The Salem witch trials was a very big thing back in the 1600’s. At that time Puritans believed in witchcraft and that the devil could conjure your spirit. They were scared of these things happening in their village so they would do anything to prevent it from happening,. This included killing anyone suspected to be with the devil or to be a witch. It turned out to be a big problem when a group of girls were supposedly seeing spirits sent out at them and the devil would come to them telling them to sign his book. Abigail Williams was the leader of this group and is very much to blame for the innocent deaths of the people in the village. When her cousin ,Betty Parris, fell “sick”after being caught by her father dancing in the woods with a group of girls and he claimed they were summoning spirits they …show more content…
This created a huge problem in Salem because people that were being accused were liked and not suspected by other people of them being witches. John Proctor and Giles Corey were determined to take Abigail and the group of girls down and stop their nonsense of witchcraft.This backfired when both of them were both thrown in jail. The lie that Abigail and the girls created was so big and they were almost worshipped for getting rid of the witches. This was the first time in this time period that women were actually listened too and were in full control. So no wonder why they went along with it because they loved the attention.But the cost of their attention was many deaths of other innocent people. Abigail eventually realized that her lie was going to catch up with her. so she took all of her uncle's money and fled Salem. It wasn't until later on that the people of Salem knew they had made a huge mistake by believing the girls and that they put innocent people to death.They can only blame themselves for letting their fear overcome their common sense. From then on society has learned the lesson of not to believe everything you
Because of Abigail’s deleterious behavior, many innocent victims were brutally murdered. All of her actions were selfish and pretentious. Abigail may not have intended to cause the witch trials, but she certainly did nothing to end them once they began. Abigail’s lustful behavior, her unhealthy habit of lying, and her obsessive desire for power makes her responsible for the Salem witch trials.
Abigail Williams tried very hard to keep her pride together. She kept secrets in order to keep her name good to people in Salem Village, but after a while she failed. After she accused so many victims, people stopped believing there were ever really witches in Salem. When John admitted to adultery with Abigail, she didn't deny it, yet she didn't say she did not know him. She wouldn't lie to the court yet she refused to admit to this. She told John her name was good in the town in the beginning , but she didn't seem to know what was in store for her reputation, especially when she fled
The Salem Witch trials were when hundreds of citizens of Salem, Massachusetts were put on trial for devil-worship or witchcraft and more than 20 were executed in 1692. This is an example of mass religion paranoia. The whole ordeal began in the home of Reverend Samuel Parris. People soon began to notice strange behavior from Parris’s slave, Tituba, and his daughters. Many claimed to have seen Parris’s daughters doing back magic dances in the woods, and fall to the floor screaming hysterically. Not so long after, this strange behavior began to spread across Salem.
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
During the early years of the colonies, there was a mad witch hunt striking the heart of Salem. Anger, reputation, and even religion play an important part during the play of The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller. The author allows us to witness the vivid idea of the hysteria taking place in Salem, Massachusetts, and why it was so vulnerable during the time.
A motivation can be described as a character having a reason to behave or act in a particular way. Someone or something can be someone's motivation. A child obeys its parents to avoid punishment or a clerk works overtime so that he can afford a better car are examples of motivation. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, characters illustrate several types of motivations. Throughout the play, Abigail is motivated by jealousy, power, and attention.
Right when he finds them, Betty becomes sick and won't talk or open her eyes, about this time other people's daughters become sick too. Rumors spread that witch craft is involved in Betty's illness and the development of the plot begins. Important to the major development of the plot is the fact that in the forest, Abigail and the others were just playing like witches. But they were following Abigail because she wanted to try to put a curse on a lady named Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail was in love with Mrs. Proctor's husband, John Proctor, and she wanted to some how get rid of Elizabeth.
Abigail Williams the main character in The Crucible by Arthur Miller draws the interest of the reader as she is a wicked, confident girl who lies to get what she wants and defends her name and her life.
For example, the morning after the girls were found dancing in the woods, the townspeople marched through the streets of the town speaking of witchcraft. Abigail’s uncle, Reverend Parris, suspicion was raised when Abigail was one of the girls found dancing the woods, asking her why she did it. She spoke to the other girls in the woods threatening
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.
The people in Salem were ruled by the fear being killed. All the lying that occurred in Salem began the build of fear. Abigail is the main character that caused the lying. Her first lie starts in the beginning of the book after being caught dancing with other girls in the woods. Abigail herself feared the consequences she would face if the town found out about what happened in the forest. She made sure to threaten all the girls by saying “...Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you…” (Miller 20). Her threat established a fear into the girls’ heads that would prevent them from their normal action of telling the truth. Following this event Abigail must save her reputation, In order to do this she lies to Reverend Hale saying “She made me do it! She made Betty do it!”(Miller 43). Abigail's accusation toward Tituba also leads to the accusation of Sarah Good and Goody Osburn. The way Abigail acted was a result of fear, if she feared nothing bad would come from telling the truth then she wouldn't have lied. The girls may have set the wi...
During the Salem witch trials, Puritan girls, like Abigail, used their platform as pure and all knowing to harm people who had wronged them in the past by saying they were with the devil or some other moral misdeed. Abigail uses such a platform to not only get out of trouble she caused herself but save an important part of herself. She tries to save her reputation. Abigail’s motivation is her reputation, so she decides to lie in front of the court causing her to take extreme acts to make her innocent by the end of the play.
Salem's hysteria made the community lose faith in the spiritual beliefs that they were trying to strictly enforce. The church lost many of its parishioners because the interest of the town was now on Abigail because people wanted to know who was going to be named next. When the church was trying to excommunicate John Proctor, there were not enough people at church to do it. The people were getting misled so far as to leave a dagger stuck in the door of their minister's house: “tonight, when I open my door to leave my house a dagger clattered to the ground...There is danger for me” (128), were Parris' exact words. With the conveyer of God fearing for his life there was no longer anyone but Abigail to lead the community.
In conclusion I ask this again: how can a girl who condemned seventy two to a death sentence and drank a charm to kill a man’s wife, a man she slept with on more than one occasion, be the victim? Abigail is truly a victim just as much as one of those she condemned to death, because of Salem’s judgemental, self-concerned and oppressive views and beliefs led her to it.
One night the girls were caught dancing in the woods naked by Reverend Parris. Abigail threatened the other girls she would kill them if they ever said what they were actually doing, which was conjuring spirits. Abigail was the one who had done most of the wrong dong including drinking blood. Because of this event the start of the whole witch hunt and hysteria can be accredited to Abigail. Whenever she would be accused she would make up a lie, and threaten the other girls to say it was the truth.