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Salem witch trials and historical analysis
Salem witch trials and historical analysis
Salem witch trials and historical analysis
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One of the characters in The Crucible is Abigail Williams. Being a young orphan girl in the late 1600’s meant that Abigail grew up without having any attention. As she got older each time she was given attention
In the crucible Abigail Williams and Elizabeth proctor plays a big role in the Crucible. Abigail's role is what really makes the play she was the ringleader of her friends. She also destroyed many people's life in the process by saying innocent people were witches and was not. Abigal was involved with Elizabeth's proctors husband,John proctor. Abigail Williams is in love with John Proctor ,but John Procter doesn't want to be with Abigail Williams.
Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams are both extremely important characters in The Crucible who help us get insight into the Salem Witch Trials. Although they are opposing characters, you’d be surprised to find out how similar they actually are. Today, I will be discussing their personalities and how they compare and contrast each other. While reading The Crucible we learn that Abigail Williams is the antagonist. Abigail is portrayed this way because she is a manipulative liar.
Does their thirst for power always drive corrupt individuals, or can self-interest be just as dangerous? In this essay, we will look at Abigail Williams and William O'Neal, two characters from different stories but driven by their self-interests. Abigail Williams is a young woman in the play 'The Crucible' by Arthur Miller. At the same time, William O'Neal is a real-life character portrayed by LaKeith Stanfield in the movie 'Judas and the Black Messiah. Abigail Williams and William O'Neal are portrayed as corrupt because of their motivations and methods of achieving their end goal.
The Salem witch trials were series of hearings of people getting accused of witchcraft in Massachusetts, which lasted from February 1692 to May 1693. During these times, anyone who was accused of being a ‘witch’ or suspected of ‘practicing witchcraft’ was sentenced to death or hanged. The trials resulted in the death of twenty people, fourteen of them women, and all but one some by hanging. The witch trials was full of hysteria which caused a lot of chaos, death and accusations in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. In the Arthur Miller’s book The Crucible, the main character Abigail Williams is to blame for the 1692 Salem witch trials in Massachusetts.
Written by Arthur Miller, The Crucible was inspired by the true event of the Salem witch trials. The Salem witch trials was the killing of many innocent people accused of being witches. Abigail Williams was the main accuser and the rest of girls that danced in the woods along side her, which was strictly forbidden in the Puritan religion, followed her lead. At the time she lived with her uncle Samuel Parris who was the reverend of the town’s church. Parris called a witchcraft expert, Hale, to come look over his daughter whom he believed was taken over by witchcraft because she would not wake up from a faked sleep.
Abigail defies all judgements against innocence as she is the driven evil force in The Crucible. Arthur Miller shows Abigail Williams to instinctively defend herself, as it is the humane reaction when accused of wrongdoing. It is common to tell a lie but, the intention of sabotage is a different story. Abigail had many tricks up her sleeve to manipulate the court. Her purpose to convince the town of her innocence was one of many.
Winona Ryder stated that Abigail Williams is not the villain in Miller’s play, The Crucible. In reality, Abigail definitely portrays the villain by her manipulative and evil deeds. For example, Abigail accused Goody Proctor of witchcraft because Elizabeth suspected lechery between Abigail and her husband, John, which allowed for Goody Proctor to dismiss her. In Act III, Mary Warren confesses to the court that Abigail Williams was the one to accuse Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft. In which Elizabeth replies, “Question Abigail Williams about the gospel, not myself.”
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Miller introduces the idea, apparent in today’s world, that sometimes people blame others to save themselves from punishment through the characters’ actions and the asides from Miller. The most prominent character that displays this theme is Abigail Williams. Several times Abigail pushes the blame on others when she senses trouble. When Parris finds the girls dancing in the forest, Abigail knows she has to do something to avoid punishment.
In The Crucible, there could be many suspects to blame for the innocent deaths that happened in Salem. Proctor could be blamed for the innocent deaths because he lied about his affair with Abigail. Speaking of Abigail... in my opinion Abigail Williams is the one to blame for the innocent deaths because of the lies she told, the accusations she made, and the affair she had with John Proctor. Abigail Williams told many, many lies in The Crucible. The reason the witch trials began in the first place was because of the lie she told about being in the woods.
In the play, The Crucible, a story told where the reader learns about lies, deceit, and hypocrisy. The play highlights how the puritans viewed witch trials in 1692. The character that was the most to blame for the Salem Witch trials and dreadful hangings, is Abigail Williams. There are two reasons Abigail Williams became the cause of all the Witch trials and hangings, the first being that she refused to admit to what she was doing in the forest with the other girls, the second was that she was resentful of the Proctor family.
As time has passed, throughout history, during different periods of time there are parallels. There are three eras that we are focussed on, where there are three types of people during each era. The three different eras that we’re focusing on, are The Salem Witch Trials (1600s), The McCarthy Era (1950s), and Today (2000s); the three types of people are the people who are the reasons why there’s accusations towards the accused, the accused, and finally the accusers. In The Crucible, or during the Salem Witch Trials, the person that’s the reason why characters were accused is John Proctor. The accuser in the play, who decides to point fingers at everyone, is Abigail Williams.
Abigail Williams was the goody two shoes that kept her reputation high, until she turned on many with a single lie. In The Crucible By Arthur Miller, is set in the year of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts where a witch outbreak has jailed many of the women from a fault of one girl named Abigail. It causes havoc in Salem that will lead to death in the village. Abigail has shown many transformations and showed that she is very dynamic from her emotions, to her actions, and to her experiences throughout the story of The Crucible. Abigail has shown that she has grown mentally and emotionally.
Nicole Schaefer Mr. Becker American Literature October 29, 2014 Two Women for Two Different Worlds In the novel the crucible, Elizabeth, wife of John Proctor, and Abigail Williams, mistress of John Proctor are two main roles. Elizabeth, a woman who is loyal and true, or manipulative and ruthless liar, Abigail. She pretends to see spirits and commands the other girls to pretend as well.
Abigail Williams is not your typical teenage girl. She is a girl that will drink blood to kill someone, accuse people of witchcraft, and have a affair. By looking at The Crucible, one can see that Abigail Williams develops the theme of reputation, which is important because people who fear losing their reputation spread hysteria. Protecting her reputation motivates Abigail Williams to accuse others of being a witch.
