Human Flaws in Arthur Miller's The Crucible

At one point, Abigail becomes angered when John will no longer take her back in place of Elizabeth, and 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" (M... ... middle of paper ... ... have vengeance by means of Salem's court. Vengeance dictated the actions of many characters in Arthur Miller's The Crucible, just as Salem's court system became utilized as a means of retaliation for those characters. During the period of the witch trials, it became an opportunistic time for residents of Salem to have revenge on those who they abhor.

She is telling lies about me! She is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her!” This is the remark Abigail makes to John Proctor about Elizabeth and what she is doing to her reputation. The main reason behind Abigail accusing so many people is so that eventually the blame is put on Elizabeth. Abigail’s hopes are to have Elizabeth killed so her and John can go on living their lives together. Not only does she want to live her life with John Proctor, but Abigail is also angered at Elizabeth because of the reputation she has given her throughout the village.

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. 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.

Abigail lies to save herself by giving the names of others to be killed. “You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!” (88). Abigail also uses threats of violence and the thought of her actually knowing some real witchcraft to scare them into not speaking up about what was really going on with her. She is very evil, and throughout the novel driven t... ... middle of paper ... ...imation of irony considering the prodigious amounts of lies are told in order to “protect” the court and the people of Salem. The process of proving the guilty and finding the innocent involved with witchcraft has a lot to do with the greed, selfishness and personal grudges that the characters display throughout the trials.

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 has slept with on more than one occasion be the victim? It’s possible when the town she lives in is worse than her. Although Abigail Williams is typically thought of as the antagonist of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, she is in fact a victim as much as any other tragic character in the play. 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.

( ) Just to make sure that Elizabeth will suffer for dismissing her, and that her reputation will be destroyed. Abigail also tries to frame Elizabeth for being a witch, with having Mary Warren give her a poppet. Abigail uses Mary as a pawn to frame Goody Proctor, and get her hung. This accusation ultimately leads to the death of John, all because he is not willing to love her

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... ... middle of paper ... ...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.

This is saying that she is basically faking everything and saying people are witches just to gain more land. Toward the end of the story he starts to feel bad for all the people he kills. His wife Mrs. Putnam doesn’t life Rebecca Nurse because she thinks that her spirit killed 7 of her children. She accuses her of witchcraft because of the death of her children. Mrs. Putnam claims, “she saw her spirit killing her babies” (Miller).

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were a greedy couple, and the intensity of killing a person led to hallucinations, killing more people, and the three apparitions. Lady Macbeth was the mastermind behind the evil actions of her husband. She thought her life would be a dream if her husband became king, but it only became a sleepwalking nightmare. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth allow supernatural events turn them into evil human beings, and the life they believed they would have because of these events resulted in two people losing their minds. ​The witches play a huge part in Macbeth’s life.

Yet, Rebecca Nurse merely blames her faltering as a lack of breakfast. In the end of the play she ends up being hanged and dies. On the other hand, one of the main characters that displayed jealousy was Abigail Williams. She has simple motivations and is clearly the negative, evil-minded character in the play, and the leading force behind the witch-hunt. She told lies, manipulated her friends and the entire town, and eventually sent nineteen innocent people to their deaths.