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Three major themes in the crucible
Three major themes in the crucible
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The Crucible, is a play by Arthur Miller, and it tells a story about the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail Williams plays an enormous part in the Salem Witch Trails by her constant lying, turning the trails into a mass hysteria. She is known in the town of Salem for causing trouble and being released from the Proctor’s house. Elizabeth Proctor released Abigail from her house under the suspicion that Abigail and John were having an affair. Elizabeth is very pure and upright and that is one of the reasons that these characters are foils from each other.
Abigail and Elizabeth are foils in the play by character traits. Abigail is a trouble maker, wicked, vengeful, a liar, and would do anything to stay out of trouble. “Let either of you breathe a word,
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Abigail is in love with John since they lusted one time. Abigail will never forget that; she wants to be with him. “I have a sense for heart, John, and yours has drawn on to my wind…” page 23 Act One. This quote proves that she has very strong feelings for John. Elizabeth loves John since they are married. Their religion is another reason they are different. Abigail goes against her religion by constantly lying, causing trouble, and lusting. “She comes to me every night to go and drink blood.” Page 44 Act One. This quote proves that Abigail is a lair because she lies on Tituba to save herself. According to the text “… Is your husband a lecher?” Danforth accuses. “No, Sir” Elizabeth responded. Act three page 113. This was the first time Elizabeth Proctor lies; she only lies to save her husband. This proves that Abigail is a wicked Puritan and Elizabeth is …show more content…
At the beginning of the play Abigail’s motive is to save herself and her reputation; at the end of the play she realizes that she only wants to be with John. She even accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft to get rid of her, so she could be with him. According to the text “Why-! The girl is murder! She must be ripped out of this world!” Page 76 Act Two. This quote shows that Elizabeth knows that Abigail wants to get rid of her. Elizabeth changes by how she treats John throughout the play. At the beginning she is cold towards John because of his affair with Abigail. Towards the end when he finally confesses that he committed lechery; she treats him better by loving and caring more for him. At the end she just wants John to be free with in his decision with the confession. According to the text “I am not your judge, I cannot be. Do as you will, do as you will.” Page 138 Act. This quote proves Elizabeth cannot be the judge of John in this decision, but it is his will. In conclusion Elizabeth and Abigail are clearly foils in the play The Crucible. Their character traits are opposite. They also are different for the reasons they love John and what type of Puritan Abigail and Elizabeth are by using character
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.
Proctor came home and told Elizabeth about what happened when he saw Abigail. Elizabeth does not hesitate to tell him that he needs to tell the court about her lying. "I think you must go to Salem, John. I think so. You must tell them it is a Fraud,"(Miller 938). In my opinion, Elizabeth should be mad at John for being alone with Abigail after she heard that they committed adultery. Elizabeth tells John she forgives him for his mistakes and then proceeds to tell him to do the right thing. At this point, she was unaware about her being falsely accused of
Elizabeth is angry that John was having an affair with Abigail. John feels that he has endured enough. He knows what he did was not right, but he demands to Elizabeth that he needed a passion that she was not giving him. John uses emotional appeal to enforce his claim. She is offended at his suggestion that it was her fault that he was cheating on her. John says that he is only
First, In the book The Crucible Abigail Williams is the vengeful, manipulative, and a liar. She seems to be uniquely gifted at spreading death and destruction wherever she goes. She has a sense of how to manipulate others and gain control over them. All these things add up to make her one good antagonist with a dark side. In Act I, her skills at manipulation are on full display. When she's on the brink of getting busted for witchcraft, she skillfully manages to pin the whole thing on Tituba and several of Salems other second class citizens. Also since Abigail's affair with John Proctor, she's been out to get Elizabeth, his wife. She convinced Tituba to put a curse on Elizabeth, hoping to get rid of her and take
Elizabeth is often cold and not open towards people yet she changes as the novel progresses. Abigail accuses her friends and the townspeople of witchcraft; her motivations for turning against her friends are mainly because of Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail had an affair with Elizabeth's husband, which made Elizabeth fire Abigail. Abigail is in love with John and while talking to him she says, "I wake and walk about the house as though I'd find you comin' through some door" (Act I). This illustrates her love towards John and that she will never forget their affair and how Elizabeth broke them up.
Abigail commits adultery with Elizabeth’s husband who is John Proctor. In The Crucible John was thirty years of age and Abigail who was just seventeen. Even with a huge age difference Abigail seems to think she has a high level of maturity to do anything she wants. John and Elizabeth hired Abigail, until Elizabeth found out about his affair and fired Abigail. John told Abigail that he was done with the affair and that he will never touch her again. “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”. (Miller 23) Abigail would claim that John was in love with her and that she also loved him too, but John never really loved Abigail he only saw lust.
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.
