Sometimes there will be people who just seem to fit together flawlessly comparable to two dogs, but in the play it is like a cat being terrorised by a dog chasing it. In the play, The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller there are two contradictory characters. Elizabeth and Abigail are important characters who have opposite traits. Elizabeth is an extremely sweet and truthful women, and Abigail regularly tries to lie and be jealous. Throughout The Crucible Elizabeth and Abigail express truly opposite traits only to follow the theme of protecting their integrity. Elizabeth is truthful, meanwhile Abigail lies by making accusations of people both trying to keep good integrity. First, Elizabeth stays truthful when talking about Proctor possibly …show more content…
Although Elizabeth was not the best wife at some moments, she loved her husband so much that she lied for him. When questioned by Danforth if Proctor committed lechery she said faintly “No, sir” (Miller 113). Elizabeth lies for the first time to save her husband because she is loving and cares about him. Although Elizabeth is not truthful, she protects her values by doing what she feels is right for her husband. Abigail is revengeful throughout the play at Elizabeth. She accuses Elizabeth of casting a spell on her that caused her to be stabbed, but she really had stabbed herself. Abigail wants revenge on Elizabeth since she is in love with Proctor and Elizabeth is in the way justifying her ethics. In The Crucible Elizabeth is loving towards others unlike Abigail who revengeful. For the duration of The Crucible Elizabeth and Abigail express very contradictory traits following the theme of protecting their integrity. Elizabeth stays truthful, loving and forgiving in The Crucible. Unlike Elizabeth, Abigail lies numerous times, is jealous and revengeful. Elizabeth remains, the cat of the play constantly terrorised by Abigail's jealousy of wanting her
In Act Three of Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, John Proctor admits he has committed adultery with Abigail motivated in trying to save his wife, while his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, lies about why she kicked Abigail from their house to protect her and her husbands privacy. I feel as though John’s actions were justified and Elizabeth’s actions were not. John Proctor was trying to get the court to see Abigail was a terrible, unsaintly fraud in her claims of being witched. John tells the court that his wife, who has never told a lie, would concur to the affair accusations brought against Abigail. When brought into the court Elizabeth was questioned on why she had kicked Abigail out of their home and she replied in a manner that did not show
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams and John Proctor are known to have had an adulterous affair with one another. Even though both John Proctor and Abigail are worthy of blame for their actions, Abigail is the most culpable of the two. In The Crucible, Abigail is the most to blame because of her “tempting” Proctor to carrying out the act more. During Act 1, Abigail is shown to keep egging on Proctor although he does not want to have the affair with her anymore.
There are many reasons that could have cause Abigail to seek revenge and act out in such a way that put everyone’s life at potential risk. Abigail’s past has a lot to it, as revealed when Proctor visits Salem and runs into Abigail who expresses her anger and jealousy towards Elizabeth. When Betty and Ruth (who are also young girls) are supposedly diagnosed with the ‘devil being inside of them’, and people come to the conclusion that witchcraft has taken a negative impact on them, John Proctor ends up visiting Salem to figure out what is going on. As John Proctor is leaving the town of Salem, he runs into Abigail who is still looking for trouble.
In the play, “The Crucible” many innocent lives are taken because lies and deceit play a very broad role throughout the entire play. Some Salemnites fake to see spirits to cause others to fear the innocent and get their lives taken to please the fakers. A main character in the Crucible, Abigail Williams uses lying to get her way with the whole town, and to get revenge. Abigail has had an affair with John Proctor who is trying to rid all his sins because he is aware of all his wrongdoings. With Abigail and John’s actions Abigail has a strong connection with John and lies to try and get rid of his wife Elizabeth so her selfish self can have John to herself.
Abigail says to Proctor in Act I, “Oh, I marvel how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife be-,” then John cuts her off and says “You will speak nothin’ of Elizabeth!” (1270). In this Abigail is showing her anger to John about how he is now staying committed to his wife and trying his best to keep Abigail out of his life. When asked why Arthur Miller asked why he decided to make Abigail and John have an affair, he said he “…Could find no good reason why Abigail distinguished so vehemently between the guilt of a husband and a wife. So I took creative license with her character to make the connection between sexuality and politics more dramatic,” (Shmoop).
In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”, Abigail is most to blame in the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials is based on a period of time where the devil’s work has found its way into the Christian city of Salem, causing everybody accused of witchcraft to confess, or be hanged. Abigail, a teenage girl at the time, has fell madly in love with a man by the name of John Proctor. John is a married man, but in his past he has had an affair with Abigail which nobody knew of. Abigail’s immaturity shows throughout the story, along with major jealousy over Elizabeth Proctor, John’s wife.
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the setting is Salem, Massachusetts during the late 1600s where the town’s pious Puritan beliefs directly influence their government. A 17-year-old girl named Abigail Williams had an affair with John Proctor, a wealthy, married man. Abigail is told by John to move on but instead, Abigail starts accusing the townspeople of witchcraft, including John Proctor’s wife Elizabeth. As this hysteria begins to rise, other people such as Thomas Putnam, a rich landowner, start to also allege Salem villagers. In this play, the author illustrates the central idea that people should not allow jealousy to control their actions.
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.
Abigail finally sees the outturn of her lies she has made for what she wants. Proctor is hanged which she didn’t attend to do, but now pays the price. She also found out what lying can do “They’re pretending, Mr. Danforth... Mary, please don’t hurt me!.”(miller 120-121). Lying has made her corrupt and is used to persuade to make harm with.
Also, in attempt to tell the truth about Abigail, John Proctor admits to cheating on his wife with Abigail, but Elizabeth lets her fear assist her in lying. John Proctor tells everyone in the court, previous to Elizabeth arriving, “she [has] never lied” (III.891.). With everyone now knowing that she does not lie, it makes her trustworthy and believable. Deputy Danforth then brings Elizabeth in to confirm what
Likewise, when Elizabeth is brought before Danforth to verify Proctor’s confession, she lies to protect her husband, whom she refers to as a “goodly man,” from suspicion (Miller, 113). The affair may have caused Elizabeth to doubt Proctor but both parties still care deeply for each other and try to protect each other from harm. Even in his last moments, Proctor’s last words- “Show honor now, show a stony heart and sink them with it!”- were directed toward Elizabeth and were full of love and care (Miller, 144). Proctor may have sinned but his regret over his affair with Abigail and the trouble he had brought upon his wife justifies his
She is eighteen years old, she had an affair with a man named John Proctor, and she cannot be trusted. Abigail displays three character flaws: dishonesty, envy, and lust. Abigail displays dishonesty in the play because she lied about her and the other girls conjuring spirits in the woods. Abigail lied to her uncle and told him “It were sport uncle” (Miller 10 and 11) .Abigail ’s uncle questions her about why she was kicked out of Elizabeth
In the play The Crucible, character such as Abigail and Thomas Putnam seek revenge from others, so much so that it becomes and recurring theme throughout the play. The theme of revenge can best be shown through the characters Abigail Williams, Thomas Putnam, and Giles Corey. Abigail Williams, one of the main characters in the play, becomes one to the biggest contenders for the theme of revenge. It is revealed in the beginning of the play that Abigail has committed adultery with John Proctor. This becomes the root of the revenge because Abigail now thinks that “there is promise in such sweat.”
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.
Nicole Schaefer Mr. Becker American Literature October 29, 2014 Two Women for Two Different Worlds In the novel the crucible, Elizabeth, wife of John Proctor, and Abigail Williams, mistress of John Proctor are two main roles. Elizabeth, a woman who is loyal and true, or manipulative and ruthless liar, Abigail. She pretends to see spirits and commands the other girls to pretend as well.