Abigail Williams To Blame Essay

There are many to blame when a problem in a small town arises nevertheless one deserves more blame than others. In the Crucible by Arthur Miller, describes the hysteria of the people in Salem when young girls start to accuses others of witchcraft. These girls such as Abigail Williams, Betty Parris and others were first caught dancing in the woods however they were doing more than just dancing. As a result the young girls fear what would happen to them, thus Abigail sets off the trail of lies. Therefore, Abigail Williams manipulative and vindictive personality and compulsive lying is to blame for the chaos in her small town of Salem. It might not be right to blame Abigail Williams for the entire tragedy of the Salem Witch Trials, nevertheless

Once Abigail is indicted of witch craft she exclaims that Tituba "...sends her spirit on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayer," Tituba quickly retaliates only for Abigail to inform Reverend Hale she is lying (Miller 43). Albeit Abigail wasn't so selfish and took the punishment she deserved, none of the accusations would have been made. Protecting herself was her only goal but little did she know that it started the whirlwind of dreadful events. Abigail makes things worse when she has to threaten the other girls such as Betty to lie. Abigail warns the girls that if, "...either of [them] breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and [she] will come to [them] in the black of some terrible night and [she] will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you" (Miller 20), it was crystal clear that if one rats her out they're dead. Instantly Abigail has the girls wrapped around her fingers, consequently the girls must tell even more lies to

John Proctor's affair with Abigail is a large part to blame, leading on a young girl and rejecting her can cause her to feel a rage of emotions, which caused her vengeance. Proctor explains to Judge Danforth, "[Abigail] thinks to dance with me on my wife's grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a whore's vengeance, and you must see it now" (Miller 110). He admits of his sins and how he lusted for Abigail nonetheless that's how it started by Abigail trying to curse Elizabeth. Whilst Proctor kept his lust to himself and rejected Abigail at the beginning most like the hanging would have never happened. Reverend Parris is desperate to keep his reputation after, "three long years to bend these stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise [his ] very character," thus he retains info from the court to keep his good reputation (Miller 11). He is very sensitive about his name and Abigail is very close to ruining it, thus he must prevent anything harmful to his name. Along with his reputation on the line Parris seems to urge Abigail to lie more so the townspeople don't turn against him. Danforth often rejected logical fact, devising tricky scenarios and questioning, and refused to hear testimonies: "Therefore, who may possibly be witness to it?