The Crucible Abigail Williams Essay

Great Essays
“The Crucible” is a play written by Arthur Miller, it tells a story based on the Salem witch trials in 1600. The development of the characters and their actions give the reader an idea of what was going on in this time period. The character that had the greatest development throughout the play was Abigail Williams. Abigail is the niece of the town reverend; she lived with his family because her parents were killed by Indians. Abigail is first portrayed as a young naive girl, but as her character develops you can see her true lying, cheating, and stealing personality. She takes what she wants and stops at nothing, so much as murder. Abigail's character causes the most chaos in the town's hysteria. Abigail started this uproar by lying. At the …show more content…
Abigail's lies caused hysteria to fly through the town, the head of the court believed, a 17-year-old over the rest of the people. She knew they were so afraid of the devil and witchcraft that they believed whatever she'd say. But, why condemn Elizabeth Proctor's life? Abigail was the Proctor family's maid for some time, over that time she became very fond of John Proctor. When Elizabeth found out about this affair, she fired Abigail. John swore to never touch Abigail again, as John says in Act One “Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut my hand before I ever reach for you again.”. This angered her; she felt if Elizabeth was out of the way he’d want to be with her. John saw the woman, Abigail, was not the child everyone pitied. He says in Act Three “How do you call Heaven? Whore! I am a snob! Whore!”. John said this in front of the court outing himself of his adultery, he knew this would look bad on his reputation but he did it to save his wife. The courtroom was still fouled by Abigail's charm and made up "what if” scenarios for all evidence. Luckily, by a miracle Elizabeth was pregnant, this would save her some time before being condemned to …show more content…
She knew this would catch up to her, so she decided to flee, cowardly. One morning Reverend Hale was returning to bring Rebecca Nurse to God, during this time Reverend Parris discovers his niece had left town. In Act Four he tells Governor Danforth, “Excellent, I think they are aboard a ship. My daughter tells me how she heard them speaking of ships last week, and tonight I discover– my strongbox is broken into.”. The Governor, shocked by this information, believes Reverend Parris is brainless. After Abigail's disappearance, they continue to hang those accused of witchcraft, including John Proctor. Abigail not being able to handle the mess she created felt and let the others pay her debt. There is word given later in the play that Abigail started a new life in a different town. In the play, John expresses great honor to his wife and the people of the town. He was willing to hang, then let his name be placed in the church and the people lose all hope. So some may claim he had the greatest character development, but I disagree. This is because John was already a man of high nobility, as said in Act**** Reverend Parris says***. He was already a man of high

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Evil in Salem Abigail Williams is the true witch in Salem. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abby manages to take advantage of the entire town. She fools her uncle Reverend Parris, Reverend Hale, John Proctor, even Judge Danforth and Judge Hathorne. Abby and her army of lying little girls have the town wrapped around their fingers. All it takes is a false accusation to take down their enemies. To make matters even worse, other people in the town start to accuse each other of witchcraft as well, all…

    • 952 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the Crucible by Arthur Miller, the reader has fear for the victims who are falsely accused of witchcraft by Abigail Williams. The people of Salem and the reader can feel the presence of Abigail Williams even though she is not in Act 2. Further, the kind of influence Abigail Williams has is that she is destructive of the Proctor’s marriage. A way she is destructive is in the Proctor’s marriage: “There is a pause… Her back is turned to him. He turns to her and watches her. A sense of their separation…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the character Abigail Williams plays a very strong role in the witch trials. Her motive for everything is to gain the love of John Proctor but she only ends up hurting him and many people around her while accusing various townspeople of witchcraft. Throughout The Crucible, Abigail gains power through deception and manipulation of the citizens of salem and court, becoming the most influential voice in The Salem Witch Trials. Abigail manipulates the townspeople…

    • 843 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays