Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible' is a mid-20th century play telling the story of the famous Salem witch trials. The play begins with girls doing mysterious and devilish things in the woods, and amongst them: Abigail Williams, the outcast orphan niece of Reverend Parris, whom is equally disliked by the villager. She is a 17 year old girl whom has made many poor and alarming choices; she's had an affair with a married man, John Proctor, and now, has participated in the unspeakable act of witchcraft for nothing more than to seek her revenge on his wife, Elizabeth. Her character is rather simple, she is the villain; her ability to deceive, manipulate, lie, and control people drives the town to taking the lives of nineteen innocent people, and imprisoning many more. Although, why would a young lady like herself feel compelled to act so deviously in the first place? It is because of her horrendous past; watching her parents murdered in bed, being the outcast in her uncle's family, as well as the towns they lived in, she possesses a rung on the social ladder barely higher than that of Tituba, the Barbados slave. It is her cold upbringing, and poor choices that drives her to affect not only her life, but the lives of countless others tremendously.
Abigail's downfall in Salem began during her younger years when she endured the unthinkable: watching her parents heads being dashed in on their pillows by Native Americans. It was the gruesome reality of orphanage that hardened her into a cruel, unforgiving young woman; this is exemplified in Act One when she mercilessly threatens to kill anyone of the girls if they open their mouths about the witchcraft she devised the night before. Also, another challenge she faces in the small puritan commu...
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...er than face her sins.
As the curtains close on Miller's play, Abigail Williams has took the role of an evil villain to the ultimate level; she has torn away the morality of a puritan village, she has destroyed the life of her lover, her uncle's reputation, the girls' innocence, and all without even flinching. How could such a seemingly innocent girl be so cruel? By the end of the play, the villagers hold a loathing and malice towards her as well as the audience. Miller shows with her character that even the “innocent” will go to great lengths to sate their greed and desire. With the gruesome death of her parents, her love for an older man, and the choice to condemn the families of Salem is what makes her a driving and devastating force in 'The Crucible.' Although, we are left to wonder, are there witches among us, or just ingenious phonies like Abigail Williams?
I believe that Abigail Williams is to blame for turning the town of Salem against many people, and I think it is her fault that several people were killed. Abigail Williams sends the town into a state of hysteria by accusing men and women of practicing the satanic art of witchcraft. Abigail’s flaws - her lustful desire for John Proctor, her deceptive habit of lying in order to retain her good name in the town, and her selfishness and obsessive aspiration for power – led her to be ultimately responsible for the catastrophe of the witch hunt in Salem.
In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Miller demonstrated that it was Abigail William’s flaws – mendacity, lust, and arrogance – that led her to be responsible the most for the tragedy of the witch hunt in Salem, Massachusetts. Driven by lust, Abigail was able to lie to the Salem community in hopes of covering her and her friends’ deeds and gaining the attention of John Proctor. Her arrogance enabled her t0 advance her deceit.
In The Crucible, Arthur Miller shows that the tragedy of the Salem Witch Trials stems from human failings, particularly the need for vengeance, greed, and fear. Abigail Williams is an example of all three. Her fear prompts her to first accuse random women, her need for vengeance directs her toward Elizabeth, and her greed for power affects the lives of everyone around her. Individual flaws, when acted on collectively, inevitably cause the downfall of Salem.
To begin, teenager Abigail Williams exhibits the sinister side of human’s natural tendencies towards desire and deceit through her role in the play, identified Jungian archetype, and Kohlberg moral stage. First, as a female and an orphan, Abigail expresses the desperate sentiments of powerless women in the hierarchy of Salem society. Evident in Miller’s stage direction description, seventeen-year old Abigail depicts “a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling” (Miller I.8). Abigail’s dissembling or “hiding under a false appearance” (Webster Dictionary), reveals women’s inability to express genuine feelings, often out of fear of societal judgment or intolerance. As a female teen and orphan, Abigail represents a character with no authority in the Salem community, forced to act with malice and spite to get attention (as any female with a desire for influence would in this time). Second, identified with the Jungian archetype of the rebel, Abigail Williams acts with rage in an attempt to reveal and upend the immoral expectations present in Salem. Evidence of Abigail’s
The Crucible by Arthur Miller The Crucible is a fictional retelling of events in American history surrounding the Salem witch trials of the seventeenth century, yet is as much a product of the time in which Arthur Miller wrote it, the early 1950s, as it is description of Puritan society. At that particular time in the 1950s, when Arthur Miller wrote the play the American Senator McCarthy who chaired the ‘House Un-American Activities Committee’ was very conscious of communism and feared its influence in America. It stopped authors’ writings being published in fear of them being socialist sympathisers. Miller was fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials and that human beings were capable of such madness. In the 1950s the audience would have seen the play as a parallel between the McCarthy trials and the Salem Trials.
John and Elizabeth continue to argue. John Hale appears at their doorway. He is traveling to each house, talking to those who were mentioned in court, trying to find out more information about them. John says that he knows that Abigail and the other girls are not telling the truth. Two Salem citizens that have had wives arrested show up and a short time passes before a party comes to arrest Elizabeth.
