The Crucible Abigail Williams Flaws

Analyzing the Crucible In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Abigail Williams was the cause of the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail was an 18 year old who lived with her uncle Rev.Parris & her cousin, Betty. Her parents got killed by Indians when she was very young. At one time she worked for the Proctors but, she had an affair with John Proctor. In The Crucible, Miller demonstrated that it was Abigail’s flaws – mendacity, lust, and jealousy – that led her to be more responsible for the tragedy of the witch-hunt in Salem Massachusetts.

One of Abigail’s character flaws is Mendacity. Abigail said, “But we never conjured spirits” (Miller 10). She was telling her uncle Rev.Parris that she and a group of girls were just dancing in the woods. But they actually

Abigail is jealous of everyone but mostly Elizabeth Proctor. She yells at John saying, “She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! She is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her! Let her turn you like a –” (Miller 24). She envy’s Elizabeth because even after her affair with John, John preferred Elizabeth, his wife, over Abigail. She’s saying whatever she can to persuade John to go back to her. But Ezequiel Cheever says to John & Elizabeth “The girl, the Williams girl, Abigail Williams, sir. She sat to dinner in Reverend Parris’s house tonight, and without word nor warnin’ she falls to the floor. And demandin’ of her how she come to be stabbed, she – (to Proctor now) – testify it were your wife’s familiar spirit pushed it in” (Miller 78-79). Abigail is so jealous of Elizabeth that she accuses her of stabbing her by doing voodoo. It isn’t true but Abigail risks the chance to accuse Elizabeth of this. Abigail got the court to get a warrant and arrest Elizabeth. Just like she got a warrant and got people arrested when she lied about them doing “witchcraft”. Abigail is trying to get rid of Elizabeth so she can finally marry John and she will do anything in order for her to achieve