Literary Analysis Of Abigail Williams In The Crucible

Jenae Patterson

Writing Skills

9.5.1 Practice

10 March 2018

Literary Analysis Essay

In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams is a selfish, manipulative, and magnificent liar. She has a sinister way and sense of manipulating others, to gain control over them. All these characteristics added up to make her a splendid antagonist. Some people see Abigail in a different way than most others do. They don 't believe that she 's necessarily a villain but a young, and naive girl that John Proctor took advantage of and her desire to feel love after her horrendous childhood. He made her believe that he deeply and actually cared for her, but when in reality, he was only selfishly using her for personal reasons because he lusted

Next, Abigail shows her true evil side in Act II when she frames Elizabeth Proctor for witchcraft. She knows that accusing someone of witchery is not hard at this point and anyone she doesn’t like can be hung, that’s why she goes after Elizabeth. The audience learned from Cheever that Abigail has charged Elizabeth Proctor as a witch. It turns out that while at dinner in the Parris household, Abigail fell to the floor in agonizing pain, and a needle was pulled out of her stomach by Parris. Cheever restates what happened at the dinner table to the Proctors, “...She sat to dinner in Reverend Parris’ house tonight, and without word nor warnin’ she falls to the floor. Like a struck beast, he says, and screamed a scream that bull would weep to hear. And he goes to save her, and stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out. And demandin’ of her how she come to be stabbed she testify it were your wife’s familiar spirit pushed it in

“(860). It turns out that Abigail was sitting next to Mary in court, as Mary was making the poppet and had stuck the needle in it for safekeeping, which could have given Abigail the idea to throw the fit at dinner and accuse Elizabeth. But not even Cheever, Herrick, or Hale thought that was a good enough reason to arrest

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. She is also doing this as revenge of Mary for turning on her and the girls, so she wants her killed for it. Abigail continues her revenge by leading the girls into another fit after Elizabeth leaves the courtroom, and this one is directly targeting Mary Warren as the source. She and the other girls go into full hysteria, mimicking Mary Warren 's every action and word, “Oh. Mary, this is black art to change your shape. No, I cannot, I cannot stop my mouth; It’s God’s work I do” (875). That is until Mary caves under the pressure and accuses John Proctor of being the Devil 's man, so nothing bad occurs due to Abigail.

In addition, Abigail tells lies, manipulates her friends and the entire town, and eventually sends nineteen innocent people to their deaths. Throughout all of the hysteria, Abigail’s motivations are based off of a simple jealousy and a desire to have revenge on Elizabeth Proctor. There are a few background