In The Crucible written by Arthur Miller, the author proves that Abigail Williams was responsible for the injustice and chaos in Salem during the witchcraft trials which occurred in the year of 1692. Many people perished because they were accused of being witches and either hung or pressed to death with stones. Abigail was said to be one of the ring leaders because of her initial accusation against Elizabeth Proctor. While her accusations were made out of spite the fear she created by the lies was used by the townspeople to justify their own prejudices of people who were different than them.
Abigail was a very jealous and vengeful young woman who wanted the affections of John Proctor all to herself and the only way to overcome this obstacle was to get rid of his wife, Elizabeth, by accusing her of witchcraft. Her lies snowballed along with lies of other townspeople creating chaos. She accused others of witchcraft continuing the rumors. “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!”( )
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Proctor, while early on not loyal to his wife, became remorseful and tried to distance himself from Abigail. Therefore Abigail had a strong motive to get rid of Elizabeth. Abigail’s allegations gave other townspeople an excuse and way out for their sins and differences as well as supported her friend’s stories of being bewitched. She convinced her friends that they should not tell of their unusual meetings in the woods, so the girls fake being under spells. Their meetings were not pious and therefore they would have been looked upon as evil. People were pointing fingers at others simply because they wore different clothes, did not go to church or were fighting in