...Being the main source of drama, Abigail Williams was altered The Crucible, a historic play, by Arthur Miller to provoke the witch trials, to develop the protagonist, John Proctor, and to draw parallelism McCarthyism. Abigail, at the age of 17, who is 5 years older than the historical Abigail, was the main accuser in the witch trials. According to the Shmoop Editorial Team, “Abigail is vengeful, selfish, manipulative, and a magnificent liar...She has an eerie sense of how to manipulate others and gain control over them”(n.p). In regards to their remark towards Abigail, we can infer that her personality caused the entire witch trials in the play. Arthur Miller also had to alter Abigail’s real age in order to match her nasty personality and to make her...
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...Abigail Williams is responsible for the chaos and turmoil in "The Crucible" due to her actions and manipulations. She falsely accuses numerous citizens of witchcraft, causing fear and hysteria in the town. Despite Mary Warren's attempt to testify against Abigail, she faces opposition from the other girls who are under Abigail's influence. Abigail continuously tries to convince people that everyone else is a witch, using tactics such as pretending to see and hear spirits whenever a witness tries to testify against her. Abigail's past and present experiences contribute to her actions, but they do not excuse her behavior. She witnessed the death of her parents at a young age, had an affair with John Proctor, and threatened those who crossed her....
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...The Crucible Essay “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does no feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear” (Nelson Mandela). In simpler terms, courage is when something that a person believes in, is more important than the fear that comes with the consequences of that belief. The Crucible has many key themes, but the theme that has the broadest effect on the reader is courage. John Proctor is a great example of the courage shown. While, Abigail Williams shows immense cowardice. Throughout the Crucible many characters have to face the horrendous decision of whether to confess to have ‘been with the devil’ and lose their ‘good name’ or bee executed for that of which they did not do. John Proctor is a great example of a character with extraordinary courage. John although pressured to confess and knowing that he’ll hang, refuses to ruin his ‘good name’ and he does not fully confess to the crime. When Judge Danforth would not give up the argument with John to sign the confession, he asked, “Then explain to me, Mr. Proctor, why will you not let me have it?” (pg.1231). Proctor answered, “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” (pg.1232). These quotes show how strong willed John is in not having a bad reputation and how John has great courage and doesn’t lie just to live. However that John may express great courage...
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...” The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller in the early 1950’s, has an exemplary character that shows a defective result. Mr. Lincoln’s quote shows that power defines the strength or weakness of a character. As The Crucible transitioned into its third act, Judge Danforth, a round character, begins as a self-justified and aware judge. As the play progresses, This truth becomes an act to cover his multiplying flaws. In The Crucible, Judge Danforth had his power and authority protecting him, but let his foolishness bewitch him. This cocky and oblivious man ruled Salem’s courthouse. Originally the deputy governor of Massachusetts, Judge Danforth presumptuously took collateral control(Wikipedia). He started his tyranny with unjustly condemning 72, eventually 12 during the Salem witch trials(Miller, 1190,1222). Such unrequited power was abused by leading...
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...Witchcraft has played an outstanding role in the history of America’s system of justice and has given us a representation that shared experiences and beliefs can lead to disastrous things. While the film, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, depicts the overall history of the Salem Witch Trials, it does have historical inaccuracies within the characters and their relationships that change the way we perceive history. Witchcraft has been present since the Paleolithic period but it began to show up in colonial America in the middle of the 17th century. It became a capital offense as far back as 1642. Shortly after becoming a law, the first execution was made in Connecticut. This case was disturbing because it influenced everyone, in puritan societies, to believe that Satan was close at hand and physically able to act in the real world.. At the time, Salem was a Puritan community in which was built upon those who fled religious execution therefore the religious authority and the government was not separate. Those who would question local authority were blamed for questioning royal authority. Eventually the hysteria spread to Massachusetts in 1692 after two young girls had been acting in alarming and been in physical pain. The physician concluded that the girls were not victims of a physical or mental illness but victims of witchcraft.2. These two girls were Abigail Williams and Betty Parris. Abigail Williams, who was 11 years of age, had a...
