Abigail Williams To Blame For The Crucible

Improved Essays
“She sends her spirit on me in church, she makes me laugh at prayer!” (Miller 1109) The crucible is a story over the witch trials in Salem. This story mainly explains how people were accused and killed while showing how idiotic this period in history was. There are an abundance of circumstances and details that make the decision of who is most responsible for the tragedies a toss up. Although, Abigail Williams is the one who stuck out the most and should probably be the one held responsible. Abigail is most to blame for lying, false prosecution, and Dancing in the woods. Abigail first demonstrates she is to blame by Dancing in the woods. Dancing in the town of Salem is forbidden and dancing around a fire is seen as an act of interaction with the devil. After the girls had been caught, they were questioned and Abigail began her testimony with a lie. As she lied to Reverend Parris about her actions it brought nothing but negative results for everyone. This just goes to show the early signs in the story point at Abigail as she was the one to start the uproar by breaking the rules and lying. This is just one of the vast variety of instances where Abigail shows that she is the most to blame. …show more content…
In court, they were all being accused as a group when Abigail cried out that the devil and spirits forced her to do what she did. Immediately following all the girls pleaded the same story. The vast numbers of the girls pleading the same story forced the court to believe them, and then it goes downhill from there very quickly. Due to Abigail twisting her story, and convincing the court of it while having the backing of the girls just goes to show a main factor of Abigail being the one most to blame. Once again this is not the last example showing why Abigail is most to

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    “Being the despicable person that you are, you show no remorse” (Carmen Proviano). The character of Abigail has no concern for consequences and did not receive any repercussion. Abigail actions lead to the Salem witch trials. In the play, “The Crucible”, written by a miller, Abigail shows negative character attribute because she was narcissistic, a perjurer, and caused mass hysteria.…

    • 234 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Her affair with him, and then his rejection of her, leads her to dancing in the woods with house servant Tituba and other protestant girls such as Betty Parris. Upon being discovered Betty faints and is in a coma like state, yet it is found that it was all just a hoax to not get into trouble. This is also a reason for Abigail to take to personal interest. By dancing in the woods Abigail hoped to accomplish the death of John Proctor's wife, Elizabeth Proctor, by casting a spell or charm on her. Of course this does not work, and so her actions of witchery lead her to trouble, which then evokes her to blame others in order to stay self-preserved.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    One example that shows Abigail deserves the blame is in act two, Abigail is very found of John Proctor and would love to be his new mistress so she thought that accusing his wife(Elizabeth Proctor) would “get her out of the way” so Abigail would get what she wanted. “It is her dearest hope, John, I know it. There be a thousand names; why does she call mine?... She thinks to take my place John”(Miller…

    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Abigail made the girls so scared of her they would lie about the witchcraft just to protect her. “I will bring pointy reckoning that will shudder you, and you know I can do it... I can make you wish you had never seen the sun had never gone down...now you sit up and stop this!” - Abigail pg 19. Abigail had a big effect on these girls, by telling them what she would do to them if they ever told the truth.…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In the town of Salem, Massachusetts there has been lots of accusations about witchcraft and thought to be good Puritan people worshiping the devil. It has all started with a group of girls dancing around a fire in the woods and getting found by Rev. Parris. This finding has led to lots of people in the town pointing fingers at one another. As a result of the finger pointing, people have been hung for not pleading guilty to a crime they have not committed. The person that is to blame for the hangings in our town of Salem is Abigail Williams, the niece of Parris.…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Puritans In The Crucible

    • 1301 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The hangings and jailings started after she made everyone fear Betty and convinced people all the girls had signed the book of Lucifer. The people of Salem fear witchcraft and the darkness and she had girls openly admitting demonic actions all while hiding her true intentions. The only reason the girls did the ritual and Betty fell sick was because Abigail wanted to have John Proctor all to herself. Also if Abigail would have admitted what was going on from the start the situation wouldn’t have escalated so badly and it might have been easier for the people to understand. Since people are often frightened by what they do not understand a little truth from Abigail’s part might have been useful in keeping the situation under…

    • 1301 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    However Abigail is at fault for the persecutions and trials because she had manipulated her friends including Mary Warren to lie in front of Danforth within the court. Mary Warren had said “I cannot lie no more. I am with God, I am with God.” By saying this, it had…

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Furthermore Abigail begins the lie to protect her own skin, as dancing in the forest and drinking blood just happens to be against Puritan belief. Those accused by her who didn’t comply with the lie would be cast out of the church and killed. Just the accusation and good acting from the girls is enough to get condemned. This means that Reverend Hale, Danforth, and Hawthorne had the power to kill anyone and, they were wrapped around Abigail’s Finger. She could get anyone killed.…

    • 1083 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Abigail Williams Moral

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Abigail often frenzies her “squad” of girls into condemning indiscriminately among the women of Salem; the girls could care less who they condemn, as long as Abigail Williams is pleased. When Abigail discovers Mary has turned on her, she sets up a scene to imitate Mary and convince the judges Mary’s spirit was controlling them… “The wings! Her wings are spreading! Mary, please, don’t, don’t--!” (Miller, 1211).…

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One of the reasons why Abigail is most to blame for the witch trials is because how often Abigail makes false accusations throughout the play. Firstly, Abigail accuses Tituba of witchcraft right in the beginning when she told the girls that “Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam‘s dead sisters” (Act 1 Scene I). Abigail knew she would be in trouble if anyone found out what the girls were doing in the forest when the townsmen suggested to call Hale, so Abigail automatically…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The townspeople were being easily manipulated by the “witches”. Innocent people were wrongly accused of witchcraft and hanged. Abigail refused to see that her and John’s brief affair would not lead to anything more than an just a past affair. In the end, Abigail’s scheme backfired when John was hanged for witchcraft. She was too stubborn to realize that her nonsense caused everyone in the town to suffer.…

    • 1058 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Holocaust Vs Crucible

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages

    She is accusing these people for being with the devil and being a witch. It’s just a lie to get herself out of being killed. Once she did, Abigail joined and a lot of other people did too. In the trials, people started to accuse others to try to get the attention off of them. They would even accuse innocent people.…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    She is the first one to confess, staring as though she is inspired saying, “I want to open myself!... I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil!” (Miller 45). By standing in front of the girls and encouraging them to follow in her accusations, Abigail causes deindividuation and the destruction of morality within her mob.…

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Through the words of Arthur Miller in, The Crucible, you see many false judgements be passed. While the witch trials of Salem were going on many people passed judgement from themselves to whoever they could. More times than not, the accusations were false but one accusation was proven correct. Abigail Williams was to blame for the witch trials of Salem Massachusetts in 1692. Through Abigail's falsification, lust & spitefulness she proves to be the source of the witch hysteria that Salem experiences.…

    • 615 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Crucible Questions ACT I: 5. Abigail 's relationship with the other girls is more of a dictatorship than a partnership. She is obviously the leader of the group, and the other girls are too scared of her to do anything but go along with her plans. When the other girls insist that they have to tell that they danced in the woods, Abigail threatens to "come to [them] in the black of some terrible night and bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder [them]" (Miller, 13). Her violent nature and desperation to keep their acts a secret make her a danger to the group because they know that she could easily turn around and accuse them of witchcraft.…

    • 1138 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays