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The crucible arthur miller analysis
Arthur miller criticism
The crucible arthur miller analysis
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No people living in the Salem Village were ever ready for the horror and conviction they would have to face the winter of 1692. In that year, about one hundred people living in the village we convicted of witchcraft and almost twenty were hung. No villager had assumed the accusers were really the guilty ones, as Abigail Williams is one of these types of people. Arthur Miller writes in The Crucible that Abigail Williams is a very manipulative and bitter person. She tends to be unsure on making decisions. She hurts others around her to get what she wants. For example she wants John for herself and only for herself. Abigail sees herself in a superior way because she thinks she is worthy of Johns love, and his own wife Elizabeth does not deserve any of it. She says, “Oh, I marvel how such a strong man can be with such a sickly wife” (24 miller). This is one of the main reasons why Abigail starts all of the rumors in Salem. After Abigail’s brief affair with John Proctor, she cannot come to admit the fact that the relationship is over. She says. “I look for the John …show more content…
Because she gets hurt by john proctor, “She faces these, her own crises, by helping to raise and create a witch hunt”(10). Near the end of the play john tries to get Mary Warren to confess about how everything done in the woods and how Abigail is telling all lies. Abigail is confronted with this and she continues to lie. She then makes the court believe that Mary is sending her soul as a bird and is trying to come after her. Being as devious as she is, she gets all of the girls to follow her lead in the lies. “To escape discovery and punishment, Abigail fearfully takes away the attention from discovery of her own mistakes by pointing her finger at others”(10) and that is Exactly what she does throughout the play to try to get her one and only lover john proctor
The first reason Abigail is to blame for the deaths of the innocent Puritans is her lustful personal ambition to be John Proctor’s wife. John and Abigail previously had an affair, which basically began the hysteria. An exasperated John attempted to tell Abigail the affair is a thing of the past, by saying, “Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again.” Abigail, however, relentlessly strives to keep their “romance” alive. Because of this intense jealousy of John’s wife, there is an enormous amount of tension between Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail even goes as far as to consume a potion with the intent to murder Elizabeth, which Betty confronts her about by saying, “You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!” Abigail is so envious of Elizabeth, she does the unthinkable by accusing her of witchcraft. She claims that Goody Proctor’s spirit came to her and stabbed her with a needle. She felt that if she could dispose of Elizabeth Proctor, she could take her rightful position as John’s wife.
The Crucible How does an individual gain so much power through trials? In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrays Abigail Williams as a powerful individual by revealing her control over the younger girls and the continuous accusations she makes until the end of the play. Throughout the entire play, it is made clear that Abigail has control over the younger girls in the village. In Act 1, it is right away noticed that her way of controlling them is through causing fear by making threats.
Abigail’s mendacity is a driving force throughout the play. It becomes clear early on in Act One that Abigail is hiding something. Her reactions to her uncles questioning of her name and reasons for discharge from Goody Proctors service are curious. The stage directions indicate that she answers “with an edge of resentment,” “with ill concealed resentment” and “in a temper.” She defends herself by slandering Goody Proctor. When she and her friends were together and realized that they could be in serious trouble she told them exactly what to say and threatened them if they did otherwise. When pressed with questions about the night of dancing in the woods and drinking blood, she tells blatant lies about Tituba by saying, “She made me do it! She made Betty do it!” (1154). This is known to be a lie because earlier when the girls were discussing their alibi, it came out that Abigail drank the bloody charm to kill John Proctor’s wife. Tituba says that
