when she is with Parris, Abigail is respectful on the surface but she hides her resentment and disrespect. She talks back to defend her name and in Act One, she suggests to Parris," Uncle, the rumour of witchcraft is all about; I think you'd best go down and deny it yourself." She is also aggressive and forceful, the other girls are afraid of her. When Mary Warren suggested that they should confess to dancing in the woods. Abigail threatens them,."..I have seen some reddish work done at night and i can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!"
The witch hunt in the crucible is initiated when Abigail and her friends fear the consequences of their ‘dancing’ in the forest. This connects to McCarthyism as the HUAC is represented by the judges and the ‘accuses’ (the girls) are representatives of Elia Kazan and others like him. The theocratic society of Salem is what the girls fear as the forest is seen as the devils resting place and the puritan nature of the town forbid dancing as it was seen as ‘vain enjoyment’ which as Miller himself states at the beginning of the novel to not be allowed. The character of Mary Warren begs the girls to just admit they were dancing as “…you’ll only be whipped for dancin’…”, but as Abigail is questioned and Parris mentions the kettle and how he believed “…there to be some movement- in the soup…”, the devil becomes prominent in the conversation. This is due to Abigail fearing that she will be blamed for devil worshipp...
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
In Act One alone, Abigail is seen as a lady like young woman, a caring
The Salem Witch looked to be so innocent, because of this she had everyone fooled. Abigail Williams went through a hard time, which gave the illusion of her innocence. Abigail should be the one held accountable for all imprisonments and execution of all the innocent people, because she lied her way through the witch trials so she could get what she wanted, and her biggest reason was to get John Proctor.