Persecution Of Abigail Williams In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

The world is full of standards. There are standards for math, standards for science, and social standards as well. Standards keep the world intact and provide different expectations for people all around the world. However, through society’s standards, people hold personal standards for themselves and others around them. In The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, each character differs from one another in their viewpoints concerning their social and religious standards in their puritan environment.

Prior to the early action in the play the only besmirching of Abigail’s name are the rumours of her secret relationship with John Proctor and this sparks conflict between her and Goody Proctor. “You are now seven month out of their house, and in all this time no other family has ever called for your service.” (Reverend Parris Act1 P.20) The conflict between her and Elizabeth destroyed her reputation as a house maid. This expresses how much a good reputation is for this time as one mistake that may not even be true can “soil” (Reverend Parris Act1 P.20)

Even the children of the Parris house are treated as young adults due to Reverend Parris’ parental apathy. As Abigail is forced, due to her circumstances, to live under his roof she must endure the lack of necessities she had needed after so much adversity in her life. The forcing the live in a Reverend of a Puritan church in a Puritan community may have been something that was too forceful for her to handle. The daily habits of the members of the community created such a dull life that in her perception was most likely overwhelming with emptiness and forced belief that she did not tolerate. Her emotional state along with the environment she lived in led to symptoms of insanity along with an insatiable hunger for

During ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller, a story about the Salem witch trials in early American colonies, people constantly fight over what they believe is right as well as their personal authority. Throughout the story, the thought that people will abuse the sometimes small bit of authority that they have is prominent, one case being how Abigail and how she affects the trials. In many cases this authority also affects the capacity of independent thought throughout the colonies at the time much like the laws set in place that require the population to be Christian. Abigail, the daughter of parris, is a major part of the abuse of authority throughout the play and this is primarily due to the fact that she is the niece of the town reverend, Parris.

She is self-centered, sneaky, eager, anxious about no one else but himself, and absence of redeemable qualities. Parris was concerned about his reputation because, "He was terrified if people thought he had witchcraft in his household and he will lose his position as minister of Salem: PARRIS, studies her, then nods, half convinced: Abigail, I have fought here three long years to bend these stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my very character. I have given you a home, child. I have put clothes upon your back—now give me an upright answer. Your name in the town—it is entirely white, is it not?

She lies” to Judge Danforth. Abigail then turns on Mary and with

Three Reasons why Abigail, John, and Reverend Parris are to Blame for the Commotion Within Arthur Miller's Crucible During the Cold War between 1947-1991, immense amounts of tension arose between the two superpowers of the world: The United States and the Soviet Union. With the Rapid introduction of Nuclear weapons by the U.S. in WWII, the Soviet Union quickly attained their own weapons of catastrophe. Thus, these two looming superpowers, for over 50 years, sat trembling under the threat of the other. During these years of torrent, intense rumor came about over the fact that there might possibly be Soviet sympathizers within the U.S. gathering intel for the Soviets benefit.

Subsequently, by Abigail forcing her friends to accuse other innocent people, those innocent people then accused other innocent people so they wouldn’t get hanged, which all started with the girls dancing in the woods. Therefore, Abigail could have stopped all the craziness by taking a whipping and getting the reputation of dancing in the woods but instead she created the horrific event of The Salem Witch Trials. Moreover, if Abigail and the other girls honestly confessed that they were dancing in the woods and drank a charm in addition to not accusing anyone there would not be a fear of witchcraft in Salem and no need to accuse uninvolved individuals and later provoke their deaths. Thus, if there is not a fear of witchcraft there would not be such an extensive amount of people accused of witchcraft who are jailed and

Imagine living in a small town where your voice is not heard, and your life does not matter. The crucible bu Arthur Miller, tells a story about many young women who have been accused with witchcraft. Many innocent people were accused and killed while the group of people who actually attempted witchcraft were set free. In the crucible we see that Abigail Williams is a manipulative and selfish young women, who blames other people to cover up on her lies and mistakes.

To be mistrusted, denied, questioned like a..” She even threatens the judge so he will stop questioning her about pointing out Devil’s people that are very crazy to do that to the “JUDGE”. Abigail is very controlling because she gets into people’s mind and threatens the people to get what she

(2.437). Mary Warren clasps respect in the court, holding evidence for several of the prosecutions. Nevertheless, Proctor lurks behind her with his even higher power, and he threatens and even forces her to use her respect to turn the courts to agree with his view. Similarly, Abigail wins an utmost amount of authority in the court and works to become a model of goodness and purity, with all prosecuting decisions practically falling directly upon her. Despite her well formed facade, her uncle lurks behind her, consistently striking fear into her to remain in the position of holding ultimate religious and social power in Salem.

Abigail’s actions were mainly the result of the affair she had with John Proctor. Because John Proctor rejected her she felt like used and hurt, Abigail also pretended to be angry with Elizabeth, saying to Proctor “She is blackening my name in the village!

In a small village called Salem, witchcraft and sorcery exist, however everyone is pointing fingers but not a single soul knows who is actually to blame for this nonsense. During this time period of hysteria, there are multiple scenes that are very questionable due to one person and one person only. Abigail is the one most responsible for the hysteria and witchcraft in Salem. She threatens the group of girls that accompanied her in the woods while they all danced. She has also lied about many things on multiple occasions in which causes an extreme amount of suspicion.

The Crucible At the beginning of The Crucible, Reverend Parris discovers the girls meeting with Tituba in the woods. In that moment, Abigail tries to conceal her behavior so that her affair with Proctor will be kept secret if she confesses to having cast a spell on Elizabeth Proctor. In order to avoid severe punishment for being convicted of witchcraft, she diverts the attention away from herself by accusing others of witchcraft. This desperate act of self-preservation shortly becomes Abigail’s primary source of power. Abigail is evidently the villain of the play, more so than Parris or Danforth.

Thirdly, throughout the play Judge Danforth is gullible to Abigail’s manipulations and lies. One of the instance where Danforth’s gullibility towards Abigail is shown is when Abigail blatantly accuses Reverend Hale’s wife to be in alliance with Lucifer (The Crucible) to which he replies that “it is not possible for a minister’s wife to be associated with the devil” (the crucible). Here Abigail is proven wrong by Judge Danforth because he is certain that a minister’s family can never be approached by the devil as per the commandments. Despite this, he chooses to believe that Abigail has probably mistaken to identify the woman associated with Lucifer. This shows that he totally believes in Abigail and that, all her previous accusations are valid.