Between February 1692 until May 1693, there was a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. The result of the trials included over two hundred people accused and twenty deaths. Of all the accusers, Abigail Williams was the most responsible for the Salem Witch Trials.
Abigail Williams had been involved in an affair between John Proctor and Elizabeth Proctor. Williams was removed from the Proctor house as soon as Elizabeth Proctor found out about the affair. Ever since this incident, Williams was jealous of Elizabeth. Throughout the entire play, The Crucible, Abigail tried doing anything she could to remove Elizabeth from John’s life. On page 19 Betty says, “You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!”
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Throughout all of the court hearings, if Abigail would say or do something all of the girls would follow her. If she would tell one of the girls to do something, they automatically did it without a question. In Act 3 on page forty three Mary Warren says, “I cannot, they’ll turn on me.” John Proctor wanted Mary Warren to turn Abigail in for lying but Mary Warren was too afraid of what Abigail and the other girls might do to her. In Act 1 on page twenty Abigail says, “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know that I can do it." Abigail Williams only cared about herself and made the other girls fear her.
Throughout the book and the movie, The Crucible, there are many reasons for why certain people got accused of witchcraft. Many innocent lives were lost during the Salem Witch Trials. Of the nine girls who accused people and other main characters in The Crucible, there is only one person responsible for the Crucible, Abigail