Abigail Williams As The Hero In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

The “Heroic” Scamp

Jealousy plays a horrendous role in society. Furthermore, when jealousy denounces love, humans take drastic actions for the sake of their dignity. Nonetheless, ramifications will be paid due to society’s resentful response to rejection. In the play The Crucible, Arthur Miller constructs the character Abigail Williams as the antihero to follow the Hero’s Journey in order to expose the backlash of seeking vengeance.

Initially, Miller establishes the antihero as the character of Abigail Williams who defies the routine odds of society in a devilish manner. To begin, Miller sparks the start of the Hero’s Journey by depicting the cross over into the unknown world when Reverend Parris witnesses Tituba and the children dancing in

Miller then continues demonstrating the sin of lechery between Abigail Williams and John Proctor to represent the call to adventure. “Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of mind. We never touched, Abby.” (Miller, 23) This signifies an immense amount of irony such that an “adventure” is considered to be the act of having sexual intercourse while married to another, as well as the dawn of a shameless tragedy. Nonetheless, this event was the fuel to Abigail’s jealous fire in a sense that Proctor directly relayed that he would not be getting with Abigail again. Furthermore, the first threshold commonly mirrors a challenge that the hero must overcome in order to continue on their journey, however Miller depicts this crossing when Reverend Hale travels to the town of

To begin with, Miller organizes the return to the ordinary world to stretch over the events when Abigail runs away. “Parris: My niece, sir, my niece - I believe she has vanished.” (Miller, 126) This signifies that the only way for the antihero’s journey to end in a success is for Abigail to run away. Similarly, Miller creates the road back for Abigail as a literal path away from Salem. “Mark it, sir, Abigail has close knowledge of the town, and since the news of Andover has broken here-” This further clarifies the fact of Abigail’s success depends on whether or not she stays in Salem, this further validates the presence of an antihero as a result of the disastrous elements of jealousy. Additionally, Miller designs The Crucible to portray Abigail’s return with elixir in a very literal sense as Abigail’s return with elixir is depicted when she runs away from Salem with all of Parris’ money. “Parris: Thirty-one pound is gone. I am penniless.” (Miller, 126) In Miller’s depiction, the existence of an antihero is directly correlated to the presence of jealousy. Likewise, because of Abigail’s resentful mindset toward Elizabeth Proctor, John’s Wife, Abigail’s demeanor is transformed into a character that seeks only vengeance in efforts to benefit her own well being and get John Proctor. Since Abigail’s goal is not met, the only way for her antihero figure