Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
False accusations essay the crucible
Womens roles in the crucible
Womens roles in the crucible
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In the story, The Crucible by Arthur Miller the character Abigail plays the victim card a lot in the story. Even though she is not and some people know that. However, some people do believe her and each time they are some who question her but she brings them back in her trap. To believe that she is the “victim”. Abigail is not the victim at all. All she is doing is lying to the people so she won’t get in trouble and be hanged. Even though it was something she took part in along with others. Plus she has other girls lying with/for her which puts them at a more risk like Abi because they’re following her. She cannot be excused or anything especially when you're not doing anything but lying to people. She deserves whatever comes her way, to be
In The Crucible, many characters such as Abigail and Tituba use accusations to shift the blame to someone else to get out of trouble and to prevent others from disagreeing with them. When Abigail is caught going out in the middle of the night and “casting spells” she immediately
The play I chose for my third play reading report is "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller.
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.
In Act II, Proctor's conflict with authority increases as the court comes to arrests his wife. He already does not like the court and for them to come to his own home and take his wife to jail is just out of the question! To help the reader understand the condition of Salem at the beginning of Act II, Kinsella explains that "Salem is in the grip of mounting hysteria" (1267). Kinsella is correct the town first starts out with Betty not waking up, then Abigail Williams acusing practically everyone in Salem about being witches and it moves up from there eventually leading to Proctors fait.
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 influences the situation, so the conclusion will be in her favor. Arthur Miller uses the characters to show their judgment of her. In the beginning of The Crucible, Abigail states that her name will not be tarnished through gossip (Miller 12). This indicates that gossip is going through Salem
Whenever there’s a problem people tend to blame anyone they can, cause they think why not? But when it comes to The Crucible almost every character could be blamed for making witchcraft a big deal. But three major characters come to mind Judge Danforth, Mary Warren, and The Putnams.
and the cause of it must not lie in any wickedness but in some great
In The Crucible, Abigail Williams is a cunning, manipulating and deceitful character who thought of an idea where she can get away with anything without fearing any consequences. A teenager never looked at as a dangerous character by her society; Abigail figured that she could avoid trouble by making up lies to cover up her practicing witch craft. When the other girls from her community who were also involved in this started feeling guilty, Abigail verbally threatened by saying "..Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shutter you. And you know I can do it.."(Act I, 20). She never did play around with her getting in trouble and ruining her chances to be with John Proctor, the man whom she was most in love with. Elizabeth and Abigail are merely opposite of each other. A faithful wife to John Proctor, Elizabeth was more than a bystander in her commu...
Miller crafts Abigail in remembrance of the real Abigail Williams from the Salem Witch Trials as the little girl who accuses various citizens of Salem of witchcraft; the towns subsequent belief in her words condemns much of the community, and Abigail gains a semblance of control. Miller’s portrayal illustrates the depths of depravity that the character embraces to retain her control, as she readily betrays Mary Warren, her friend and fellow witch hunter, to maintain her control over the community (87). With her damnation of Mary, Abigail highlights the corrupting desire that inspires monstrous acts of depravity, eventually culminating in an extensive “transcendent wickedness” as “she is determined to sacrifice everyone to her willfulness” (Porter qtd. by Ardolino). The control that Abigail retains over communal judgement creates an aspect of negative feedback, as she resorts to horrific actions to preserve her control, while the preservation of control only contributes to further corruption to maintain control. With the extreme corruption, Abigail betrays not only Mary Warren, but also the entire community, as she perverts religion in the Puritan community of religion-dominated life, with her actions blaspheming the thoughts of the period, as “Porter identifie[s] her most dangerous skill as the perversion of the sacrosanct office of bearing witness” (Ardolino). This attack on the most trusted ideal in court emphasizes Abigail’s depravity that eliminates virtues from society, promoting immorality that drives the blind society into a state of wickedness. As the town continued to trust and promote Abigail’s accusations, their misfortune lies in their own faults, as Abigail only maintains her control through the existence 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.
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.
The Salem Witch Trials, Who is Really Guilty? After all of the witch trials in 1692 concluded, a total of 20 people were hanged, all because of people craving attention and personal gain. There are three people depicted in Arthur Miller's The Crucible that are most responsible for this and they are, Abigail Williams, Judge Danforth, and Thomas Putnam. Abigail Williams is mostly responsible for the Salem witch trials because she was the first person to start accusing innocent people of witchcraft.
In conclusion I ask this again: 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 slept with on more than one occasion, be the victim? Abigail is truly a victim just as much as one of those she condemned to death, because of Salem’s judgemental, self-concerned and oppressive views and beliefs led her to it.
In Salem, during the times of the Salem witch trials, the church and the people were very close. This is what led to the hysteria and chaos which was the Salem witch trials. It also led to many conflicts between the characters in this book, because anyone who was against the church was considered a criminal. Some of these conflicts were between; Abigail and the other children, Danforth and the town folk, and John Proctor with himself and his wife.