The Crucible At the beginning of The Crucible, Reverend Parris discovers the girls meeting with Tituba in the woods. In that moment, Abigail tries to conceal her behavior so that her affair with Proctor will be kept secret if she confesses to having cast a spell on Elizabeth Proctor. In order to avoid severe punishment for being convicted of witchcraft, she diverts the attention away from herself by accusing others of witchcraft. This desperate act of self-preservation shortly becomes Abigail’s primary source of power.
Abigail is evidently the villain of the play, more so than Parris or Danforth. She tells lies to her friends and frames the entire town, eventually sends nineteen innocent people to be hung. Throughout the novel, her motivations never seem more complicated than mere jealousy and a desire to get vengeance on Elizabeth Proctor. She is portrayed as a biblical character, a Jezebel figure, driven by a strong lust for power. She is an orphan and unmarried girl who occupies a low social standing on the Puritan Salem social hierarchy, for young girls in Salem and the ministers are God’s divine representatives who maintain high prestige.
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She represents the suppressed sexual and material desires that all the Puritans possess. According to Puritan ideals, Abigail’s attraction to Proctor constitutes a sin, but one could repent and acknowledge they are at fault. Abigail does the opposite. She follows Proctor and eventually seduces him. Her willingness to discard Puritan social restrictions set her apart from the other characters. Rather, Abigail is an independent woman who believes nothing is beyond her grasp. These admirable qualities most often lead to a thirst for life and innovation. On the contrary, she lacks a conscience to self-regulate and sees no affair with Proctor as no major threat. She continues to resent Elizabeth who stands as the barrier between her and