Abigail’s character is one of extreme manipulation; however it does not start out like this. In the beginning Abagail is an unwedded “orphan” (1.8) who lives with her uncle. This means she is only a little higher than being deemed a slave. This low social status is what drives her lust for John Proctor. Abigail’s main goal is to marry John Proctor and doing so displace his current wife Elizabeth. Abagail and John become seduced by each other and have an affair. “I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge into my heart.” John however has tried to move on from his mistake with Abagail “And now you bid tear me the light out of my heart” (1.24) and redeem his marriage. This hurts Abagail, but then the witch trials begin. Abigail like other towns folk uses these trials to their advantage. Motivated by her lust for John she begins manipulating others around her and eventually schemes a plot to get Elizabeth hanged for witchery. “Abagail Williams, sir. She sat to dinner in Rev. Parris house tonight and without a word she fall to the floor, stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly he draw a needle out. She testify it were your wife’s familiar spirit pushed it in.”(2.74) this shows Abigail’s manipulation of deceiving the people around her and planting false evidence to get Elizabeth accused of witchcraft, so that she may be with John.
The play contained many scenarios of good versus evil, and the characters that generally possessed these feelings and intentions. But it must be understood that there were the intentions, the incentives, and then the actions taken out on a person or a group of people. Every character could either be placed in the intentions under good or bad intentions. After that, almost every character has mixed feelings of evil or good actions. The fight between the center of evil and the center of good is the foremost important of the points. Abigail Williams is the nucleus of all evil in the story. She is the one who triggers off this sense of hate in the play. She tempts Proctor into lechery, and commits unlawful acts which all are against the Puritan religion. To escape punishment for dancing, she deflects the actions and blames them on someone else, and does not care how many lives she ruins. Later when she grows into power and influence, she seems to enjoy sending these innocent people to their deaths. She takes pleasure in her lies, and thrives on the attention and power that they bring her. All these are the aspects of being the evil character, power, attention, and acts of wrongful doing. Therefore she can...
To further complicate matters, John decides not to reveal to the court that Abigail has admitted to him in private that they were just sporting in the woods. Abigail spreads additional accusations and false rumors about her neighbors. These accusations have no basis in truth and their only purpose is for Abigail’s own benefit. Furthermore, Abigail is jealous of John’s wife, Elizabeth, and she schemes to get rid of her in order to take her place. Abigail’s plot is to accuse Elizabeth of witchcraft.
Throughout the entire play, Abigail is angry at John for not loving her back after the affair which preceded the play. Abigail is speaking to John, and she claims that he is still in love with her. As John rejects this idea, Abigail stills desires love from John. In Act I, Abigail says,“It’s she that 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 do now (Miller I).” She is using her words to manipulate John into loving her. Later in the play, she accuses John’s wife of witchcraft to get back at John. This backfires on her when John dies at the end of the play. Abigail quickly becomes an adversary of John after she harasses his family and his life. Abigail shows her anger towards John Proctor by accusing his wife and eventually hanging
Elizabeth’s experience of betrayal is the source of her inability to forgive. John Proctor, Elizabeth’s husband confesses that he commits adultery with their servant, Abigail while Elizabeth is sick. John’s betrayal of their marriage leads Elizabeth to become judgmental and unforgiving. In Act I, Miller demonstrates Elizabeth’s mercilessness when John tells Elizabeth, “You forget nothin’ and forgive nothin’” (52). Even months after the affair, Elizabeth’s judgement of John creates tension in the Proctor household. John’s lack of loyalty to their marriage makes it difficult for Elizabeth to forgive him. Elizabeth is known for her religious devotion, which makes her even more judgmental toward John. While John and Elizabeth are in a heated conversation about Abigail, he responds to Elizabeth “Let you look to your own improvement before you go to judge your husband anymore” (52). Elizabeth believes John has not forgotten Abigail and continues to judge him for his past mistake. She is
Abigail accuses innocent people of witchcraft, including John’s wife, Elizabeth. She does this so her and John would be together and Elizabeth wouldn’t be in his life, even after John told Abigail he does not love her. He faces this crucible throughout the play and changes his demeanor towards Abigail. John becomes infuriated and he wants to expose Abigail for making false accusations of witchcraft, although it might include his confession of adultery. John eventually confesses his sin of adultery but refuses for it to be made public and posted on the church door, resulting in his
Elizabeth Proctor has many moments which show how she is changing throughout the play. When she is trying to persuade Proctor to tell the court that Abigail said the girls were not practicing witchcraft, Elizabeth blurts out, "John, if it were not Abigail that you must go to hurt, would you falter now? I think not." Elizabeth is confessing that she believes Proctor had an affair with Abigail. She is giving him no mercy by showing that she will never forget what happened. When Elizabeth is being accused of stabbing Abigail, she instructs Proctor to go to court, and tells him "Oh, John, bring me soon!" Elizabeth is gaining trust in John. She is forgetting his act of adultery and now has faith that he will defend her. At the end of the play, when Proctor is sentenced to death, Elizabeth says that "he [has] his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him!" Elizabeth is admitting that John was righteous to confess his sin of lechery, and she should have pardoned him. She considers herself impure for not showing mercy, and does not want to take away from his glory. Elizabeth has transformed from an ignorant victim of adultery, to a forgiving, loving wife.
The Crucible is considered the outline of the real life events during the Salem Witch trials in 1692. Abigail Williams, the niece of Reverent Paris was found conjuring in the forest along with his nine year old daughter Betty and other girls. After that event the witch trials began. In real life, Abigail was the one who began the witc...