There are several people who can be responsible for the evilness occurring during the Salem witch trials of 1692. Due to false accusations, innocent people are being arrested and killed, and the community is in a state of chaos and disorder. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller demonstrates that it is Abigail’s flaws-lust, dishonesty, and jealousy- that lead her to be guilty for the tragedy of the witch-hunts in Massachusetts. During the seventeenth century, Abigail Williams has the reputation of being an intelligent, yet manipulative woman who has single-handedly started the Salem witch trials. She commits one of the seven deadly sins, lust, which is the craving for the pleasures of the body. Abigail takes advantage of John Proctor’s loneliness …show more content…
When Abigail is discovered dancing in the woods, she tells Reverend Parris, they were doing only common dancing and “never conjured spirits” (Miller 10). She worries that punishment awaits her and carefully chooses what information she confesses to him. Betty admits that Abigail is a liar when she rises from lying inert and states, “You drank blood Abby! You didn’t tell him that” (Miller 18). In reality, Abigail meets with Tituba for a potion to kill Goody Proctor. Throughout the trials, she fibs quite frequently to reach her goal of being with John and avoid exposing the truth. During one of the first crucibles, Abigail spies on Mary Warren, the Proctor’s new worker, sewing a poppet for Elizabeth. She notices that the sewing needle is left in the stomach of the doll when Mary completes it. Later that day, Abigail stabs herself in the abdomen to make Elizabeth’s gift appear as a voodoo doll. At the end of the play, when Parris exclaims, “You see, sir, she told me she would stay a night with Mercy Lewis…Mercy told him she would sleep in my house for a night” (Miller 116), Abigail proves herself to be a fraud. She tells Parris she is staying with a friend, but is actually fleeing Salem with all of her uncle’s