What Does Abigail Williams Symbolize In The Crucible

The Girl Who Cried Witch

The Crucible is the tale of a town - Salem, Massachusetts - thrown headfirst into a whirlwind of lies, deceit, and revenge under the mask of witchcraft. This chain of witchcraft, while perpetuated by many characters, was caused by none other than Abigail Williams by her leading the group of girls who cry witchcraft, actively attempting to destroy Elizabeth Proctor, and by her leaving town before the conflicts can be resolved.

Abigail starts off by establishing herself as the leader of the group of girls who conspire throughout the play. The story begins with a group of girls dancing in the woods, led by Abigail Williams. These girls are caught dancing by Reverend Parris who promptly breaks it up, and later questions

While she swears that they danced and “that was all”, she later reveals her true activities in the forest; not only were they dancing, some without clothes, she also “drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor” (Miller 19). By revealing Abigail as the one who begins the play-long trend of deceit Arthur Miller establishes her as the origin and leader of the lies, perpetuated by the town. He later establishes her leadership over the girls in a much more obvious fashion; she outright intimidates the girls into lying by threatening “a pointy reckoning that will shudder” them should any of them “breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about” the things other than dancing (Miller 20). By placing Abigail in a position of such power over the girls Miller demonstrates how vital she is to the witchcraft hysteria in Salem. He also sets up this pecking order to emphasize the control she has over the girls, most specifically Mary Warren, in the third act. Without this air of superiority Miller establishes in the first act, the girls would have

In the beginning of the fourth act it is discovered that Abigail has “vanished” from the town, “aboard a ship” according to Reverend Parris (Miller 126). This is the final blow against the already unjust system of government, which is so far horribly failing at leading the town through the hysteria. By Abigail leaving the only possible “witness” is gone with no way of asking additional questions. What makes the situation even worse is the growing doubt for Abigail’s story, mostly caused by her leaving unexpectedly along with her robbing Reverend Parris leaving him “penniless” (Miller 126). At this point clearly innocent people, such as John Proctor, have been arrested and the courts are scrambling to find any solution they can to the immense problem growing before them. This issue could have been easily resolved had Abigail stayed in town. However by leaving Salem midway through a long and painful process of convicting men and women of witchcraft, Abigail leaves with the last shred of hope offered to the people of Salem, and therefore completes a long but inevitable process of destroying the town through paranoia. She completes the destruction she began by leaving lies that cannot be refuted in the hands of an already terrified and ignorant