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...The Crucible: Compare and Contrasting Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, was about this town in Salem Massachusetts that was driven by greed and lust. out of this small town, two characters played a major role in this horrible event that occurred. These two are Abagail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor. They have multiple differences while having one big thing in common. Abagail was a lying, evil, and mischievous as well as manipulative character. She was caught in the woods dancing with other girls and was being accused by her uncle of doing witch craft and decided to shift the blame to others. When the girl started to discuss among themselves if they should tell the truth Abagail says (Source: EsaayForum.com)...
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...character. Some of these characters are odd good,and some are dark. There are many important things that happen in the crucible, and there are many important characters in the crucible that i will be talking about in the. All these characters are important in the crucible because they all have to deal with a big part in the crucible. The three characters that i will be talking about from the book are john proctor, abigail williams, and giles corey. All these characters have an important role in the crucible and i feel like you should know about these characters. My first character that i will be talking about is abigail because she is one of the most important characters in this book. Abigail is really concerned with her reputation because she knows that she is lying about the whole thing but abagaile just doesn't want to get in trouble. This starts to change the way abagail acts because she doesn't want to get in trouble she acts like this with all the other girls because she doesn't want any of the other girls telling people about what they did in the woods with tituba. Abigail's situation is different now because she had nothing to hide but now that she got caught dancing in the woods with tituba and all the girls she is lying saying that all they did was...
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...only leaves chaos and waste in its wake. Throughout the ages vengeance has played an important role in history and literature. In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller the theme vengeance is portrayed as neighbor turns on neighbor. First, as the theme vengeance reoccurs throughout the play The Crucible many people end up turning on each other to exact their revenge. For example, Hale is in the home of the Proctors when he brings up how Rebecca Nurse’s and others names got brought up in court. Then Francis Nurse the husband of Rebecca Nurse enters the house following Giles Corey to inform them about his wife’s arrest, Francis exclaimed, “For the marvelous and supernatural murder of Good Putnam’s babies”(Miller 1175)....
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...In the Crucible, there are concepts of weakness, courage, and truth that are displayed throughout the play and through significant roles. There are characters in the play that are weak in the sense that they are simply too afraid to speak, such as the character Mary Warren who was afraid to speak up about how Abigail Williams and the other girls were merely faking the entire situation. There is also Reverend Parris who didn’t want to admit that he had seen one of the girls naked and blamed it all on witchcraft. Abigail Williams is also a victim of weakness as she couldn’t keep away from John Proctor. Next is courage. Of course, John Proctor showed immense courage throughout the play by sacrificing himself for his wife and others who were...
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...Miller's play, The Crucible. In 1692, the witch trials played a huge role in the lives of people in Salem, Massachusetts. The townspeople feared witchcraft so much that it created confusion regarding who was actually a witch and who was not. Many accusations were made leaving innocent people responsible for the mysterious acts of witchcraft. Abigail Williams reveals her impurity by doing just this. Abigail constantly lies to the court and does everything in her power to save herself, even if it means falsely accusing others. In Miller's play The Crucible, Abigail Williams proves her impurity of soul by having an affair with John Proctor, lying to the townspeople, and attempting to kill Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail first reveals her impure heart through her love affair with John Proctor. Although Abigail is aware that John is married to Elizabeth Proctor, she does not let their relationship get in the way of her own selfish desires. Johns fends off Abigail when he says “Abigail, 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. We never touched Abby” (15). Abigail argues, “Aye, but we did” (15). Here Abigail shows no guilt for her sinful actions. Clearly, she only cares about herself and especially does not care about the marriage that she is destroying. Moreover, Abigail is extremely self-centered and exposes her impure soul by having an affair with John Proctor. Not only does Abigail disclose her impure...
