Abigail The Victim In the Crucible many are to blame for the events that occurred, but one of the one’s who seems to take blame the most is Abigail Williams. She holds most of the responsibility because she was to blame for the girls meeting with Tituba in the woods. When Parris located the girls in the woods, Abigail tries to hide her behavior because she fears that it will uncover her affair with Proctor if she confesses that she attempted to cast a spell on his wife, Elizabeth. Abigail also lies to avoid being punished for witchcraft. The Puritans would have treated her in the harshest of manners in they ever discovered to truth to her crimes. Abigail strays the attention away from herself by accusing others of witchcraft. This desperate …show more content…
The church shares experiences from the bible that the community relates to and expects the Puritans to act as though they were written in the bible themselves. Thus, a sermon serves as a tool to teach a biblical lesson, and the theocratic government reinforces the precepts from the sermon. “At any rate, very few Indians were converted, and the Salem folk believed that the virgin forest was the Devil’s last preserve, his home base and the citadel of his final stand.”(1.10). The narrator tells us why the forest is important to the people of Salem because this is the place where Abigail accuses Betty and the other girls of witchcraft. The forest was “evil” and the fact that the girls were doing the unspeakable act of dancing made the crime much more serious than before. “The Salem tragedy… developed from a paradox… Simply, it was this: for good purposes, even high purposes, the people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together...”(1.15) The Puritans religion also acted as their government so when the girls did an “unholy” act the Puritans felt they must be condemned lawfully for it. The citizens religious violations would result in
Out of all the characters in the book, there are many that contributed to the hysteria of the witch trials, however, of these characters Abigail Williams contributed the most. In the beginning of the play, we see Abigail and a collection of other girls dancing and making a charm in the woods. Abigail made this charm in order to kill Mr.Proctor 's wife. If Abigail wasn 't so crazy in love with John this scene in the woods probably wouldn 't have taken place. Therefor, Parris would have never caught the girls and there wouldn’t be rumours of witchcraft.
Abigail uses the fact that every person shes accused has been a witch to secure her position as a trust worth witness in court. As seen when the suspension is raised to her, Abigail says, “I have been hurt, Mr. Danforth; I see my blood running out! I have been near to murdered every day because I have done my duty pointing out the Devil’s people -- and this is my reward? To be mistrusted, denied, questioned like a --” (113). She uses the fact that there is a perceived danger in callout witches as one can try to kill her because they feel threated or that she 's been hurt by witchcraft when it was just self-inflicted wounds.
Abigail is extremely concerned with her well-being and reputation. In Act One, Reverend Parris confronts Abigail about dancing in the forest, and, instead of confessing, she begins denouncing others. This illustrates how she is willing to allow others to be harmed because of her extreme fear. One example of this is when Abigail states, “Not I sir—Tituba and Ruth” (Miller 15). The character of the residents of Salem is not exceptional.
In The Crucible, Arthur Miller shows that truth does not concern the people of Salem; the townspeople are concerned with what they want the truth to be. The idea of witchcraft has plagued Salem, several girls including Tituba and Abigail have confessed to practicing witchcraft. Salem is relying on Abigail and her friends to tell the truth, they do not know that there is no thing as witchcraft. Proctor presents himself to the court to testify against Abigail, the court dose not listen because Danforth and the other court members are concerned with preserving the reputation of the court. While Abigail uses lies to protect her reputation, Proctor uses the truth.
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.
Adolescent minds are the most intelligent kind of mind. A young brain is filled with creativity, imagination and innocence. Though the thought process of a teen is assumed to be selfish there are other factors involved. A combination of these characteristics seems almost dangerous. One would undermine a juvenile to use these qualities to manipulate the court for their own selfish wishes or pleasures.
What does it mean to be a victim of society? A victim of society can more or less be defined as someone who is harmed by their surrounding environment. However, being a victim of society is not nearly as it seems as people may easily play the victim in order to manipulate others, and that scenario holds true in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. In this play, a crisis regarding the question of witchcraft is introduced in late eighteenth century Salem, a town ruled by a theocracy of predominantly Puritan beliefs. The dilemma first emerges when Betty, the daughter of Reverend Parris, the minister of Salem, is in almost a persistent vegetative state after having danced in the forest with Abigail Williams, Parris’s niece, and other girls within the
In the book that handle is known as “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, goes into detail about what happened in the Salem WItch trials in the duration of 1692. Miller used the Red Scare as motivation to write the book. In the book Abigail and some of her friends are dancing in the woods, when Mr. Parris ( her uncle) catches them. At this point Betty, Mr. Parris daughter and Abigail’s cousin, faints.
Society as a whole seeks to satisfy themselves. This may be at the expense of their peers or individuals they are associated with. Arthur Miller brilliantly displays this dark side of humanity’s side in his play The Crucible. This play is based on the Salem witch trials in the early 1690s. During the Salem witch trials over two hundred people were accused of witchcraft and twenty were executed.
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.
The Puritans ran from persecution but then used the witch hunt to persecute innocent people based on the word of the women and men who had ulterior motives. The women used this opportunity to punish people they long had problems or resentment for. These women- Abigail, Tituba, and Mary- were aware of the power they felt when they were being heard by people in their community who were deemed Godly, upstanding citizens. So, they loved the sense of power they felt. Although the townspeople of Salem used religion as the reason for the witch hunt, the witch hunt created chaos because people started using it a revenge mechanism.
Although Abigail Williams does not physically appear in Act 2, her presence is felt throughout The Crucible. She affects and hurts the lives of her family. She is the main source of trouble. If she wants something, she'll get it. At the beginning, there is a lot of closeness between her and the proctor family.
I do not agree with Ryder's assessment of Abigail. Initially, I think Abigail is selfish and is doing everything for herself so that she can have John Proctor. Abigail says, specifically, "oh, I marvel how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife be -." The quote supports what I think because Abigail wants John. Another one is, she started blaming other people to keep from getting whipped.
The witch trials in Salem occurred because of Abigail and it is her fault. She started something she could not finish and by starting it killed many innocent people and ruined many reputations. Abigail is at blame because she was the one who is basically the "psycho girlfriend" who is obsessed with her ex. But because she is desperately in love with John Proctor, she is willing to do anything to have him all to herself. Just like how she drank a chicken blood charm to kill Elizabeth, which is against her religion.
This sparks rumors about witchcraft within the town of Salem, as everyone looks toward the girls involved in the forest incident for an answer. Abigail Williams, Parris’s niece and another girl who danced in the forest, begins to take