There are quite many unmarried women that accuse innocent people in The Crucible. For example, the antagonist Abigail is an orphan and unmarried girl; she occupies a low social status in the Puritan Salem. At the beginning, Parris said: “I have given you a home, child, I have put clothes upon your back” (Miller 11) and try to make her tell the truth by reminding her status in the society and the fact Parris is the one who raised her. Also, Parris tells her that she is “now seven month out of [Proctors’] house, and in all this time no other family has ever called for your service” (Miller 11). This quote suggests ever since Abigail is send out from the Proctors, no other family asks her to work, and this indicates that Abigail needs to work for the other family.
With her affair going on with John Proctor, she is envious of Elizabeth and accuses Elizabeth for blackening her reputation. She pretends to be angry to John and tries to make Elizabeth’s name dirty by saying: “She is blackening my name in the village! She is tell-ing lies about me! .She is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her” (Miller 22).
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This accusation is so successful that at the end of Act I, Tituba “confessed” even though she is innocent because she is a slave and cannot remove the suspicion from her owner. Abigail then continues to “confess”: “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 45). She uses Tituba’s confession to shows that she had contact with devil, and she knows who the ones that are practicing witchcraft are. This act removes other people’s suspicion because the Salem people believe that when one confessed, this person is free from