Pointing the fingers at Abigail Williams
Many people were put to death in Salem due to the evil lies that were caused by hysteria. In The Crucible, by Author Miller, many poor, innocent villagers were wrongly accused of witchcraft and quickly put to death. The character most responsible for the Salem Witch Trials and the deaths thereafter was Abigail Williams because she must always be the center of attention, she is selfish, and a threatening human being. To begin with, Abigail always must be the center of attention since the very beginning and, the type of person that she only thinks about themselves and, not about anyone else or if they do their jumping to conclusion saying how it wasn’t them when it was. Abigail seems to do this
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. . . I want the light of God; I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him, I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osborn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!’’ (Abigail 1039) this is a way that she wants people to feel sorry for her.
Furthermore, there was an affair between Abigail and John Proctor that makes her become very selfish knowing that all Abigail want’s is John Proctor. ’You love me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet! John, pity me, pity me’’ (Abigail 484) she’s trying to convince him to love her but it seems that it’s not going to happen and Abigail still doesn’t understand especially since Proctor is a married man as well as she would do anything to be with him. Proctors wife is in jail and his friends. Afterwards Abigail threatens 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 in the black of some terrible night and, I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you’’ (Miller 408) this is caused when Abigail and the other girls were dancing in the woods around the fire it seems as if they were doing some type of witchcraft but many don’t believe this since there are so many girls that are having to follow whatever Abigail says since she is always threatening them in some way. Doesn’t want to be accused or blamed for these
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Second to last why Abigail is the most responsible is the affair that she has with John Proctor this makes her a very selfish person knowing that he is a married man an she will do anything just to be with him based on a quote above. Many people in the village they were being wrongly accused of witchcraft and quickly put to death when several of them did absolutely nothing wrong or the might have believed that you’re going witchcraft if you acted a certain way or Sayed something that they didn’t like you were put to jail when it should have been Abigail and the girls behind her all along. I truly believed that they believed that there was nothing wrong with them but were too afraid to tell the truth due to Abigail threatening them an this is a major crime that they are doing as well as it caused so many people to die over absolutely nothing only that it was Abigail’s idea in the first place an she loves all this attention that she is receiving from all of the villagers that she didn’t receive by her uncle but really she did letting her have a place to live. Even though you dance around the fire and, your uncle saw what you were going an kept it a secret from the court because he loves you an
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.
Death Over Shame Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is about the Salem Witch Trials which took place in the Puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts in the late 1600s. The story revolves around how Abigail Williams led one lie avalanche into the executions of innocent people, including John Proctor, who was the one person Abigail truly cared for. The Puritans were very superstitious as they were devoted to their religion, and this leads to them being gullible with Abigail’s lies when they are all just to cover up her wrongdoings. All the conflict in the court started when a group of young girls, including Abigail, were found dancing in the woods. Abigail cannot afford to have her name tarnished so she starts accusing other people for witchcraft.
The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. It was such a massive, bizzare occurance that logically, something or someone should be blamed for the start of it. Although it is one of America’s most showing cases of mass hysteria, there had to have been many other causes for the tragic ending. Salem’s tragic ending in The Crucible was clearly caused by an abundance of factors, but the two most weighty were Abigail Williams and the idea of reputation in Salem. Abigail Williams is very much to blame for the tragic ending in Salem for many reasons.
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.
There are several people who can be responsible for the evilness occurring during the Salem witch trials of 1692. Due to false accusations, innocent people are being arrested and killed, and the community is in a state of chaos and disorder. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller demonstrates that it is Abigail’s flaws-lust, dishonesty, and jealousy- that lead her to be guilty for the tragedy of the witch-hunts in Massachusetts. During the seventeenth century, Abigail Williams has the reputation of being an intelligent, yet manipulative woman who has single-handedly started the Salem witch trials.
Abigail single-handedly destroyed the Proctor’s relationship as husband and wife and let innocent people hang from crimes they did not commit. The Salem witchcraft trials that took place around that time is why America’s judiciary system is like how it is today. One’s actions and words can ultimately change the way the government rules in the court forever. These policies that are now intact today are all because of Abigail Williams, the character in the play, The Crucible, which is based on a true
Abigail Williams: The First True Witch of Salem, Massachusetts “Controlled hysteria is what’s required. To exist constantly in a state of controlled hysteria. It’s agony. But everyone has agony. The difference is that I try to take my agony home and teach it to sing” (Arthur Miller, AZ Quotes).
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.
In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Miller demonstrated that it was Abigail William’s flaws: lust, vengeance, and jealously that led her to be responsible the most for the tragedy of the witch hunts in Salem. Abigail Williams started the entire suspicion of there being active member of witchcraft throughout Salem, Massachusetts. She did this for her own benefits and used trickery to get what she wanted. Abigail was corrupt and only cared for her own desires. There are many reasons that these flaws are crucial to the outcome of the play.
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.
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,
She is the most to blame for the actions made and the deaths that took place in Salem. The affair John and Abigail had caused her to fall hard for him. She has it set in her mind that she will go to unbelievable measures to try and get Elizabeth Proctor out of the picture so she can be with John. Abigail is found dancing in the woods with the other girls at night.
Abigail was very cruel, she basically forced her friends to be a part of the big lie she was making up about the witches. She threatened to murder them if they said anything. In her attempts to get with John Proctor she eventually failed, but a while after she still wanted to be with him and even accused John’s wife for witchcraft. When her friend Mary Warren attempted to tell the truth, Abigail started acting like Mary was a witch.
Abigail accused many innocent people of witchcraft and she also told lies about the people she thought were witches. She made her accusations very believable for the judges to put innocent people to death. In conclusion, I say Abigail Williams was the most to blame for the events of the Salem Witch Trails. Her character flaws of dishonesty, envy, and lust costed many innocent people their lives and left survivors of the Salem Witch Trails wretched
Abigail and the society itself are to blame for the events in Salem causing murder and outrage in this town. Abigail is the character mainly to blame for the outrage in Salem. She is a liar, double faced hypocrite that will stop at nothing to get herself out of the mess that she created. Making her one of the main killers of these innocent puritan people.