Between February 1692 until May 1693, there was a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. The result of the trials included over two hundred people accused and twenty deaths. Of all the accusers, Abigail Williams was the most responsible for the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail Williams had been involved in an affair between John Proctor and Elizabeth Proctor. Williams was removed from the Proctor house as soon as Elizabeth Proctor found out about the affair. Ever since this incident, Williams was jealous of Elizabeth. Throughout the entire play, The Crucible, Abigail tried doing anything she could to remove Elizabeth from John’s life. On page 19 Betty says, “You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!” …show more content…
Throughout all of the court hearings, if Abigail would say or do something all of the girls would follow her. If she would tell one of the girls to do something, they automatically did it without a question. In Act 3 on page forty three Mary Warren says, “I cannot, they’ll turn on me.” John Proctor wanted Mary Warren to turn Abigail in for lying but Mary Warren was too afraid of what Abigail and the other girls might do to her. In Act 1 on page twenty Abigail says, “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 a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know that I can do it." Abigail Williams only cared about herself and made the other girls fear her. Throughout the book and the movie, The Crucible, there are many reasons for why certain people got accused of witchcraft. Many innocent lives were lost during the Salem Witch Trials. Of the nine girls who accused people and other main characters in The Crucible, there is only one person responsible for the Crucible, Abigail
Every person in Salem was a normal person, non of them were really witches even if they confessed, but not all people were innocent. In “The Crucible” one character makes a very bad reputation for herself by starting what was known as the Salem witch trials. Abigail Williams was a young girl
Dark and sinister forces were going around Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Over twenty innocent people were found guilty of witchcraft and were sentenced to death. These sinister acts at the time were thought to be happening by witches, but the truth of the matter is that it was actually being caused by a girl named Abigail Williams, who was seeking her vengeance on the townspeople. The girl named Abigail Williams was a teenager who had been seen dancing in the forest with her friend Betty Parris. This was considered a crime back in the 1600’s and the punishment was whippings.
Abigail Williams, Deputy Governor Danforth , and Thomas Putnam are responsible for the people, who were wrongly convicted and hanged. These three characters were either looking for vengeance, looking for land, or too dimwitted to realize they were being conned. Hatred was walking in salem and people took their chances accusing their witnesses of being witches to get what they wanted. Abigail Williams was a teenage girl, who reeked vengeance on Elizabeth Proctor.
When John Proctor and Abigail got into an argument because he told her that he was through cheating on his wife with her, she used her power with the court to hurt him. She went to the court and told the judge that Elizabeth Proctor was haunting her and stabbed her in the stomach with a needle. When Elizabeth found out that she was accused, she cried to her husband “She thinks to kill me, then to take my place.” This had lead to John Proctor defending his wife and getting involved with the court. Later, this lead to John’s death and Elizabeth’s
Abigail Williams, the girl that started this trial, used the fear of others to get revenge against John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth. Abigail used to serve Proctor. They had an affair. Elizabeth found out and fired Abigail. Abigail wanted to get rid of Elizabeth.
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Miller introduces the idea, apparent in today’s world, that sometimes people blame others to save themselves from punishment through the characters’ actions and the asides from Miller. The most prominent character that displays this theme is Abigail Williams. Several times Abigail pushes the blame on others when she senses trouble. When Parris finds the girls dancing in the forest, Abigail knows she has to do something to avoid punishment.
During the late 17th century a total of 200 people were accused of participating in witchcraft, while 19 people lost their lives to the mass hysteria. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a group of girls start a huge uproar in Salem, Massachusetts when they start screeching about Salemites being associated with the Devil. Throughout the play write, it shows the consequences of mass hysteria and how it puts people's lives in danger. Abigail Williams causes a wave of mass hysteria and because of her trickery, innocent people have died by her and the other girl’s actions, for this Abigail is the most unforgivable character in The Crucible.
In the play, the Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Salem, Massachusetts was a place of constant hysteria in the 1600s because of what would come to be commonly known as the Salem Witch Trials. This was a full-blown witch hunt for people found to display signs of witchcraft. Abigail Williams was the main person to blame for this pursuit of witches in Salem because, first off, she was the one who caused hysteria about witchcraft just to cover up the fact that
In The Crucible, there could be many suspects to blame for the innocent deaths that happened in Salem. Proctor could be blamed for the innocent deaths because he lied about his affair with Abigail. Speaking of Abigail... in my opinion Abigail Williams is the one to blame for the innocent deaths because of the lies she told, the accusations she made, and the affair she had with John Proctor. Abigail Williams told many, many lies in The Crucible. The reason the witch trials began in the first place was because of the lie she told about being in the woods.
Abigail seeks vengeance after her affair with John Proctor. She is still madly obsessed with him. After John rejected her, she makes up lies in court in desperate attempt to get Goody Proctor hanged. She thinks if she gets rid of Goody Proctor she will be able to have John all to herself. One quote that supports this is “I do sir.
Abigail defies all judgements against innocence as she is the driven evil force in The Crucible. Arthur Miller shows Abigail Williams to instinctively defend herself, as it is the humane reaction when accused of wrongdoing. It is common to tell a lie but, the intention of sabotage is a different story. Abigail had many tricks up her sleeve to manipulate the court. Her purpose to convince the town of her innocence was one of many.
By examining the characters of the play, I believe that the three major characters who should be blamed the most for the witch trials are Abigail Williams,
Abigail believed that Proctor actually loved her and she waited every night for him. She was brainwashed to think he would leave his wife for her. The witchcraft accusation came from the beginning of the story when Abigail and the girls were dancing naked in the woods and chanting. She made false accusations that people in the village were worshipping the devil to cover what she had done. Many lives were taken but Abigail had no empathy for anyone who was hanged.
When Abigail is accused of witchcraft, she confesses and in order to take blame off of herself, she accuses many others as well. This sparks hysteria and conflict in the society that ends up costing people their lives. Many characters play a part in the outcomes in the story, however, some do so with more impact. Women in The Crucible are able to take power in their society as they find ways to influence and manipulate those in authority.
One common question about The Crucible is how Abigail Williams is the most evil force in the play. It is shocking when a girl talks back to authority out of disagreement, but few go as far as Abigail Williams. While she may only be 11 years old, her manipulative and vengeful personality allows her fool her Uncle and later turns a whole town against each other. She is really a master of manipulation and trickery, and she gets herself into affairs without punishment and has threaten all who oppose here. Abigail really is the devil in human form.