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... 11/3/13 The Crucible as an Allegory English 101 In 1953, American playwright Arthur Miller produced a play titled, The Crucible. It takes place in 17th century Salem, a small town in colonial Massachusetts. The play focuses on the actual events known as the Salem Witch Trials, in which dozens of people in and around the town of Salem were wrongfully and chaotically accused of witchcraft, Satanism, and devil worship by a group of teenage girls. It is firmly established that the play is an allegory of the hysteria and chaos that took place throughout the events of the Red Scare in the United States during the Cold War; a period in which politicians and ring leaders also wrongfully accused numerous amounts of people for supporting communism. It makes perfect sense as to why Miller wrote The Crucible allegorically to these events, 1953 was a time in which American fear and madness concerning communism was frankly getting out of control, just as the experiences in Salem were in the 1690s. The Crucible is a historically fictitious adaption of the Salem Witch Trials which as previously stated, was an episode of unjust accusations of witchcraft/devil worship carried out by a group of female teens. In the play, the group of accusing teens is led by girl named Abigail Williams. In order to refocus the “heat” on another source in order to save...
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...Is Abigail Williams a person of good character or does she have cruel intentions? In The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams is one of the main characters. Abigail Williams plays a big role and not a very good one at that, she’s a liar, sinner of adultery, and feels no emotion for those who were hung because of her. From the beginning, Abigail Williams lied which lead her to tell a whole string of lies. The very first lie that Abigail told was about the dancing she said,”It were sport, uncle!”(Miller 1131), which was not the case. Her dancing was for a spell to get John Proctor to like her. Her and many other girls went along with the spell and the lie. Many people were hung for this ongoing lie that was never confessed to be...
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...Deputy Governor Danforth: The “Savior” of Salem Village? In The Crucible, Deputy Governor Danforth plays a major role, seeing that he is the highest official that has been called in to officiate the Salem Village court. Danforth does his best to make everyone believe that he is like the “hero” of Salem Village. He acted like he could almost do no wrong, even though that is very incorrect. Danforth even keeps this attitude after the evidence is shown that the whole Salem Village Witch Trials were a sham. Danforth is not the “hero” of Salem Village, he is the destructor of Salem Village. There is much proof that shows that Danforth was not following his job of giving a fair trial to the accused people of Salem Village. Danforth has multiple...
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...Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, there are many different characters that could be blamed for the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail Williams is a seventeen year old girl that is in love with an older married man. In her hunt to have him as her own, she leads her group of friends to accuse his wife and many others of witchcraft. It is most clearly demonstrated that it was Abigail William’s flaws – envy, dishonesty, and lust – that led her to be most responsible for the tragedy of the witch-hunt in Salem. Throughout The Crucible Abigail is envious of Elizabeth Proctor, and tries to get rid of her. One example is, ‘Oh, I marvel how such a strong man let such a sickly wife be’ (Miller 470). Abigail is commenting on Elizabeth’s health. She does not understand why John would rather have a sick wife than her. She is jealous that he chose His wife over her. Then she commented, ‘You loved me John Proctor, and whatever sin it is you love me yet,’ (Miller 471). This shows that Abigail thinks John loves her, and she is trying to convince him to be with her again. Abigail’s envy of Elizabeth drives her to get many people killed. In the play, Abigail is dishonest, pretending that there are actually witches. She does this in order to prosecute Elizabeth proctor. She...
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...In the texts the crucible and Year of Wonders, both contain strong, kind female characters that are devoted to do what is right. Through the characters Elizabeth Proctor from The Crucible and Elinor Mompellion from “Year of Wonders”, we see wives of religious and powerful men showing compassion and kindness to those that surround them. Elizabeth Proctor must deal with a lot of conflict during the crucible. Not only does she have to deal with the fact that her husband John Proctor had an affair with Abigail Williams she then should deal with Abigail’s making false accusations about her. This all leads up taking its fall on Elizabeth. In contrast Elinor with the sins she has committed prior to her marriage with Mompellion is forced into years...
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