Abigail is truly insane in this play. She is insanely infatuated with John Proctor a married man. Everything she does is for the purpose that one day she might be with John Proctor. So because of this she throws herself at John every opportunity that she got. Like a normal man that has an immensely gorgeous girl in her late teens thrown at you, John Proctor fell in sin and committed adultery and had sexual relations with Abigail.
Abigail Williams is one of the biggest hypocrites out of all the characters. She is a teenage girl whom had fallen in lust with a married man. As she was working for John Proctor as his servant she went head over heels for his charm. She then had an affair with him and was soon put out of their home by Goody Proctor. The affair was denied to many.
She was dismissed from her job as a servant because she had slept with the man she was working for, whom was married. Her name was blushed throughout the town because of her actions involving John Proctor. In the middle of the play Abigail Williams’ secret was revealed when people found out about the witchcraft she took place in in the beginning of the play in the forest. Knowing Abigail’s reputation as a liar she knew she could get away with it again. She had people fooled to believe that she had god in her and she could see the evil in people and could tell if they were in witchcraft.
This vindictive hatred from Abigail soon prompts a witch hunt involving many innocent people: “Twelve have already hanged for the same crime.” While many panics, John Procter knows this from the start ; “this is a whore’s vengeance”. He tersely identifies the main cause for the witch trials to be directly linked with a spurned lover, who has become disemployed by Procter after having a brief extra-marital affair with her. Still overwhelmed with lustful feelings for John Procter, Abigail decides to manipulate the situation by accusing innocent people of witchcraft, to achieve her own revengeful goal. Abigail is not the only one who takes advantage of the witch trials, to accomplish their revenge. Thomas and Ann Putnam, as a resentful and greedy couple, will take it out on anyone who has caused them trouble.
Abigail’s greed was the most destructive to the outcome of this story. She destroyed most people’s reputation in the town. Many innocent people are hanged for crimes they did not commit including John Proctor. Abigail wanted to get rid of John Proctor’s wife Elizabeth, and Elizabeth was charged with consorting with the devil. Abigail new the punishment for the crime of witchcraft was hanging and carried out her accusation so that she and Jon could “dance upon her grave together.”(Act 3) John Proctor is also charged with witch craft; he had a choice of lying about consorting with the devil or keeping his integrity.
When Abigail creates hysteria over witchcraft that sweeps over Salem, she views the situation as a chance to lie and manipulate to achieve her goals, while John Proctor sees through Abigail’s deceit and views the situation as a childish stunt that could get many innocent townspeople hurt. Proctor’s fears come true when Abigail begins accusing innocent women, including Elizabeth, John Proctor’s wife, of witchcraft, hoping to have Proctor for herself after Elizabeth has been hanged. Abigail sees Salem as full of gullible and easily manipulated pawns in her evil game of self-aggrandizement and in her quest to be with John Proctor. Proctor, however, regards Abigail’s plot as an atrocity and tries to save his wife and the other accused townspeople at all costs. Unlike Abigail, Proctor degrades himself in front of all of his fellow townspeople by admitting his lechery to the court in an attempt
Proctors wife has been convicted of being a witch by Abigal and the towns men are about to take her away and Proctor stands in front of them and says ,“Youl’ll leave her out of sight and out of mind mister!”(202) Also when he is in the court house trying to save his wife and admits to having an affair with Abigal ruining hiss own name to save his wife. “I have known her sir!...God help me I lusted” (miller 221). Proctor throws his reputation away to save his wife. In Act five John Proctor threw everything that’s happened becomes a noble man. When he’s talking to his wife and makes the decision for himself “John Proctor: what should I do woman!”... “I’m sorry John it is not my decision John” (Miller 239).
Not only did Abigail accuse innocent people of witchcraft, but also had an affair with a married man, John Proctor. In the late 1600’s it was said to be a sin to sleep with a married man. Because of her affair with John Proctor, I think that Abigail ended up falling in love with John and wanted his wife out of the picture, hence the reason why she falsely accuses her. “I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart! I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men!
Abigail realizes that by giving the names of people she saw with the devil she can control Salem because she has a good name and people will listen to her. June Schlueter and James K. Flanagan claim “.A shrewd opportunist, she turns her own violation of Salem law into an occasion for naming those for whom she has little liking and, in so doing, transforms herself into a local heroine.” (116) John Proctor knows that Abigail is controlling Salem with her accusations and recognizes that the only way to stop her is to sully her good name. When Abigail accuses John’s wife of witchcraft, he becomes enraged and claims “It is a whore!” (Miller 220). By accusing Abigail of being a whore, John is trying to ruin her name and stop her from making any more accusations, but by admitting to “have known her, sir.” is also ruining his own good
The cause of the conflict, his sin of lechery with Abigail destroys his very belief in his own integrity, ‘he is a sinner, a sinner not only against the moral fashion of the time but against his own vision of decent conduct’. The potential for growth is inherent in any theatre of conflict. But that growth can only happen where there is courage and humility and an unswerving commitment to truth. When Elizabeth Proctor is arrested and taken to jail and charged with witchcraft her husband is finally forced to go to Salem to openly declare his adultery in order to discredit Abigail. At this point, there is an almost palpable sense of relief for Proctor, ‘we are as we always were, but naked now, and G-d’s icy wind does blow’, as if something impeding his potential for growth has had last been