Character Analysis Of Abigail Williams In The Crucible

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Abigail Williams is a major character in Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible”. She’s a 17 year old woman who lived in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. Abigail is a strong, leader of the other girls and is partially responsible for the trouble that comes. Throughout “The Crucible”, Arthur Miller reveals many things about Abigail. He reveals secrets Abigail possesses. Miller also shows the personality changes Abigail goes through and the type of character she is.
In the scene on pages 174 and 175, Miller wrote a scene in which his character, Abigail, is forcing the other girls to lie about what really happened in the woods where they were caught dancing. Abigail says, “Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead
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In the beginning of the play, Abigail feels she has done nothing wrong by dancing in the woods. The only thing she is worried about is the town not figuring out that she played with witchery. In act one we read how Abigail has an argument with Betty because she is muttering the truth. Luckily it was only the girls in the room at this time, but Abigail seems very terrified that others will hear this. Betty screams, “You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!” While Abigail replies with, “Shut it! Now shut it!” While smashing her across the face. (Miller) This shows how not only Abigail had lied to everyone about what really happened, but that she doesn’t want anyone knowing this. Further on into the play, we see Abigail changing her feelings. Her actions in the play go from not have been doing anything in the woods, to having to drink blood because Tituba forced them to. On page 187, Abigail, while pointing at Tituba, screams, “She made me do it! She made Betty do it too!” Then, on page 189, Abigail confesses herself because she wants the light of God and Jesus. This shows that she regrets her actions, which is a huge change with just a small influence of Hale and in a short amount of …show more content…
She is obviously a Major character in the play, considering she is one of the main reasons people get executed at the end of the play. She is also one of the leaders of the girls who were on trial. We see that she is at all of the trials up until she runs away, which means she is a very important factor in deciding who is hung and who is left to rot in jail. Miller also makes her the Antagonist of the play. She is going up against the protagonist, John Proctor, because of the jealousy inside her. She accuses his wife of witchery, however he turns the situation around and blames himself so his wife could survive. Abigail eventually runs away because she knows now that Proctor will never be with her again because he will be hanged. As I described in the above paragraph, Abigail is a very dynamic character. She goes through many changes throughout the play. She turns against Proctor, she wants to be saved by God, and she confesses what Tituba makes her do.
Abigail Williams is a strong, leader in “The Crucible”. She is an important character in the play for many reasons, but the greatest is because without her, the Salem Witch Trials may not have happened. As the antagonist of the play, she is a very deceitful, persuasive girl. Miller makes her have many different personalities in the play. Brave, soiled, scared, and in the end, a coward. Abigail Williams is overall not a good girl, but a devious little girl

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