She was taken in by her Uncle Reverend Parris, who she now lives with. She is the leader of the group of girls who accuse witchcraft on the town members of Salem. She danced in the forest with Tituba, and is also in love with John Proctor. Abigail has many different attitudes which include determination and dishonesty. She shows that she is determined by trying her best to condemn Elizabeth Proctor to death just to be with her husband John Proctor.
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. One person after another she had them hung. People so clueless of her intentions saw her as a saint for getting rid of the “evil” in the town. In the end of the play Abigail’s reputation was soon found out about, she knew people would come back and accuse her of murder so she ran away with her uncle’s money and Mercy Lewis. In contrast with Abigail Williams Elizabeth Proctor was not your ideal woman.
In this quote Abigail in The Crucible (published in 1952), tells Parris that they were accusing the girls of witchcraft because they were dancing in the woods. There was not proof that what the girls were doing was affiliated with witchcraft. “I saw Goody Hawkins with the devil” (51) the girls start naming off people to keep themselves out of trouble. This definitely could tie back to the McCarthy case because they were giving unjustified evidence. McCarthy was listing names of Communists but he had no proof behind it.
When the trials began, many accused others of witchcraft and this lead to them accusing even more. The new news of the entire witchcraft epidemic in Salem left many disturbed and trying to eliminate the bad of the town. The novel allows the reader to reflect on the life of the Salem people and understand the happenings. One example is the reflection of the lives of teenage girls in the puritan society, sent by God to marry and have a family, lacking the happiness of teen hood. Thus, explaining a
Also it shows that the other girls as well as Marry Warren are scared of Abigail as they know that she is able to put the blame on anybody. Miller uses the power of fear to present Abigail as a powerful character as she uses it to control the other girls as they are frightened of her as she can get them killed. Miller uses the scene of the court room to emphasise this fear. The court room is a very powerful place and it is where people are judged to see if they are innocent or not. If they were innocent they would live and if they were found to be guilty they would be killed.
While denying that the girls actions were true, the girls turn against Mary and accuse her of sending her "spirit" out on them. Abigial screams out in the courtroom, "Why-? Why do you come yellow bird?". Then all
I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” (Act I) In this quote it explains how Abigail tried saving herself from being known as a “bad” person. Abigail also wants her name good in the village because a rumor was spread of her having an affair with John Proctor which is true. She then wants John Proctors wife dead so she could have him for herself. It then blows up in her face that she did not get what she wanted simply because Proctor did not want her.
When the witch trials begin, Reverend Hale questions John and asks him to recite the Ten Commandments and misses one Commandment (ironically, the Commandment regarding adultery), and thus begins Proctor’s quest to prove himself not to be of the devil. Later on in the play, Proctor makes a false confession to save his life, however, he tears it up stating “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another name in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies!” (Miller 143). The previous quote is important to Proctor’s crucible because it proves that he has failed his quest and has given in rather than continuing to try and prove he is not an associate of the
An example of this would be the story the crucible by Arthur Miller. In this story there is one girl named Abigail who accuses people of being witches because she didn’t want anyone to know what she had done in the forest. Eventually people started accusing anyone they disliked of being a witch, and people believed them and killed them because of what someone said. This just goes to show that social media nowadays is somewhat like this story from the Salem witch trials. With knowing this I believe that it would be smarter to block social media while there was a mass-hysteria
People are not comfortable with the unknown, which is why they fear moving out of norms. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible validates his claim that when faced with their fear of the unknown, particularly the dread of social isolation, humans show trepidation. Arthur Miller supports this claim in his The Crucible through Abigail’s manipulation of the judges in this play. Abigail manipulates the judges by threatening them with the unknown so that she can continue her twisted game of accusing people of witchcraft. When Abigail first enters this play, Miller describes her in the stage prompt as a girl who has “an endless capacity for dissembling,” (7) to inform the reader that she is capable of justifying her means with her ends.