Abigail's necessity for revenge makes her threaten the young ladies into following her idea of deception. “Let either of you breathe a word,” Abigail threatens, “or the edge of a word about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you”(835). Abigail knows that all the girls in the woods fear her to death. Which made the witch trials easier for her to get by. Another thing is that Abigail ends her affair with John Proctor to try to get revenge on him. “A man may think God
She is now extremely powerful and confident. More than all the women and men in Salem, Elizabeth Proctor is Abigail's target. Abigail wants John Proctor all to herself and Abigail gets it through her head that in order to achieve her goal she is going to have to kill Goody Proctor. During Act Two of The Crucible, Elizabeth states “ Spoke or silent, a promise is surely made. She may dote on it now-I am sure she does- and thinks to kill me, then to take my place.” (59) Elizabeth knows what Abigail has planned and begins to feel very scared and threatened. Mary, Abigail’s own friend, also feels very threatened by the confidence that Abigail has gained. Mary states on page 77, “She’ll kill me for sayin that! Abby’ll charge lechery on you, Mr. Proctor… I have known it, Sir. She’ll ruin you with it, I know she will.” Abigail’s threats give her power because now Proctor and Elizabeth cannot defend themselves without telling the court of John’s act of adultery.The confidence that Abigail has gained throughout the Acts, have caused a downward spiral for the well being of the town. Innocent people are now being accused for witchcraft. Just because Abigail has created such a massive
She is the niece of Reverend Parris and the cousin of Betty Parris; she used to work as a servant for the Proctors, before being sent away by Elizabeth Proctor; she is the ringleader of the “afflicted” girls. Abigail Williams was the initial instigator of the witch hunt in Salem in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible. She lied and accused others of witchcraft in order to save herself. During the Salem Witch Trials over 200 people were accused of witchcraft and 20 were executed (Blumberg). Abigail Williams is a member of a strict Puritan society. Witnessing her parents being murdered right in front of her, being forced to live with her selfish inconsiderate uncle, and having a love for a man she
Firstly, women in the late 17th century did not have proper representation in matters that involved them or matters that they would like to be involved in. Female judges were not allowed in the town of Salem, referencing the fact that no woman was allowed to be a judge in the Salem Witch trials. Since no women were allowed in positions of high stature, no form of empathy was shown towards the accused females. To support this claim, one might be inclined to observe the female characters that supported the falsified claims of witchcraft. Only Mrs. Putnam accused another woman, the accused´s name being Sarah Good. Sarah was convicted solely due to the superstition and paranoia surrounding the death of Mrs. Putnam's babies; Mrs. Putnam hitherto had a sneaking suspicion that Sarah had murdered her newborns by supernatural means, and that belief was solidified when the hysteria arose. Abigail´s aberrations from normalcy have similar ties to Mrs. Putnam´s, as both women used the panic to get rid of people they dislike. Abigail took matters even further when she realized that the attention she was getting would stop if she ceased the accusations after killing Elizabeth, so she continued to make erroneous claims against the people of Salem. Another incriminating piece of information surrounding Abigail´s troublesome behavior is the insatiable thirst for revenge that rose from the depths of Abigail’s heart towards Elizabeth Proctor. In act one, Abigail says to John “Oh, I marvel how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife be . . . she is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her!” (Miller, 23-24). This quote is a prime example of the hatred Abigail felt towards Elizabeth. The quote also intimates towards the lust Abigail feels towards John Proctor. The feelings
Abigail Williams may seem like a nice young woman but looks can be very deceiving. Although she comes from the household of the Reverend of the town, she is a heartless and a horrible person that will do anything to get the man that she wants.” You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!” (Miller,1137). Abigail obviously cares about nobody, only John Proctor.
