Who Is Abigail Sinful In The Crucible

A courtroom full of innocent people waiting to discover if they will be put to death. Everyone is tense and many are frightened. Who was the cause of all of this? In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail and her friends were caught dancing in the woods. The girls had to act fast in order to save themselves from getting into trouble because, in their community, their actions were considered sinful and immoral. In the desperate act of self-preservation, Abigail began to accuse others of being witches. Abigail Williams is anything but a good person. Although she tries to make everyone believe she is virtuous, she portrays many characteristics of being the complete opposite. Abigail is deceptive/mendacious, conniving, and manipulative. Throughout

In order for Abigail's lies to seem genuine, the other girls’ stories must seem the same or quite similar. To make sure the girls lied, Abigail threatened them.”Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. 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 pointy reckoning that will shudder you” (175). Another example of Abigail being manipulative was when Mary Warren tried to turn her in for lying. While Mary Warren was trying to explain what had happened, Abigail and the other girls pretended to see a bird and said that Mary was cursing them, dishonestly. ”Oh, Mary, this is black art to change your shape. No, I cannot, I cannot stop my mouth; it’s God’s work I do” (224). This is evidence of Abigail being manipulative because it made Mary start to question whether telling the truth was worth it or not. Mary eventually gave up hope and switched sides, accusing John Proctor of being the Devil’s man. Being manipulative is not a characteristic of a good hearted