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The Destruction Of Abigail Williams In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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The Destruction of Abigail Williams Humans and government has always played a complex and contrast. A person’s emotions affect their actions when it comes to any situation and the internal battle of whether or not a person should lie in court to protect their feelings is brutal. It is never clear if a person is telling the truth or only looking to protect their feelings. This sort of problem arises in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts where the witch trials begin to broil after Abigail Williams and her friends are caught dancing in the woods and suspected of using witchcraft. In the midst of the Salem Witch Trials in The Crucible written by Arthur Miller, Abigail cannot find satisfaction with Salem because the people are hypocritical and she cannot …show more content…

Elizabeth: I never kept no poppets, not since I were a girl” (Act 2, 35). The poppet that Elizabeth was given was found to have a needle in the stomach just like how Abigail had stabbed herself with a needle and this caused the arrest of Elizabeth Proctor. Mr. Proctor realized what Abigail had done which ruined her shot at winning Proctor’s heart. She thought she had it all but truly, she was losing again proving that her tempestuous actions had no positive effect. The continuing disappearing love for Abigail, hypocrisy and vindictiveness causes and ultimate loss. In the end, Proctor is accused of witchcraft in court and sent to be hanged, but Mr. Hale tries to save him by getting him to sign a document which would only be a lie. Ultimately, Proctor does not go through and he is hanged in the end which resulted as a failure to Abigail. Previously in court, Abigail threatened the court for when she was accused of witchcraft by saying, “If I must answer that, I will leave and I will not come back again!” (Act 3, 49). This was a mistake that Abigail made because eventually, the blame landed on Proctor’s shoulders causing the loss of Proctor and there would be no accepting love left in Salem for her. Abigail’s only solution was to leave and so she ran off with stolen money (Act 4, 55). In the end, Abigail had nothing and she realized that the love she was looking for was not in Salem, Massachusetts. Her only solution was to start over and maybe she would not be vindictive and she would have more patience, but the events of The Salem Witch Trials had left her

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418 Words | 2 Pages

It is crazy how things were, so strict about the religions long ago. The times of “The Crucible” everyone would be guilty of being a witch. According i think Abigail William is responsible for witchcraft. Reasons are is because, one she have lied to everyone in the village just to make herself innocent. Second, she have broken many rules and because of that it made her look guilty.

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643 Words | 3 Pages

Abigail Williams: The Victim Upon the entrance of Abigail Williams one might think she appears as a behaved, but occasionally deceptive child, on the edge of maturity. One might be right, but there be more than what meets the eye. Is Abigail a victim or the culprit? It is evident that Abigail Williams is a victim of Salem due to her emotional scars from her past, the strict, overwhelming environment of the Puritan community, and the symptoms of insanity and power hunger she displayed. It is shown in the text that there are many underlying factors that created her to be a victim.

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1198 Words | 5 Pages

Abigail becomes delusional and her insight becomes clouded. She sees what her lies have done to the town but still continues on her fight for John proctor. Even Parris sees the destruction she has caused, but seeing as he is a selfish and shallow man he does nothing to stop her. “... What in the end Abigail’s attempts were futile seeing as she did not get John proctor and in the wake of all the chaos she stirred up the town of Salem, Massachussets was left in turmoil and

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223 Words | 1 Pages

Fear is inherent in many Witch Hunts, especially the witch hunt of Salem in 1692. Like said previously fear spreads like fire. In the play “The Crucible” everyone was struck by fear. Fear influenced people to take extreme measures and act irrationally. Abigail Williams a character in the play had many fears.

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520 Words | 3 Pages

Later on in the play Abigail kisses John Proctor but he tells her to stay away from him and his wife. Also Abigail accused Goody Proctor of having a needle in a poppet and that's why Abigail walked into the courtroom with a stab wound in the stomach bleeding. Therefore they take Goody Proctor. Then John Proctor grabs Marry Warren and takes her to the court so that she can confess about how the poppet got the needle in the stomach.

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712 Words | 3 Pages

Suspicion is raised when Ezekiel Cheever arrives at the Proctor home with a call for Elizabeth’s arrest, after he sees a poppet lying on a shelf. Previously that day, he saw Abigail Williams claiming to have a needle two inches into her stomach. The doll actually belonged to their servant, Mary Warren, which she made while in court. To Mary’s claims, she put the needle there for safe keeping but forgot the needle was there when she gave it to Elizabeth as a gift. The irony of this situation is that Abigail blamed Elizabeth for sticking a needle in her stomach when she put the needle in there herself.

