Selfishness Consumes Human beings are innately driven by self-interest. They pursue goals, careers, achievements and all too often are deceitful and cheat in order to obtain them. The character Abigail in the play the Crucible is no different. The play, the Crucible, depicts the mass hysteria that overtook a town in Massachusetts during the Salem witch trials. In the midst of this fear, this panic, in the eye of the storm, lies the character of Abigail Williams.
This caused her to become madly obsessed with him and give her a motive to kill Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail in the opening scene drinks chicken blood trying to find a way to Kill Elizabeth. Abigail talks about Elizabeth with hatred when she says, “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!
Who Is To Blame? Arthur Miller’s The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem witch trials. Arthur Miller shows how Abigail was the main cause of the all the killing of innocent people of Salem. Her flaws was that she was quick to temper, she was jealous of Elizabeth, and that’s she lust for John Proctor.
Abigail blames her when in reality she was the one who grabbed the chicken and drank it's blood causing the girls to run off and create chaos. Abigail then went on a lying streak to save her
Reverend Parris is a man in his 40’s that is a minister of the town, and lives with his daughter, Betty, and his niece, Abigail, in Salem, Massachusetts. He finds Abigail and Betty in the woods dancing around a fire with Tituba, and practicing what he thinks is witchcraft. As he finds them dancing around the fire and practicing what he thinks is witchcraft, because of his reputation of being the minister of the town, he hopes that no one will find out about what he has seen and potentially ruin his reputation. Throughout The Crucible by Arthur Miller Parris goes through ups and downs with the town and the townspeople. “Abigail, I have fought here three long years to bend these stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my very character” (Miller 1263).
Next, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, showcases the effects and outcomes of this type of remorseless evil at work. The book is about a girl, who in making wild accusations, allows people to get punished and die for her own mistakes. She has an affair with a married man, who is older than her, and as events progress she covers this affair up with lies, and manages to get her friend in on it, accusing people of witchcraft, a very serious crime at the time, instead of owning up to what she had done. “Shut it! Now shut it! . . .
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.
In The Crucible written by Arthur Miller, he writes about a story of witches in Salem, Massachusetts. The play is about a group of young girls who control the village with the fake pretense of having seen the devil and who he has worked with John Proctor and Reverend Parris are two characters within the play who both have similar experiences to each other. The story teaches us that different actions lead to different circumstances. Reverend Parris is the uncle of abigail, one of the girls in the wood who chanted.
In the first act of the play the Crucible, by Arthur Millar, a few girls are caught dancing in the forest and accused of witchcraft. To save themselves and their reputations the girls, along with other citizens in the town of Salem, start to point their fingers and put the blame on other people. Abigail’s, Reverend Parris’, and Mrs. Putnum’s various accusations all come from their selfish motives. The most subterranean motivation of Abigail is the “love” she has for John Proctor.
Abigail uses the fact that every person shes accused has been a witch to secure her position as a trust worth witness in court. As seen when the suspension is raised to her, Abigail says, “I have been hurt, Mr. Danforth; I see my blood running out! I have been near to murdered every day because I have done my duty pointing out the Devil’s people -- and this is my reward? To be mistrusted, denied, questioned like a --” (113). She uses the fact that there is a perceived danger in callout witches as one can try to kill her because they feel threated or that she 's been hurt by witchcraft when it was just self-inflicted wounds.
Abigail cannot have John or be in a relationship with him since he is married to Elizabeth. Abigail is also angered at Elizabeth since Elizabeth is blackening Abigail’s name in Salem because Abigail had an affair with Elizabeth’s husband. Thus, Abigail decides to remove Elizabeth from John’s life by any means necessary. Abigail practices witchcraft by asking Tituba her uncle’s slave to make a charm that will kill Elizabeth, which she drinks while the girls are dancing in the woods (a forbidden act to do in Puritan society).
This is part of the ritual for Abigail to try and curse Elizabeth but not only does she participate in it multiple other girls do as well and they probably don’t even know why they’re really there. As the ritual proceeds the girls end up naked dancing around the fire and still chanting while drinking chicken blood. Abigail does all of this just to try to give her a chance with John Proctor. Not only are the women crazy for the grotesque occult rituals they participate in, but there is also the obsession and desperateness shown from Abigail towards wanting to be with John. More of these impetuous actions are shown while in the courthouse during Mary Warren's
In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, the antagonist, Abigail Williams, is a complex character, whose actions have an irreversible impact on the lives of those around her. While some may argue that Abigail should be viewed with sympathy, or as a victim, a closer examination of her character reveals a different truth. Abigail Williams should be seen as a villain due to the fact she is unsympathetic, deceptive and selfish. To begin, Abigail Williams should be seen as a villain due to her lack of empathy. For example, Abigail claims, "I would never hurt Betty.
Abigail The Victim In the Crucible many are to blame for the events that occurred, but one of the one’s who seems to take blame the most is Abigail Williams. She holds most of the responsibility because she was to blame for the girls meeting with Tituba in the woods. When Parris located the girls in the woods, Abigail tries to hide her behavior because she fears that it will uncover her affair with Proctor if she confesses that she attempted to cast a spell on his wife, Elizabeth. Abigail also lies to avoid being punished for witchcraft.
“The Crucible” is a play written in the 20th century by Arthur Miller about the Salem Witch Trials. The character of Reverend Samuel Parris is an important character in the story who learns the error of his selfish egotistical behavior too late. In the beginning of the story, we first see him as a worried father, concerned for his child but also worried about his position in Salem. However, he wants to find the cause for Betty’s ailment and easily blames others.
