What Does Abigail Williams Represent In The Crucible

Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953. Miller wrote The Crucible because he had a story to tell. Miller was a political advocate against the inequalities of race in America. He was a target for Senator McCarthy. Miller was called to the House of Committee on an un-American activities which triggered him to write about the witch trials. The fanaticism resigned in Salem was nothing compared to McCarthy’s hunt for communists. Witchcraft is the practice of and belief in magical skills and abilities in pact with the devil. Crucible is a container used in the process of heating and melting metals which separates the valuable ones from the less valuable metals. Crucible can also mean in a situation in which people/things are severely tested. The title of Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible is symbolic of both these terms. In Act 1 of the play, Abigail Williams was the person who was most responsible for the pandemonium in Salem about witchcraft.

She was so desperate to rekindle her romance with John Proctor but he would not. She hated Elizabeth, his wife. John Proctor even told her that although he cared for her “...I will cut off my hands before I’ll ever reach for you again.” (page 23) She was spiteful and therefore accused his wife of witchcraft. Abigail intimidated the other girls and threatened them. She even told Mary, “Envy is a deadly sin”, as if she thought she was envious of her. She grew up without any love or nurturing plus experienced a traumatic event ( her parents killing) so it explains why she is the way she is. She pretended to see spirits and instructed the other girls to do so. “Let either of you breathe a word...about the other things and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night…..” (page 113) She uses their fear of her actually knowing witchcraft to keep them