Why Is Abigail Williams Important In The Crucible

Arthur Miller’s famous play about the Salem Witchcraft Trials, The Crucible has an example of how certain circumstances can let people obtain control over society. In this play, a group of girls and many others are suspected of witchcraft and they start accusing other people, which causes hysteria to spread throughout the town. Most of the time, the accusations being made are false and used as a way to get revenge. In the end, many people end up dying because of the trails. The Salem Witchcraft Trials empowered previously powerless people such as Abigail Williams, Mary Warren, and Tituba by giving them the ability to determine people’s fate through accusations. The person who benefits the most from the Salem Witchcraft Trials is Abigail Williams because people start to trust her blindly. In the beginning of the play, Abigail barely had any authority in the town. When her uncle, Reverend Parris, asks her what she and the other girls were doing in the forest, he reminds her, “I have given you a home, child, I have put clothes upon your back” (1094). This implies that Abigail is an orphan and because Parris has taken care of her all her life, she has to do what he says. Also, since Abigail is an orphan, she clearly does not have too much power in the town. In addition to this, Abigail used to work as …show more content…
As the madness about witchcraft spreads all around the town, the girls are treated like they are divine, especially Abigail. The accusations made by Mary, Abigail, and even the slave Tituba not only get people killed or put in jail, but they also end up ruining the person’s name in the town. In a way with this new authority, the girls can be seen as the real judges of the Salem Witchcraft Trials because they get to decide who the witches are and people believe