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345 Words | 2 Pages

In the beginning of the story Abigail Williams was in love with John Proctor and was willing to do anything to be with him. She was caught dancing in the woods and was accused of witchcraft. She started to blame everyone in town she didn’t like for being a witch. She told all the girls in town that she would come in the night and kill them if they tell anyone about what they were doing in the woods. She had accused Goody Proctor of witch craft so she could have John to herself.

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492 Words | 2 Pages

In the story “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, is a story that informs readers about the devastating salem witch trials that occurred in 1692 and 1693. One of the characters names is Abigail who is a seemingly nice girl until her true self comes out when she has an affair with a well known man named John Proctor. Abigail begins to accuse people of being witches and lies about having symptoms and seeing things due to people using “witchcraft”. Throughout the play people make sacrifices for what they think is right; and at the end, John Proctor made the biggest sacrifice of all. The Salem witch trials was a terrifying time for everybody involved and caused many deaths.

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465 Words | 2 Pages

This affair was never fully proven, but Proctor did say, “Abby, I may think of you from time to time but I will cut off my hand before I’ll reach for you again” (Miller 1140). Abigail was madly in love with Proctor and wanted Elizabeth out of the picture so she could have Proctor all to her self. Abigail was very jealous of Elizabeth. She thought that if Elizabeth would die, she would get Proctor all to her self. She accused Elizabeth of being a “cold, sniveling woman”(Miller 1140).

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756 Words | 4 Pages

Abigail believed that Proctor actually loved her and she waited every night for him. She was brainwashed to think he would leave his wife for her. The witchcraft accusation came from the beginning of the story when Abigail and the girls were dancing naked in the woods and chanting. She made false accusations that people in the village were worshipping the devil to cover what she had done. Many lives were taken but Abigail had no empathy for anyone who was hanged.

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1608 Words | 7 Pages

(I.465-472). Seeing Abigail cry, it suggests that Abigail’s affair with John Proctor has influenced her behavior in jealousy and lust as she strives for nothing more than her love for John Proctor. By only being heartbroken, Abigail is not to be fully blamed for the hysteria within the town as her actions are only based on desperate attempts to win John Proctor over, and no intentional harm whatsoever. However, on the other hand, Abigail cannot be excused with outside forces making her the way she is due to the fact that she has clearly had a choice in most of her decisions and actions throughout the witchcraft crisis. When Mary Warren, another girl involved in the forest incident, enters the court, she explains to Danforth, the judge, that the girls are lying and are only pretending to see spirits.

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1312 Words | 6 Pages

Abigail, along with a band of other girls, accuses several people of witchcraft, whom are then sentenced to hang without a just trial. It seems as though Abigail governs the entire town, and when people attempt to go against her word, they are either hanged or surrender fighting for what is right and take her side. Abigail seems to have absolute power, but her evil is not committed without dire consequences at hand. No evil is ever committed without consequences. Abigail demonstrates this through showing that the evil she has committed whisks away innocent lives, but it also results in John Proctor’s death, which is her goal to begin with.

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825 Words | 4 Pages

Afterwards, she was willing to destroy anyone in the way of her getting to be with him. Proctor definitely wishes he had never laid with Abigail, and everyone else was paying for his mistake, as she ruined everyone’s lives, “I have known her, sir. I have known her.” (Act III, 378). A single lie snowballed, leaving death and terror in its wake, all because Abigail could not, and likely did not want to control herself.

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934 Words | 4 Pages

Abigail Williams was the goody two shoes that kept her reputation high, until she turned on many with a single lie. In The Crucible By Arthur Miller, is set in the year of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts where a witch outbreak has jailed many of the women from a fault of one girl named Abigail. It causes havoc in Salem that will lead to death in the village. Abigail has shown many transformations and showed that she is very dynamic from her emotions, to her actions, and to her experiences throughout the story of The Crucible. Abigail has shown that she has grown mentally and emotionally.

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818 Words | 4 Pages

Abigail 's heartless attitude is shown in act two when she frames and accuses Elizabeth Proctor for witchcraft. She desired and longed for this revenge on poor Proctors innocent wife, aiming for her through out the play. Later on in Act Three she seems to lose her last attachment of society by destroying John Proctor, who she claims to love with all her heart. When John attempts and threatens to expose Abigail’s wrong doings, she skillfully manages to turn the whole problem around on him, sending him off

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