The Crucible, takes place in the small Puritan village called Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The witchcraft trials grew out of the moral system of the Puritans. This split the town into two, those who were considered witches and those who wanted good.
Many years ago, the culture and atmosphere was amazingly different. The expectations of people and communities are extremely high. During the Puritan times, many laws and regulations existed pertaining to government, religion, and witchcraft. In the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the one word that best describes the Puritan beliefs and the community structure is strict.
The crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is about the Salem witch trials and how people react to hysteria created from the fear of witches. In the play, after hysteria breaks out, the Salem government starts persecute and hang people it believes are witches. This prompts people to start to accusing people of witchcraft. Some people who accuse others of committing witchcraft are Abigail Williams and Thomas Putnam. They do not accuse people of witchcraft to stop witchcraft, but for personal gain or to hurt others. Thomas Putnam, one of the many characters who takes advantage of the witch trials, is able to use the fear of witches to bend the court to his will. Hysteria causes people to believe claims that are clearly false. This allows Putnam to persecute his enemies. He and many other are able to get away with this because hysteria driven persecutions are not run like regular courts and the fact that witchcraft is an invisible crime allows evidence to be made up. The theme of The Crucible is when any persecution is driven by fear and people can and will manipulate the system so they can gain and hurt another.
There might be many responsible characters in this pay, but Abigail Williams is the most responsible for many bad things that occur in this play written by Arthur Miller. Abigail Williams, a main character in the "Crucible" is to blame for the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. She is not a nice woman. She doesn't care about the people she hurts. She causes many people pain. She makes many people suffer. Abigail Williams is the most responsible for many problems because she lies, she manipulates, and accuses innocent people for witchcraft.
In every family, there is one child that is always very misleading and evil, and besides that, they get away with everything that they do that is unsound. The certain person in the family may break on of you mom’s favorite plate, and then end up placing the blame on you, and then persuades your parents that he or she is telling the true. Abigail Williams is the poor duplicate of that sibling or relative. She influences everyone that she is an innocent teenage girl, but that is not the case throughout the play. In the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Abigail is the bona fide misleading and evil teenage girl.
Miller crafts Abigail in remembrance of the real Abigail Williams from the Salem Witch Trials as the little girl who accuses various citizens of Salem of witchcraft; the towns subsequent belief in her words condemns much of the community, and Abigail gains a semblance of control. Miller’s portrayal illustrates the depths of depravity that the character embraces to retain her control, as she readily betrays Mary Warren, her friend and fellow witch hunter, to maintain her control over the community (87). With her damnation of Mary, Abigail highlights the corrupting desire that inspires monstrous acts of depravity, eventually culminating in an extensive “transcendent wickedness” as “she is determined to sacrifice everyone to her willfulness” (Porter qtd. by Ardolino). The control that Abigail retains over communal judgement creates an aspect of negative feedback, as she resorts to horrific actions to preserve her control, while the preservation of control only contributes to further corruption to maintain control. With the extreme corruption, Abigail betrays not only Mary Warren, but also the entire community, as she perverts religion in the Puritan community of religion-dominated life, with her actions blaspheming the thoughts of the period, as “Porter identifie[s] her most dangerous skill as the perversion of the sacrosanct office of bearing witness” (Ardolino). This attack on the most trusted ideal in court emphasizes Abigail’s depravity that eliminates virtues from society, promoting immorality that drives the blind society into a state of wickedness. As the town continued to trust and promote Abigail’s accusations, their misfortune lies in their own faults, as Abigail only maintains her control through the existence of the
Persecution has been a round for sometime and can be traced historically from the time of Jesus to the present time. Early Christians were persecuted for their faith in the hands of the Jews. Many Christians have been persecuted in history for their allegiance to Christ and forced to denounce Christ and others have been persecuted for failing to follow the laws of the land. The act of persecution is on the basis of religion, gender, race, differing beliefs and sex orientation. Persecution is a cruel and inhumane act that should not be supported since people are tortured to death. In the crucible, people were persecuted because of alleged witchcraft.
ruinously impact a whole community, is very aptly titled. By definition, a “crucible” is “a severe test,” and the challenges faced by Miller’s characters are many. The historical events dramatized in the play reflect how core human values, including truth, justice and love, are tested under life and death conditions. The trials of the characters and the values they hold dearly come when their simple, ordered world ceases to be black and white and easily deciphered, and is turned upside down in the gray shades of ambiguity.
The year is 1692 in Salem, a small town in Massachusetts, and the Puritans community is in serious trouble. In the story “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, the Puritans community is in the Salem court where John Proctor admits to committing adultery to Abigail Williams who at the time was very young. Abigail Williams is where the court started after she is involved in the case where John Proctor is accused of committing adultery with her. Abigail also lead the girls and their witchcraft accusations in court. Abigail truly believed that John Proctor still had love for her.