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Abigail Williams And Elizabeth Proctor In The Crucible

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“The Crucible” is a 1953 play criticizing the events of the Salem witch trials that happened in 1692. Many characters betray each other for selfish reasons. This play is a metaphor for the Red Scare where many Americans were accused of being spies. Arthur Miller uses guilt to show Salem’s disloyalty and backstabbing ways. As characters begin to feel guilty, they lie. Miller suggests that guilt can make people go to extreme lengths only to save themselves. Between the two characters Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor, Miller is showing that guilt brings out selfish habits of a character.
Elizabeth Proctor is an honest and smart woman married to John Proctor. Throughout this play we have seen Elizabeth as being forgiving and loving. For example, Proctor had cheated on her and had an affair with Abigail. Elizabeth was very angry at this but then forgave Proctor. Although Elizabeth’s actions are normally calm, Miller shows how guilt changes her actions. Elizabeth had realized she is at fault and had lied to save her husband from being hung. “Look at me! To your own knowledge, has John Proctor ever committed the crime of lechery? Answer my question! Is your husband a lecher!” said Danforth. Elizabeth …show more content…

Abigail and Elizabeth are two different characters with different personalities but Miller criticized how they both do selfish things when they are guilty. Elizabeth lied to save her husband when telling the truth would have helped the town. Abigail also lied to get herself out of a certain situation like with the accusations and the scene in the court. Both of these characters motivation, John Proctor, drove them to the extreme to earn the man they both love. These two characters did not like each other, in fact Abigail was screaming in the woods “death to goody Proctor.” Elizabeth saw Abigail as a liar and vengeful girl who did not deserve a man like

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Abigail and Elizabeth as Foils In the play, The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, the two main female characters are foils. They are opposites in the way they love, lie, and live. Elizabeth Proctor is married to John Proctor and Abbigail Williams had an affair with John Proctor. They both love John and are attracted to him but in very different ways.

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What role did repressing women play in creating the Salem Witch Trials in Puritan society? Repression of women by the church in Puritan society lead to the women wanting power. The church was the powerhouse of the Puritan society, so if you were to get in trouble with the church you would be banished or hanged. Also, getting in trouble with the church could cost you your spot in heaven. Keeping women and young girls from the bulk of society and power made them seek power and rebellion.

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Elizabeth Proctor is good wife with all kindness, moral and upright assembling in her personality. The only weakness of her is cold and indifferent emotion, and it is kind of the indirect cause of John Proctor’s affair with their housekeeper, Abigail Williams. Then she’s got a good reason to be kind of distant and suspicious. “You were alone with her? Why, then, it is not as you told me.

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A lesson that can never taught enough is to be careful of what you say about others. Miller demonstrates this with the characters of Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams, they are foil characters, meaning they are polar opposites and bring out the worst in each other. Elizabeth is a strong Christian woman who doesn 't hardly hold a grudge against anyone, always tells the truth, and is selfless. Abigail however is full of hate and revenge, lies to get what she wants, and thinks she runs the town of Salem during the trials. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play set in the 1600’s in the puritan village of Salem, Massachusetts.

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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.

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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

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Abigail is willing to accuse any one in her path of witchcraft even if it means taking the lives of those close to her. Abigail Williams’ emotional desire guides her actions even if it conflicts with morality. Abigail williams is driven to do unthinkable things because of her love for John Proctor. Abigail works in the Proctor’s home and while doing so she finds herself attracted to John. Abigail’s obsession with Proctor leads them to have an affair, which they try to keep

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She is jealous, and thinks that John Proctor loves her because of the affair, so now Elizabeth’s life is on the line. Also, Abigail blames Mary Warren of witchcraft because she confessed and told the judge that the girls had never been taken over witchcraft, but to cover Mary’s story. They made it seem like Mary sent her “evil spirit” to attack her and the other girls. Everything Mary said they mimicked, howling and screaming. And that's another reason why Abigail’s lies “seems” to be so

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John Proctor’s words towards Elizabeth signal irritation and annoyance. John Proctor, the main character of The Crucible, has an affair with a much younger girl, Abigail Williams, breaking his wife, Elizabeth’s trust in him. Her suspicion of him rises when he tells her he was in a room alone with Abigail. Elizabeth’s growing mistrust begins to aggravate John, which is revealed when he says, “I’ll not have your suspicion any more” (489). Elizabeth is doubtful after learning about John’s affair with Abigail and her lack of trust in her husband begins to anger him.

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Abigail is jealous of everyone but mostly Elizabeth Proctor. She yells at John saying, “She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! She is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her! Let her turn you like a –” (Miller 24).

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Throughout the play, Elizabeth seems to be struggling to forgive her husband and let go of her anger. But towards the end, she learns to forgive Proctor for his mistakes. At the beginning of the play Elizabeth is unforgiving of Proctors mistakes. “You’ll tear it free--when you come to know that I will be your only wife or no wife at all! She has an arrow in you yet, John Proctor, and you know it well!”

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Abigail 's heartless attitude is shown in act two when she frames and accuses Elizabeth Proctor for witchcraft. She desired and longed for this revenge on poor Proctors innocent wife, aiming for her through out the play. Later on in Act Three she seems to lose her last attachment of society by destroying John Proctor, who she claims to love with all her heart. When John attempts and threatens to expose Abigail’s wrong doings, she skillfully manages to turn the whole problem around on him, sending him off

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In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the characters of Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams can be compared and contrasted through their personalities, motivations, and relationship. In view of, Abigail Williams personality, she is intimidating because she threatened the girls by saying she was going to make their lives miserable if they said another word about what they had done. Moreover,

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Proctor’s guilt is present when he, attempts to pay for his sins by giving his wife materialistic objects, hesitates to obey his wife's suggestion to accuse Abigail of false bewitchment, and breaks out in anger for not wanting to be judged any longer. The romantic relationship between the Proctor’s is undoubtedly extinguished, but even casual engagement cannot exist without tension since everything John Proctor says to Elizabeth is a symbol of repentance. He offers Elizabeth the possession of a cow and expresses “with a grin” that all he

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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.

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