In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Abigail Williams plays a very important role in the play. In fact without her there would not be a Salem witch trial in Salem, Massachusetts. Abigail is the source of all the hysteria in attempt to defend herself from her crimes. She is a mean and vindictive person who always wants her way, no matter who she hurts. Throughout the play her lies and accusations and cause many people there lives , but she seemed to never care for any of them except John Proctor who she had an affair with several months prior to the beginning of the play. Abigail is definitely the antagonist of the village. She tells lies, manipulates her friends and the entire town, and eventually sends nineteen innocent people to their deaths. Abigail Williams is Selfish and
In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, the main character Abigail Williams is to blame for the 1692 witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Abigail is a mean and vindictive person who always wants her way, no matter who she hurts. Through out the play her accusations and lies cause many people pain and suffering, but she seemed to never care for any of them except John Proctor, whom she had an affair with seven months prior to the beginning of the play. John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth used to employ Abigail, until Elizabeth found out the affair and threw Abigail out. Although John told Abigail that the affair was over and he would never touch her again, she tried desperately to rekindle their romance. "Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I'll ever reach for you again." (Page 23) She claimed that she loved John and that he loved her. Before the play began, Abigail tried to kill Elizabeth with a curse. She thought that if Elizabeth were dead John would marry her. Further into the play, Abigail accused Elizabeth of witchcraft. She saw Marry Warren, the Proctor's servant, making a poppet. Mary put a needle into the doll, and Abigail used that for her accusation. She stabbed herself with a needle and claimed that Elizabeth's soul had done it. Although Abigail claimed she loved John, she may have just loved the care and attention he gave her. John cared for her like no one else had. In a way he could be described as somewhat of a father figure to her. When Abigail was just a child, she witnessed her parents' brutal murders. "I saw Indians smash my dear parent's heads on the pillow next to mine..." (page 20) After her traumatic experience, she was raised by her uncle, Reverend Parris, who is somewhat of a villain. In the play it was written, "He (Parris) was a widower with no interest in children, or talent with them." (Page 3) Parris regarded children as young adults who should be "thankful for being permitted to walk straight, eyes slightly lowered, arms at the sides, and mouths shut until bidden to speak." (Page 4) Therefore, it is obvious to see that Abigail grew up without any love or nurturing.
From the beginning, she established a licentious and conniving character by having intercourse with John Proctor, while she was out of wedlock, and while he was married to Elizabeth. While ranting, Abigail says, “ She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! .She is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her! Let her turn you like a -” (23-24). One of the only things Abigail ever cared about was her “name” within the village. Williams went to extreme lengths to protect her “name” and she was fine with destroying other people's’ lives, reputation, and dignity. Abigail also says, “You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet! John, pity me, pity me” (24)! By blinding herself with the false idea of someone loving her, Abigail she destroys her self value by asking for the pity of the man who fails to love her back. She would rather have her name pure than admit she danced in the woods, and receive a light whipping. Instead, she seeks revenge on a legitimate housewife, and takes the entire village with her to the
Her motive for accusing others of witchcraft is because she wants to get rid of Elizabeth so that she can be John’s “perfect wife,” and because she does not want to get in trouble. Abigail is the perfect foil for anyone who is even slightly honest. Elizabeth, on the other hand, “have never lied.” John Proctor said to Danforth, “There are them that cannot sing, and them that cannot weep--my wife cannot lie.” She fires Abigail as her servant when she finds out about an affair between Abigail and her husband.
was the Reverend of the Parish. Abigails troubled home life also lead way to causing trouble in another family's home, the Proctors. When Abigail falls in love with John Proctor (a married man) she is kicked out by
The true antagonist of the play is the town of Salem itself, because of the judgemental and self concerned peoples, and its oppressive views. Abigail;s outrageous actions are due to her desensitized views on death and actions otherwise viewed as unethical. From her youth ABigail recalls: “ I saw indians smash my dear parents’ head on the pillow next to mine and i have seen some reddish work at night” (Miller 20), because of this Abigail is numb to death and suffering and is in fact quite morbid. There is no problem in condemning other to death in Abigail’s eyes because she doesn’t see the issue with it. Abigail does not seem to comprehend that it is unethical to let people be hanged and stoned to death and has no issue telling others that she “ can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down” (Miller 20). Not only is Abigail desensitized to murder and death, she is also numb to other unethical dilemmas. Abigail is desensitized to corrupting the Proctor’s marriage because of her childish lust and obsession for John Proctor. Such desires can be seen through her encounters with Proctor. In regards to their so called “relationship” she says: “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 love me now!” (Miller 22). Abigail does not view her behavior t...
Abigail Williams is the troubled niece of Reverend Parris of Salem. She is an orphan; made so by brutal natives who killed her parents before her very eyes. The witch-hunt begins when Abigail is at the age of seventeen. She has a large role in this novel, especially on these dark events and also her relationship with John Proctor.