Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Witch trials through the 1450's-1750
The Crucible" Literary Analysis Essay
The Crucible" Literary Analysis Essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Witch trials through the 1450's-1750
In “The Crucible”, by Arthur Miller writes about the Salem witch trials. He writes about a group of girls who have practiced witch trials and how the girls are to blame innocent people. One of the girls, Abigail, a young girl from this story, she accuses others, has an affair and tells all kinds of lies, doesn’t follow beliefs and she is evil. She didn’t want to follow the rules and she’s supposed to be a Christian but commits perjury. All Abigail wanted to do was be a rebel child. The text says “she often laughed in prayer” because she truly didn’t care what anyone did or was doing, she wanted to be different and live her life how she wanted to. She always wanted to be the bad one out of everyone, she is chaotic evil. Abigail represents sexual desires through her actions and personality. She wants everything to be her way or …show more content…
She was worried over her sexual encounter with John Proctor for more than 6 months. She is very quiet about and doesn’t really tell anyone about it. She tries to accuse John Proctor’s wife for being a witch, only because she wanted an affair with John. Abigail’s affair with John made his marriage with Elizabeth harder, Elizabeth is John Proctor’s wife. The effect Abigail’s actions have on the Proctors’ are, she brings them together again and makes them realize how much they need eachother. After the affair happened with Abigail and John Proctor, she said that she couldn’t sleep and she gets up to walk around the house and she finds John coming through the door. As she says in the play “I cannot sleep for dreamin; I cannot dream, but I wake and walk about the house as though I’d find you comin’ through the door.” John Proctor admits to having an affair with Abigail, Abigail refuses to tell the truth, like she’s known to do. John Proctor’s wife knows about it so I don’t see why she wont just come out and say that she had the
In this excerpt from the book, the reader is able to learn the true intentions and motives behind Abigail’s actions. Throughout the book one is able to see how Abigail is repeatedly trying to protect herself by creating false accusations against innocent people. Abigail tries to protect her reputation by creating a hostile atmosphere; forcing others into agreeing on lying about what actually happened in the woods. What sets this quote aside from others, is how Abigail uses threats of violence and, the belief that the she might know some form of witchcraft. Abigail uses these threats in order to try to save herself and her reputation throughout the book.
Abigail Williams is motivated to lie about her affair with John Proctor. What motivates her to lie is the thought of getting hung. Another big reason that she could be lying is for vengeance. Abigail loves John Proctor and one night they had an affair and touched. Since then, Abigail has been jealous towards John’s wife, Elizabeth. Abigail goes into the forest with some other young girls and Tituba, who makes a potion to have boys fall in love with them. This is a great example, “ABIGAIL, pulling her away from the window: I told him everything; he knows now, he knows everything we—BETTY: You drank blood, Abby! You didn't tell him that! ABIGAIL: Betty, you never say that
Before the play takes place, Abigail Williams and John Proctor had an affair while Abigail was working as a servant in their home. Eventually, John confessed and apologized to Elizabeth, pledging his faithfulness to her. Nonetheless, at the time the play takes place, Elizabeth still hasn’t fully forgiven him, and gives him a hard time about it. Abigail confessed the pretense of her accusations to him when they were alone, and now he has no way to prove that she’s lying to the court. But because he was alone with her again, Elizabeth becomes angry with him. She still doubts her husband because she feels that if it were any other girl he had to go testify against, he would not hesitate. But, because it’s Abigail, John feels he has to think harder on making a decision. He doesn’t want his name spoiled by a counter-testimony. John feels he is now justified in becoming angry because for the seven months since his confession, he has done nothing but try to please his wife, and she still approaches him with suspicion and accusatio...
John Proctor a well-respected man in the city of Salem has a deep secret that plays a major role later on in the story. He had an intimate affair with a younger single girl named Abigail which he regrets greatly. Proctor shows his disgust when he argues with Abigail by insisting, “Abby I never give you hope to wait for me” (page168). Proctor exclaims that he surely regrets his sin and doesn’t want Abigail to think that he loves her and not his own wife. Although Proctor may still have feelings about Abigail he reassures her that he will never have emotional relationships with her ever again. He had the ultimate opportunity to get back at Abigail and stop the witch trials from happening when he meets Abigail alone in the woods; upon their encounter she confesses to John, “We were dancing in the woods last night and my uncle leaped in ...
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
Throughout the many acts of the play, we sense the anger rolling off Abigail’s words. “I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men! And now you bid me tear the light out of my eyes? I will not, I cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!” By these words, we know that Abigail Williams is angry. She’s angry at John Proctor for trying to hide the crime he committed with her, and for the lack of closure she
In Arthur Miller’s play, “The Crucible”, a dramatic story unfolds about hatred and deception among the townspeople of Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1692. During this time, people were being accused of practicing witchcraft and conjuring with the devil. Once accused, all one could do was deny the practice and hang for it or confess and be condemned to prison. Many took advantage of this, including a young girl by the name Abigail Williams who is the main character in the play. Who is to be blamed for the death of the innocently accused? Many can argue and say that other characters in the story share blame in the Salem Witch Trials. Though, the ultimate responsibility belongs to Abigail for the deaths of many innocent people during this time.
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.
The relationship between John Proctor and Abigail is not an appropriate relationship. Their relationship is built on hiding secrets from other people keeping each other hidden from other people. The lies they share are not good ones they are lies that could destroy their lives. But for a brief amount of time none of that matter to them. After an extended period of time Elizabeth Proctor began to suspect that something was going on between the two that should not be going on between them. With every action it has some form of a impact on others (Schroeder).
Have you ever wanted something so badly, that you would do anything to get it? Abigail Williams, one of the main protagonists in the play The Crucible, is a prime example of this. The Crucible takes place in Salem village, where over twenty people are being persecuted for witchcraft. She wanted to be with John Proctor, a married man with three children, more than anything. The extent that she was willing to go is belligerently horrific. Abigail's flaws of immaturity, jealousy, and deceitfulness led to her ultimate downfall of her beloved John being sentenced to death.
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
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.
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 play shows Abigail's rise to power and influence. At the beginning of the action she is a young orphan girl with no work, living off the charity of her uncle. Her reputation in the community is not good because she has been dismissed from service by Elizabeth Proctor. Although the reason for this has not been made public, many people at that time would have assumed that there must be something wrong with the girl. When she and some of the other girls are caught dancing naked in the woods, it looks as though Abigail might be cast out of the community completely or even executed. Instead Abigail turns the tables on her accusers and, by confessing to witchcraft, she is able to develop a very strong position. At the height of the trial anyone she names as a witch falls immediately under suspicion.