Abigail Williams And Mary Warren In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

After being wronged, it is human nature to want to get even. No matter how many times someone tells someone else to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, it never sticks. Human nature is, was, and always will be to make sure that whoever made the pain receives the same. This was shown in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible. The Crucible conveys a theme that when revenge determines justice, chaos ensues; this theme is supported through the accusations that Abigail Williams made against John and Elizabeth Proctor, and Mary Warren, as well as through the Putnams’ willingness to implicate their neighbors. Abigail Williams is a character in The Crucible whose every objective is to get revenge. Miller states in his opening statements,

At first Mary thought that Abigail was a decent person and she had no reason to distrust her until, several town girls, including Abigail and Mary Warren were caught one night out in the woods dancing, she made them all swear that they would not tell anyone anything. She promised them that if they told anyone about the dancing, she would come and get revenge on them, “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, and out the other things, and I will come to out in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” (Miller 20). Due to Abigail’s threat to the girls, the girls accuse other people of witchcraft so that they would not get in trouble for dancing. The chaos that ensues the accusations is enormous, people that are respected in the community are hanged, cattle are running all around the village due to no owners taking care of them and neighbors are turning on each other to save themselves. When Mary decides that she is going to take a stand against Abigail and tell the truth that they are creating the witch accusations Abigail starts to act like Mary is a witch in front of the court. This leads to Mary Warren becoming frazzled and blaming John, “I’ll not hang with you! I love God, I love God” she continues to say, “Abby, Abby, I’ll never hurt you more” (Miller 119). Mary gives up telling the truth and instead blames John that he made her say everything, which

Putnam anger drives his force to create false allegations that others are witches and even sometimes has his daughter create havoc also, “Putnam accuses many of witchcraft on the panic sets in the town, is a witness against the many of trials, and has a daughter who provokes other girls to testify against the accused as well” (Bloom 21). He had his own daughter, Ruth, accuse George Jacobs of being a witch because he owned 600 acres. Jacobs was found guilty and then hung for He is furious that the town did not accept his candidate for minister and that he failed to be able to change his father’s will resulting in him getting less money than his stepbrother (Bloom 21). He goes after anyone he can especially those who have “his” land in hopes that he will be able to retrieve that land someday. His prosecutions are what starts the chaos within the town because he believes this is how he will get justice for being