Character’s standards are based upon how they interpret situations, how the react in scenarios, and what they believe in; if their standards are not accepted by the community they will most definitely be shunned. The Salem town, where this play took place, is based upon the church’s morals. Here each character must execute the rights believed by the church to be allowed in the church and the town of Salem. If the rulers of Salem do not approve someone’s actions or believe their righteous in the eyes of God, they will be considered guilty. The crucible, a severe test or vessel used or refinement, experiments on character’s moral standards. Certain characters purified themselves better than others by their actions, decisions, and beliefs. John …show more content…
Abigail’s moral standard is an evil sinner who believed anything was possible. She could be considered a villain since she portrayed evil by trying to get revenge on Elizabeth Proctor, so that she could get John Proctor back. At a witch circle in the woods, led by Tituba, all of the girls’ conjured spirits to get men to love them, although, Abigail casted spells on Elizabeth. Once Abigail’s uncle, Reverend Parris, found them, Abigail lied to keep her secret of adultery hidden and began blaming others of witchcraft, leading nineteen innocent people to their death. It seems as if the only things Abigail is looking for are power and a man, John Proctor, to love her. In the book, The Crucible, Abigail was described in a way that explains her unfair and cruel actions, “Abigail Williams… a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling” (Miller 8). Dissembling means to give a false or misleading appearance to and she sought to be doing this when she blamed others for what she had done wrong, making her look like the better person, when in reality she is not. Abigail responded to John’s standards by messing with him even more by trying to get Elizabeth out of the way due to the fact of Abigail wanting John to herself. Altogether, Abigail has a higher standard than John. The crucible tested Abigail’s standard by her finally realizing she has pushed John into cheating on Elizabeth by hollowing him around and eventually luring him into having an affair. Unfortunately, Abigail Williams did not become successful or purify herself since after all the accusing she has done and the effort she has made to try and get Elizabeth away from John, she just left everything, stole her uncle’s money, and ran off with Mercy Lewis. As a whole, Abigail lacked the purification that John
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.
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
It is clear that Abigail Williams is portrayed as the antagonist in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, taking place in the late 1600s in Salem, Massachusetts and based on the witch-trials therein. She serves as a catalyst for the witch trials by falsely accusing innocent townspeople with the intent of maintaining the position of power she gains from them. Due to the transparency of her actions, Abigail’s ulterior motives are also distinguishable. Certain effeminate stereotypes are presented throughout the course of the play. One of which, being that of the immoral, husbandless woman, Abigail embodies. Slave to emotion and motivated by lust, Abigail falls
The absence of a healthy mind also can make a person evil, or do evil acts.Throughout the play, Abigail’s main objective is to replace Elizabeth Proctor and to save herself. She turns to extreme plans to do accomplish this. Convinced that she is doing the right thing, Abigail attempts to call upon the Devil to kill Goody Proctor. This delusion and ignorance to the severity of the situation is evil. Williams does not realize that calling the death upon another is a sinful act of harming one's neighbor. Instead she believes it is for the greater good. In Arthur Miller’s deleted scene, he touches upon Abigail's possible mental issue in another encounter with John Proctor. Displaying both a vulnerable side of Abigail and a violent one was deleted in hopes of stopping the reader to view her as innocent. However her mental state helps give reason to her actions. Abigail grabs and shouts at John, yelling, “Never in this world! I know you John-- you are this moment singing secret hallelujahs that your wife will hang!” (Miller 143). She manipulates her own mind to believe that the arrest of Elizabeth will be good for the two of them. With these thoughts Abigail continues with the evil acts of manipulation. The story sways her goals of killing a woman for her own advantage to killing others in order to save herself. Due to her feelings toward John, she not only schemes a plan to accuse Elizabeth of
Honor, dignity, and integrity are traits that are becoming more and more rare in our society. The Crucible, a play written in 1952 by Arthur Miller, is based on the Salem witch hunts of 1692 and parallels the Red Scare and McCarthyism in the 1950s. In the play, Miller attempts to focus his themes around traits such as honor, dignity, and integrity, and as a result, the theme "is it better to die honorably or live dishonorably" becomes vital to the story and well conveyed throughout it. The characters that exemplify this idea are John Proctor and Giles Corey, both of whom die by the end of the play, and Reverend John Hale and Abigail Williams, who live through the trials.
Her selfishness is evident when Abigail and her friends accuse the innocent people of Salem of witchcraft. She puts the blame on others, so she does not get punished for dancing in the woods. Abigail shows her anger towards John Proctor when she tries to accuse his wife and ultimately gets John killed. Her anger leads her to make the poor decisions of getting John killed, even though he did nothing wrong. She is a coward when she puts the blame on innocent people and runs away before John gets hung. Her craven attitude is the last flaw that ultimately leads her to run away from Salem. Abigail’s flaws eventually bring her to her downfall by the end of the
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
While most are opposed of John Proctor's idea of being a man of integrity, some may view John Proctor as a man who has motives for protecting his name. At the end of The Crucible Proctor is in the court to free his wife for a false accusation of witchcraft, which seems like he loves his wife, and he does. But when faced by Judge Danforth on bringing up evidence of the false accusation, John Proctor claims that Abigail, a seventeen year old girl is a liar and a whore. Abigail is the one that accused John Proctor’s wife Elizabeth of witchcraft to have her hanged and have a chance to be able to marry John Proctor after an affair between John and Abigail which sets the
A crucible refers to a harsh test, and in The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, each person is challenged in a severe test of his or her character or morals. Many more people fail than pass, but three notable characters stand out. Reverend John Hale, Elizabeth Proctor, and John Proctor all significantly change over the course of the play.
In The Crucible, John Proctor is a good man with a deadly secret. He has a wife, children, and a good name in the Puritan society. However, his lust for Abigail Williams leads to their affair, which could potentially ruin Proctor’s status in Salem if anyone were to find out. Proctor is, above all, a proud man who places great emphasis on his reputation. Proctor regrets his past actions, and dislikes Abigail for continually provoking him to love her. Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth, is suspicious of his relations with Abigail, which causes tension in their marriage. His negative feelings toward Abigail grow stronger and stronger as the
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...
Morals are conforming to standards of what is right or just in behavior. In The Crucible most characters believed in morals. Salem is mostly run on what the church's morals are. Each character must abide by these rights and wrongs in order to be accepted into the church and town. During the time that this play has taken place the church and court were inseparable. So if the judges did not think you were right in "God's eyes" then you were proven guilty. And with dynamic characters such as John Proctor who strongly believe in his own morals may find it easy to have his life affected by this rule. Then there are our more characters like Mary Warren, Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Paris, and Reverend John Hale who base their morals on the church and town they are more accepted or in "their place".
The Crucible by Arthur Miller raises many thought provoking issues throughout the play, including the importance of personal integrity, injustice in society and the rights of the community versus the rights of the individual.
In The Crucible, John Proctor is considered the anti-hero. Honest and humble, Proctor is a good man, but one with a secret, fatal flaw. He has fallen for Abigail Williams leading to her jealousy of Elizabeth, Proctor’s wife. Once the trials begin, Proctor realizes that he can terminate Abigail’s accusations; however, he can only do so if ha admits hi own guilt. Proctor is a proud man who places great emphasis on his reputation and such an admission would ruin that. He eventually makes an attempt to name Abigail as a sham without revealing the crucial information. When this attempt fails, he finally breaks out with a confession, calling Abigail a “whore”...