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. The motivation of jealousy is portrayed by Abigail in The Crucible numerous times. In the play, Abigail's motivation of jealousy is shown when Betty says "You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!". (1107) Abigail's jealousy gave her motivation to try to kill Elizabeth because she was convinced that John loved her as much as she loved him. Another example of Abigail's jealousy is when she says to Proctor "She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! She is cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her! Let her turn you like a --". (1110) Abigai...
The Crucible How does an individual gain so much power through trials? In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrays Abigail Williams as a powerful individual by revealing her control over the younger girls and the continuous accusations she makes until the end of the play. Throughout the entire play, it is made clear that Abigail has control over the younger girls in the village. In Act 1, it is right away noticed that her way of controlling them is through causing fear by making threats.
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.
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
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
Abigail Williams is manipulative and wants everything to go her way. She is the main character and causes trouble everywhere she goes. The Salem Witch Trials is about hearings and prosecutions of people who were accused of witchcraft. In The Crucible Abigail is a no good villain. Abigail first commits adultery with Elizabeth’s husband. Later on Abigail begins to accuse innocent people of doing witchcraft which causes them to die. Abigail Williams uses the Salem Witch Trials to put out all the resentment she has toward everyone.
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.
Sometimes the actions of one character can bring out an otherwise dormant violent side of another character. Such was the case with Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Abigail acts as a foil and exposes Elizabeth’s true characteristics and personal traits. Through her dishonesty, Abigail exposes how honest and willing Elizabeth is to stand for what she knows she is right, and even in some cases lie to protect her husband John Proctor. Just the opposite, through Elizabeth's truthfulness, a dark and disgusting side of Abigail emerges.
Arthur Miller’s work The Crucible utilizes the Salem witch trails as a parallel for the mass hysteria that occurred between the United States and the Soviet Union directly after World War II. This period of history was filled with fear and mania pertaining to the takeover of communist ideals in America. The central cause of hysteria was Joseph McCarthy. He pushed his corrupt agenda forward for personal gain and brought panic upon the American populace. Abigail Williams, the play’s main antagonist, is an exceptional example of McCarthy considering her expertise in causing mass hysteria in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts.
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.
Revenge plays a crucial part in The Crucible. As it is told, Abigail Williams had deep feelings for John Proctor. The problem with the feelings she had is that John Proctor is married. Even though Mr. Proctor did have an affair with Abigail he made it clear that he loves his wife (Rebecca Proctor) more than he does her. Abigail did not take too kindly to this, and was out for revenge. “Abigail Williams, sir. She sat to dinner in Reverend Parris’s house tonight, and without word nor warnin’ she falls to the floor. Like a struck beast, he says, and screamed a scream that a bull would weep to hear. And he goes to save her, and, stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out. And demandin’ of her how she come to be so stabbed, she - to Proctor now - testify it -were your wife’s familiar spirit pushed it in.”(Miller, 229). Abigail Williams lashed out at Goody Proctor just because her husband did not want her. Another place in the story where revenge is shown is with Mrs.Putman and Rebecca Nurse. “You think it God's work you should never lose a child, nor grandchild either, and I bury all but one? There are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires!”(Miller,180). Mrs. Putman is very revengeful toward Rebecca Nurse because she became very lucky by having all healthy kids. Miller wrote this to show us that all people like Mrs.Putman can be
In The Crucible, two characters that serve as a foil for each other are Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail. Elizabeth Proctor is known as an honest woman, while Abigail is consistently seen as a dishonest person whose lies result in the widespread paranoia of the Salem witch trials. For instance, after she dances in the forest with other girls, she forbids them from telling the townsfolk about it and accuses other people of witchcraft, which leads to their deaths. Another example is the fact that she had an affair with John Proctor, Elizabeth’s husband, and tries to conceal it because she does not want her reputation to get ruined. Her motive for accusing others of witchcraft is because she wants to get rid of Elizabeth so that she could be John’s “perfect wife,” and because she does not want to get in trouble. Abigail is the perfect foil for anyone who is even slightly honest.
In “The Crucible”, the character of Abigail Williams behaves in a hypocritical manner as she is the one who fuels the witch trials and depicts herself as a malicious person. At end of Act I, Abigail says how she wants the “light of god” and the “ sweet love of Jesus!”(Miller 48). Abigail is pretending to be the righteous and innocent person by hiding behind the name of god but her true intentions are very far from what she claims. The town believes her claim about others being a witch and her being a innocent girl who is just struggling through all of this. Abigail exposes her real identity to the audience as she confronts John Proctor. In the interaction of Proctor and Abigail, Abigail makes the statement about how she saw his face when
The crucible is a very popular novel/play written by Arthur Miller. John and Elizabeth Proctor are a basic couple who deal with difficult situations. John remains somewhat static throughout most of the play. Elizabeth sees Abigail as a threat during the entire story as she
Abigail Williams was the most courageous character in The Crucible, because she did many things that were against Salem's ideology. “...for she will not sit so close to something so close to something soiled” (Miller 11). That quote was Reverend Parris to his niece, Abigail Williams. She was viewed as a heathen and rejected socially within the parish. She was very courageous because she pushed past her status and made change within Salem to get what she wanted.
Abigail Williams is the troubled niece of Reverend Parris of Salem. She is an orphan; made so by brutal natives who killed her parents before her very eyes. The witch-hunt begins when Abigail is at the age of seventeen. She has a large role in this novel, especially on these dark events and also her relationship with John Proctor.