The Crucible Abigail was a corrupt, cynical, and dishonest character throughout the Salem witch trials. She accused innocent people of the community of Salem of being witches. Most of the time she did this in seek of revenge on the people, but other times she did it so that she wouldn’t get caught for lying. Abigail was not a very old character she was 14-18 years old and still single.
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.
Abigail was the one who was saying that Elizabeth made her go in the woods in the early time of the morning and dance around a fire and sing. Elizabeth didn’t make her dance or sing around a fire because she wasn’t there. Tituba was the one who made the fire and who started singing and dancing. Abigail got under the pressure and she’s the one who took her clothes off and started dancing and singing around the fire and wouldn’t stop.
The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, focuses on the town of Salem, Massachusetts, during the deplorable witch trials revolving around the 1600's. Within these trials, there were multiple accusations that were made about who was really involved in the witch trials, many of the characters who were falsely and baselessly accused were innocent. The falsification that were created by the main character of The Crucible, Abigail Williams were only for her own benefit to protect herself from being accused as one of the “witches” or had she had been there in the forest the night there was witchcraft . For example, in (Act 1.Scene 3)ABIGAIL: She sends her spirit on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayer! ABIGAIL:
Many people in Salem know the length Abigail will go to in order to protect herself and her lies. Planning to speak out about the Abigails plan to ruin Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor receives warning from Mary Warren to proceed with caution when dealing with Abigail. Mary Warren warns Proctor, “ She’ll ruin you with, it I know she will”(Miller 503). Willing to ruin her own reputation and honor, Abigail threatens Proctor to keep him silent. If Proctor speaks out about Abigail pretending in court, it will bring Abigail’s credibility to be questioned.
Have you ever heard the saying that, “you cannot turn a whore into a housewife”? That is exactly what Abigail Williams wanted John Proctor to do. Abigail, mistress of John, tried her best to use her lying, manipulating, and whore-like ways to get herself out of trouble; not only with John, but all throughout the community. She constantly displayed her despicable ways all during the whole play. Most of all, Abigail was a liar; all within the play, she revealed all of her lying ways.
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.
Accusing people in the town in Act 1 page 15 Abigail uses the opportunity to divert. Blame from herself to Tituba, then to Ruth. In Act 2 Abigail states that Elizabeth Proctors The “Familiar” came to her and stabbed her in the stomach with a pin. Abigail them produces the the bloody pin and shows the wound she quotes “And demandin’ of her.
Twenty people were executed two hundred were accused of witchery when in reality it never happened. That was the result of the 1692 salem witch trials of massachusetts Clearly the people of salem made some mistakes. But who was to blame? Were they honest mistakes or were they power driven or done out of greed and lies and the result of old grudges or the mentality of three individuals and the mob that followed them.
Through her false accusations, Abigail stirred up hysteria among the villagers, resulting in an escalating cycle of paranoia and suspicion. Despite feeling remorse for the chaos caused by her lies, Abigail ultimately stands by them until the very end of the movie. For example, Abigail started the witch trial in The Crucible by fabricating stories of witchcraft. She spread rumors that she and other girls had been attacked by witches, leading to a wave of paranoia and suspicion among the villagers. When questioned about her lies, Abigail used manipulation tactics to convince the court
Abigail lies through out the play to save herself. Her dishonesty is proven in this sentence, “No one was naked! You mistake yourself, uncle!” (Miller 9). Abigail lies to her uncle about no one was naked, when really there was.
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.
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
Lately there have been accusations of witchcraft going throughout Salem. Originally, I was part of the cause of these accusations. I did anything Abigail told me to do and kept it a secret that we did more than dance the night we were caught in the woods. If I were to tell the truth about everything that happened, Abigail has promised to bring harm to me, but if I keep her secret, innocent people could be unnecessarily executed. I have thought over and over about what I should do when I go in front of the judge.
In Judith Shklar’s well known 1989 essay, The Liberalism of Fear, Shklar analyzes her view on political liberalism. In other words, Judith believes that liberalism has only one potential purpose/goal. Judith Shklar mentions how the goal for liberalism is to ultimately fix the political conditions which is significant for personal freedom. Using this idea, Judith Shklar further demonstrates her views on liberalism by comparing liberalism of fear and other types of liberalism in her essay ( such as John Locked John Stuart Mill) . Judith Shklar believes that John Locke’s liberalism of natural rights is simply an attempt to fulfill an determined standard order “The liberalism of natural rights envisages a just society composed of politically sturdy citizens, each able and willing to stand up for himself and others” (26-27).
