By being selfish Abigail is portrayed to be aggressive and manipulative so she can save her reputation and life. Abigail and the girls in the community are scared because they were dancing and Abigail was going to drink a “charm” to lead to the death of Goody Proctor. One of the girls that was with them, Betty Parris is being unresponsive and has her father Reverend Parris very scared. Abigail is with the girls and she wants to get them intimidated so they will not tell the truth to the other people of the town. “All of you. We danced…And that is all.”( Miller 1107) Abigail wants to emphasize that they need to cement in their minds that they only danced and Abigail did not drink anything or do anything else even though she did. She ultimately
The selfishness of Abigail is shown when Betty says, “ You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!”(19). Another quote is when Abigail says,” Shut it! Now shut it!”(19). The quotes show that Abigail was trying to keep a secret from John Proctor. As seen in these texts, Abigail was trying to put a charm on Elizabeth Proctor in order to have John Proctor’s love. She really wanted Elizabeth Proctor dead because she wanted to keep John Proctor all to herself. This was very selfish on her part because she wanted John Proctor to be in love with her instead of him being in love with his wife, Elizabeth
To begin, Abigail’s background story must be explained for anybody to truly understand her character. Abigail is an orphan who witnessed her parents’ brutal murder as a young child and was taken in by her uncle Reverend Parris (148). Abigail has grown up without a proper mother and father figure to guide her through the trials of life. When Abigail is first introduced into the scene, the narrator uses an intriguing choice of words to describe her. Some literary analysts may argue that Abigail’s childhood living situation is the reason that she behaves the way she does; however this is not the case. Abigail has a tendency to victimize herself to gain and receive attention whenever she pleases. Throughout acts I and II, Abigail has made herself the victim in a multitude of different ways. For example, Reverend Parris accuses Abigail of having a blemished reputation around the town of Salem. She denies this statement; however, when Parris calls her bluff, she blames the
The Crucible is a play is referred to the Samel Witch trials that takes place in Massachusetts in 1962. Abigail Williams is the leader of a group of girls who are a part of the Samel witch trials. Abigail is Betty Parris cousin and the niece of Reverend Parris. She never went down without a fight. Abigail is selfish and only cares about her own goals. Throughout the whole pay she shows her greedy, dishonesty, manipulative character.
Since Abigail is the Reverends niece and grew up with a pastor in the household it seems as if she should be very humble and a good person but her human nature took a toll making her greedy therefore making her dishonest and deceptive. She is afraid that people won’t agree with her, that motivates her to get people on her side. She then falsely accuses others of witchcraft and her being the victim. Witchcraft was taken very seriously back then and it ended up ripping apart the town and caused non stop fighting by almost everyone. Abigail’s main motive is John Proctor so she tries to lie to John about his wife to get him to fall for her “She is blackening my name in the village she is telling lies about me she’s a cold swiveling
When Abigail was accused of being involved in the events that happened in the forest, she took a proactive role in the situation. Abigail was able to manipulate others to make them believe she was innocent. One of the major factors that motivated Abigail in her lies was fear. She did not want to be punished or whipped for what she did in the forest. She also made the other girls fear her by threating them with their lives if they contradicted her story. Abigail did not want to bring shame to her name. When Reverend Parris approached her with the events that happened in the forest, she placed all of the attention on everyone but herself. Revan Parris also asks her why Goody Proctor fired her, and her
Abigail Williams' actions are very much influenced by her motivations. First, she refuses to admit to dancing in the woods. Mary Warren suggests admitting in order to avoid severe punishment. Instead, Abigail decides to turn the attention from the girls onto others
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible features consolidated diverse themes to challenge the reader, including intricate concepts such as good and evil, individual versus community motives and, omission and commission. Every character has their own motivations and desires, whether they be positively or negatively driven, however, the motives of Abigail Williams are notable.
The entire book “The Crucible” is written based upon the Salem Witch Trials. There is constant paranoia about who is a witch in the town and Abigail Williams uses this to get what she wants. Abigail is motivated to keep the fear of witchcraft alive in the town of Salem because of her desire to be with John proctor, to get rid of her competition, Elizabeth Proctor, and with her idea for god to cleanse the town.
Abigail plays a character that continues to lie to hurt others out of ulterior motives. She proves to be a very deceitful and untrustworthy character by many of her acts throughout the play. One of the first things Abigail speaks about is to her uncle, Reverend Parris, about what Abigail, Betty and some other girls were doing in the forest. She denies everything that her uncle saw them doing and said that they were simply dancing. However, not shortly after she speaks to Mercy and Mary about how they did do all of the things her uncle accused her of and Betty accused Abigail of drinking a charm to kill Goody Proctor.
The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is a timeless representation of corruption. One of the main characters, Abigail Williams, is an incredible opportunist and uses her wit to manipulate and dictate the outcome of nearly the entire play. Many would argue that Abigail is to blame for every tragedy that takes place, although they’re overlooking many factors that persuade and push her to make the decisions that she has. As a young orphan girl who has been exposed to brutality as an adolescent and pitied by many for this, it's easy to see where the root of her vengeful behavior came from. Abigail walks a thin line between being resentful and being “evil”, ultimately making it cruel to blame her for every misfortune in the story.
Nikki Vollrath Additional Questions 1. A crucible is a vessel made of material that doesn’t melt easily and is used for high temperature chemical reactions. Miller making the title of this play The Crucible is justified because it describes the court room perfectly. They used the heat of questioning to get the truth just like in a chemical reaction you use heat to get to your product.
The play starts out with Abigail being accused of dancing in the woods, by Rev. Parris. “And what shall i say to them? That my daughter and my niece i discovered dancing like heathen in the forest? ( pg. 138) Abigail confesses to dancing, but only that.
After reading and watching Act 1 of The Crucible, I’ve realized that there are quite a few characters to blame for all the witchcraft and dancing in the woods. The person I feel is the most guilty so far is Abigail. I think that Abigail has told the most lies and has contributed to the problem more than anyone else. Abigail took all of her friends into the woods to dance and drank the blood of a chicken. She also removed her clothes and ran around the woods. She then tells all of the other girls to keep their mouths shut about the things that happened that night, even though they all know that what Abigail did was far more than just dancing. She lies to her uncle about the situation, and she eventually blames Tituba once she realizes that her
Abigail Williams is always making sure the people of Salem believe her act of innocence and lying to keep her name white in the town. She wants everyone to think she always tells the truth and is pure, so she will never get in trouble for the dreadful acts she does. She secretly deceits others to keep them on her side and will make up any story to get the blame off of her and on someone else. When Parris confronts Abigail about what the girls did the in woods she says to him with assertion, “Uncle, we did dance; let you tell them I confessed it- and I’ll be whipped if I must be. But they’re speaking of witchcraft. Betty’s not
“A name means a lot just by itself.” When people contemplate Abigail’s name, they say she is a whore. I believe Abigail is the most despicable character in the play. There are many explanations as to why Abigail is thought to be the most despicable person in the play. When questioned about being witched, she becomes deceitful and says that she is, along with a gang of other girls.