Abigail The Crucible Character Analysis

“Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.” In the town of Salem, Massachusetts women were being accused of conjuring up spirits and practicing witchcraft. The original accusations made by the town’s Reverend's niece, Abigail, eventually lead to the accused being the accuser and so on and so forth until the obscure accusations made no one safe, the small town in time became unhinged. Throughout Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Abigail is indirectly characterized as the lying, desperate, and duplicit antagonist in the play.
Abigail has a plethora of personality traits and each reveals her true motives. In the beginning of the play, Abigail denies any claim that her uncle made about the dance in the woods, but she lies and then later …show more content…
She puts forth a very innocent persona in the beginning, but as we soon learn, she has darker motives. “(With a edge of resentment). Why I am sure it is sir. There be no blush about my name.”(Miller 144). It is very apparent that Abigail has almost everyone in Salem fooled. Although it is not hard to persuade the people of Salem of supernatural activity such as witchcraft, it is not hard to believe for them to be persuaded by the Reverend's niece’s innocent “white lies” either. While wearing her mask of innocence, she realizes that she can get away with it and it only motivates her to lie more. When we learn more about Abigail’s history with John, there is an obvious development of envy, which provokes a deeper hatred towards Elizabeth. “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!” (Miller 150). Abigail’s envy grows very slowly in the beginning, but towards the middle stages of the book, her motivation switches from innocence to envy. She lusts over the attention Elizabeth receives over her, and that envy grows, consumes her, and forces her to an even darker motivation of revenge. Abigail’s “revenge-bent” rage towards the Proctors and people of Salem is very prominent in the final stage of the play. “Think you to be so mighty that the power of Hell may not turn your wits? Be aware of it!” (Miller 192). For the duration of the trials, Abigail almost seems to disclose many threats of revenge. She starts to not get her way with John and she comes to realize there is no other option but to scare people into believing her, much like she did with Mary Warren. These threats sabotage her reputations, but nonetheless get her what she wants, which is