In the Crucible, Abigail is tormented by the fact that she had been caught out having an affair with John Proctor. This creates conflict between John’s wife Elizabeth and Abigail. Abigail is devastated that she cannot be with John and lashes out in fury and creates chaos in the heart of the town with her false accusations within Salem. Abigail’s uncontrollable acts rise which result in the hanging of many people, ultimately destroying the love of her life. She was blinded by her own problems in life that she couldn’t see her ways, although to John, Abigail was transparent.
The Crucible The theme jealousy can destroy lives is shown through the actions of Abigail Williams affects Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor and herself. “This can’t work anymore, I love someone else.” Hearing these words can affect many people’s lives, causing them to hurt others around them.” “The Crucible” was written in 1953 by Arthur Miller. The play is about the witch trials that took place in Salem Massachusetts; where many innocent people were accused of witchcraft. Abigail’s actions sent Elizabeth to jail, but also cause John his freedom and life. At the end of act four Proctor refuses to give his name to the court, he clearly stated that he had already gave himself in and told them that he was a man of the devil and that they couldn’t take his name, because that’s the only thing he had left.
Their relationship went from employee to amorous love affair to hatred and revenge. Abigail tried proving that their love was genuine but all John did was disagreeing with her. Abigail spoke, “I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I came near” (1109). To respond to what Abigail had stated John said, “Abby I may think of you softly from time to time, but I will cut off my hand before I reach for you again” (1109). John’s emotions for Abigail gradually changed because he realized what he was doing was wrong and he knew it was guilt-ridden.
Is Abigail Williams a Victim or Villain? We have been studying the text The Crucible by Author Miller and I am going to study in detail weather Abigail Williams is a victim, or truly the villain. Abby is the villain and some may put it down to some of the "reddish work" she has seen but is it? In Act One Abigail is willing to lie to everyone to save her own, Abby is certain "[they] danced" and nothing else, even though we know that is not all they did. Abby threatens the girls, forcing them to tell the story according to the way which incriminates her the least.
Throughout Miller’s novel The Crucible, religion is heavily criticized and the institution of it in Salem. Criticism is displayed when Abigail reveals her hatred for Salem and the key values the town lived by: “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” (I. 22). Abigail criticized the way religion was taught and the context of religion in Salem. Miller argues that Salem’s teachings to the people amongst one another was wrong doing with the fact that few people such as Abigail saw them as too drastic or immorally wrong.
Hester Prynne: A Casualty in her own Erotic War. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne’s depiction of Hester Prynne’s inner turmoil can be viewed and deliberated on in numerous ways. As the reader myself, Hester’s inner turmoil is given off as that when she is denying her secret of Dimmesdale being her lover, she wishes she could deny that anything between them ever happened. Whenever Hester would think about her sin of adultery, Hester would in turn feel sick to her stomach. To me it looks as though Hester believes that Dimmesdale and herself could be together, but will not be able to on this earth before they die.
Up to now in this story it seems like half of the town has been accused of witchcraft, but it gets worse. Martha Corey was accused because she thought the town and everyone in the church was insane blaming all the innocent people for things that were out of their control. She also thought the girls they were listening to were fools and she thought they were even bigger fools for listening to children. She told the court that she was innocent; she didn’t know what a witch was. They simply told her that how could she not know if she was one if she didn’t know what a witch is.
Miller takes the “woman scorned” approach to his character of Abigail. Abigail’s assertiveness is observed early when she tells her uncle “the rumour of witchcraft is all about; I think you'd best go down and deny it yourself,". This remark, within the confines of a deeply hierarchical and patriarchal society, shows her to have knowledge of social situations and also that she does not conform to the Puritan society, which has already been evidenced by her affair with John Proctor. She is spiteful which helps to build the classic “woman scorned” role which Miller moulds her into: “Oh, I marvel how such
John ends up confessing to having an affair with Abigail because he is trying to get his wife, Elizabeth or goody proctor out of prison. by telling the truth about his affair with Abigail it shows that Abigail is making false accusations about Elizabeth harming her as she just wants to hurt her lovers wife because john ultimately chose Elizabeth over Abigail. however in telling the truth about this he needs his wife to do the same. Elizabeth does not know that john has confessed so she lies to save his good name and pride, in doing so she damns them both. The importance of reputation escalated throughout the story.
Proctor tries to prevent Elizabeth from being hanged. He also admits that he lusted with Abigail. Elizabeth lies to the court, telling the first lie she has ever told. She lied to save her husband though. Abigail is accusing everyone of witchcraft to clear her name.