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Does Abigail Williams Cause Mass Hysteria In The Crucible

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During the late 17th century a total of 200 people were accused of participating in witchcraft, while 19 people lost their lives to the mass hysteria. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a group of girls start a huge uproar in Salem, Massachusetts when they start screeching about Salemites being associated with the Devil. Throughout the play write, it shows the consequences of mass hysteria and how it puts people's lives in danger. Abigail Williams causes a wave of mass hysteria and because of her trickery, innocent people have died by her and the other girl’s actions, for this Abigail is the most unforgivable character in The Crucible. Abigail is the most unforgivable character because of her actions that forced innocent people to get hurt. For example, she has an obsession towards John Proctor before and after their affair, and will do anything to get him to acknowledge her again. Abigail shows her …show more content…

It is a horrifying to be Since the beginning, Abigail has told lies that are excruciating. Abigail screams out “I want to open myself! I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil! (Miller.1.1050). With Abigail's careless act, the town is in despair, every time she would create a lie it would turn people against each other. Even when these group of people have been living with each other years, with one action from Abigail they are automatically believing each person is associated with the Devil. Questioningly, Abigail says “Why? Why do you come, yellow bird?” (Miller.3.991). Once again, Abigail uses spectral evidence to get her way. Being accused of lying is very inconsiderate in Abigail's eyes. Each time she talks she creates more lies that the younger girls

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That we Abby said they never conjured spirits, she lie about is and that just made it easier to lie about all of the other stuff. Even know they never really conjured real spirits in the woods Abby did not tell them she drank chicken blood to try to kill goody Proctor.” Why do you come yellow bird”(Millar 191). When Abby used spectral evidence, she is lying about seeing a yellow bird. When she used spectral evidence, this is a big part why it is her fault because she useing something that she the only one that can see

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But God made my face; you cannot want to tear my face. Envy is a deadly sin, Mary,” (Miller 3. 999-1002). Hectically, Abigail claimed this because she recognized that if she didn’t make a scene to convince the court of Mary’s bewitched spirit, all of her lies would’ve been figured out. In doing this, Abigail effectively intensified the people of Salem’s tenacious confidence that witchcraft existed in their village, which in turn acted as propaganda to fuel the fire of

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said,”When you were with the devil who did you see with him”(1-143.144). At this point, Abigail William is speechless, but then she starts to blame people. Also it doesn’t matter what Abigail says, because she is a witness of witchcraft, so she will save her own tail besides saving others. Reverend Hale is asking specific questions, forcing Abigail to lie. This is wrong because Reverend Hale is refueling Abigail Williams thought process with lies.

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While she was working for the Proctors Elizabeth was to sick and she only cared about herself and John seduced her and taught her bad habits for later in life. Even though she did not have good role models she still had the choice to tell the truth and not have blamed other people in the town to help support her lie. In conclusion, Abigail Williams is the one to blame for the deaths even though she has not had any good role models because she had more than one chance to tell the truth.

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During the play Abigail's bad decisions leads to a lot of commotion. She tries to fix her mistakes but ends up getting into more of a mess than she started with. “I want to open myself…I want the light of god, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced with Devil; I saw him i wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss his hand. I saw sarah Good with the devil, I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil!

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Abigail exclaims of her passion and love for God when in reality she is filled with sin and lust. Opportunity was given for honesty throughout The Crucible of which

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Her lies play a part in starting the witch trials. To save herself she would throw any of the other girls or towns folk to blame. “ I want the light of God”, “I saw Sarah Good, Goody Osburn, and Bridget Bishop with the devil”. Watching Abigail's actions we see how much she is willing to bend the truth and even manipulate others to keep herself away from blame/harm. Yet even with all the lies and manipulation from Abigail there is an instance

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Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953. Miller wrote The Crucible because he had a story to tell. Miller was a political advocate against the inequalities of race in America. He was a target for Senator McCarthy. Miller was called to the House of Committee on an un-American activities which triggered him to write about the witch trials.

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Betty even said that Abigail “…drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor”(Miller 1137)! All Abigail ever wanted was Proctor. I think Abigail is definitely the one to blame in The Crucible. 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.

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However, in Act Three Abigail is brought into the courtroom, along with the other girls, by Danforth to be questioned about what Mary Warren had said about them all lying. She denies that she has lied about the supernatural torture she’s been through, confirming that Mary is lying and appears it had insulted Danforth when he asks her if she’s sure it 's not all imagined. In the middle of Danforth doubting her, Abigail suddenly seems to go into a trance. She is trying turn all the attention from her and John onto Mary so she won’t get exposed or in trouble.

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In the eyes of some, Abigail Williams is the most despicable character in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. She could be seen as the most evil character, because of the reasons she accuses Tituba, Elizabeth, and Mary of witchcraft. It is wrong and manipulative to accuse a person of something they have not done, no matter what the circumstances are. However, the reasoning behind such false accusations can give insight into the true motives and personality of a character. Abigail accuses Tituba of witchcraft to save herself.

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Along with love being a main encouragement for all of Abigail’s dishonesty, fear also plays a huge role. ‘’Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it’’ (Miller18) shows how far Abigail will go if anyone even dares to tell the truth. When Abigail got caught by her uncle when dancing and doing witchcraft naked in the woods, she knew her consequences were for a fact going to be nothing short of brutal.

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People lie from time to time, then they tell a bigger lie from time to time. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller is based on the story of the Salem Witch Trials. In play people were killed and accused of witchcraft. With everyone being accused of witchcraft in the town and everyone is the very scared. The play takes place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692.

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“Goody Proctor is a gossiping liar,” (12). Abigail views Elizabeth as an obstacle between her and John and in act 2 Abigail tries to murder Elizabeth. “He has lifted the poppet’s skirt and his eyes widen in astonished fear,” (74) Cheever is horrified by the discovery of a needle in the belly of Mary Warren’s poppet. The needle in the poppet represents murder and Mary admits that Abigail sat beside her as she made the poppet. Clearly trying to kill someone for personal gain can not be denied as satanic work, but while Abigail did fail, using Mary as her pawn is still evil in its own right.

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In the play, the Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Salem, Massachusetts was a place of constant hysteria in the 1600s because of what would come to be commonly known as the Salem Witch Trials. This was a full-blown witch hunt for people found to display signs of witchcraft. Abigail Williams was the main person to blame for this pursuit of witches in Salem because, first off, she was the one who caused hysteria about witchcraft just to cover up the fact that

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