In the year 1692, the Salem Witch Trials were held after a group young girls screamed “witch!” About two and a half centuries later, a play would be written on it, with an allegorical story hinting at McCarthyism. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a play that takes us back in time to some forty years after the Puritans first arrived in Salem. In it, we are introduced to characters based off of the real people that played a part in the trials, from Giles Corey with his famous “more weight!” to Abigail Williams, the very root of the trials, and she just happens to be the one to cause Salem’s destruction. Her character is complex, first starting off as a worried cousin of Betty Parris, who was supposedly unconscious after they were caught
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Her innocence is short-lived, as she morphs into an unforgiving monster that hangs people for the sake of what she calls love. Another instance is when she is talking with Proctor when he first arrives in Act I: “I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I come near! Or did I dream that? It’s she put me out, you cannot pretend it were you. I saw your face when she put me out, and you loved me then and you do now!” (Miller 22). Despite Proctor telling her so many times that he made a mistake and to put that night behind her. She was clinging onto a childish hope of continuing what was never meant to begin in the first place. Abigail’s manipulative nature allowed her to steer the trials to go in the direction she chose. In Act I, she tries to manipulate John Proctor into accepting a relationship with her by pretending to act helpless. “You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet! John, pity me, pity me!” (Miller 24). She attempted to bring back Proctor’s feelings for her when he had worked so hard to suppress them. One of her most notable threats is just a few pages
Her innocence is short-lived, as she morphs into an unforgiving monster that hangs people for the sake of what she calls love. Another instance is when she is talking with Proctor when he first arrives in Act I: “I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I come near! Or did I dream that? It’s she put me out, you cannot pretend it were you. I saw your face when she put me out, and you loved me then and you do now!” (Miller 22). Despite Proctor telling her so many times that he made a mistake and to put that night behind her. She was clinging onto a childish hope of continuing what was never meant to begin in the first place. Abigail’s manipulative nature allowed her to steer the trials to go in the direction she chose. In Act I, she tries to manipulate John Proctor into accepting a relationship with her by pretending to act helpless. “You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet! John, pity me, pity me!” (Miller 24). She attempted to bring back Proctor’s feelings for her when he had worked so hard to suppress them. One of her most notable threats is just a few pages