Analysis Essay On Abigail Williams In The Crucible

Imagine how one girl could cause 14 people to be sentenced to death in one village. The Crucible, is a very well written story by Arthurr Miller about how the people of Salem are being accused of witchcraft and going through trials, which result in the death sentence for 14 people. Abigail’s role in the story is having an affair with John Proctor, lying and manipulating people to make herself look better.  In the text The Crucible By Aruther Miller, Abigail Williams is ultimately immoral because she constantly behaves inappropriate and selfishly towards all the other characters in the story, adding to MIllers claim that selfishness only leads to widespread harm to one's community. First, Abigail has an affair with John Proctor who is a married man, and once John says they need to stop, she tries to manipulate him into continuing the affair. Then, Abigail selfishly blackmails the other characters to protect herself and her reputation. She then ultimately wants to kill John Proctor's wife. Finally, Tituba and Rebecca Nurse are not as immoral characters because they are falsely accused and forced to confess because of the grudges held against them.

In The Crucible, Abigail Williams acts immoral by having an affair with John proctor causing a major strain on his relationship with his wife. Once John tells her it has to end, she then proceeds to selfishly try and make him feel guilty and tries to manipulate him into continuing with the affair. While she is doing this, she has no regard for John Proctor's Wife and how she must feel. For instance, in the text it states “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. Wipe it out of mind”. “We never touched Abby”.”Aye, but we did, said Abigail.” (Miller,1225). Basically, John Proctor says this to Abigail after their conversation about the affair when she suggests that it can happen again and that they can be together. John Proctor is saying that they can never have an affair again, and tells Abigail that they never touched but she says they did. Abigail is not happy about this as she wants the affair to continue on .From this, we can infer that Abigail is knowingly having an affair with John Proctor who is a married man. We can tell that she is selfish and only cares about how she feels, she doesn't care about how John feels. When he tells her that they never touched, she says they did to try and make him feel guilty. Another example is when in the text, Abby says,  “You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet! John, pity me, pity me!” (Miller, 1225). This is to say that Abigail is not over the affair. She wants it to continue. In this quote, Abigail is trying to manipulate John into staying with her. She tells him that he loved her but he does not now. She shames herself for this, because she thinks that this will get John proctor to fold/give in and continue their relationship. This suggests that Abigail is manipulative as she tries to guilt/ manipulate John's thoughts and actions for her own pleasure. This also shows that she is selfish because she obviously does not care that John Proctor has a wife, she only cares about being with John. As one can see, Abigail is a selfish and manipulative character as she has an affair with a married man and selfishly tries to make him feel guilty for leaving her. She then tries to manipulate him into staying with her.

In the text, Abigail Williams acts immoral by blackmailing the other characters to make herself and her image look good. This involves her threatening other characters to lie for her. She then wants John Proctor's wife dead. She feels that if Proctor's wife is dead then Procter will get back with her, and that's all she wants. She doesn't care about how it will affect others, she just wants to be with John Proctor. For instance, in the text it says “Now look you. All of you. We danced. Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam's dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reck-oning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it” (Miller, 1223). Basically, what this means is that Abigail is trying to manipulate and blackmail the other girls into agreeing with her that all they did was dance in the woods. She says if they don’t do this that she will harm them. From this we can infer that Abigail is selfish and only cares about herself. She is blackmailing the other character to make herself look better. She tells the other character that she will hurt them if they don't do as she says. Another example is in the text when Betty is talking to Abigail and says “You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to Goody Proctor!” (Miller,1223). In other words this means that Abigail drank blood as a symbol to represent that she wants John Proctor's wife, Goody Proctor dead. She wants her dead because she loves John and still wants to be with him and she figures if his wife is dead then John will get back together with her. She is once again being selfish and only thinking about herself, she is not thinking about how John will feel if his wife is dead. This suggests that is jealous of Goody Proctor. We can tell this because Abigail drinks blood which symbolizes that she wants her dead so she can John proctor all to herself. She is being selfish because she wants his wife who he loves dead so she can be with him. Clearly this suggests that Abigail is a selfish, jealous, and a manipulative character as she wants John Proctor's wife dead and she threatens other characters, in order to make herself look better.

In the text “The Crucible” By Arthur Miller,  Abigail Williams is the most immoral character, because Tituba and Rebecca Nurse are not as immoral. Tituba is not as immoral because she only confessed to witchcraft because she was afraid her master would beat her if she didn’t. Rebecca Nurse is not as immoral because Ann Putnam accuses her of killing her babies. She did this because she does not like the Nurses as they were in a land battle. For instance, in the text when Paris is talking to Tituba and says “You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to your death, Tituba!” (Miller,1233). In other words, Paris is telling Tituba that he will whip her to death if she does not confess to witchcraft. Paris does this to protect his power. This suggests that Tituba is not as immoral as Abigail because Tituba was threatened/ forced to confess to the witchcraft accusations when she really did nothing wrong. Whereas for Abigail, she lied, manipulated people to make herself look better, blackmailed others and had an affair with a married man. Another reason why Abigail is more immoral is, For example “Another suggestion to explain the systematic campaign against Rebecca, and inferentially against Francis, is the land war he fought with his neighbors, one of whom was a Putnam.” (Miller, 1226). Basically this is saying that the reason that the Putnams don’t like the Nurses is because they fought over a piece of land. From this we can infer that Rebecca Nurse is not as immoral as Abigail because she was falsely accused of witchcraft by And Putnam because the Putnam‘s did not like the Nurses due to an argument over a piece of land so they just wanted to see Rebecca Nurse get executed. As one can see, this suggests that Abigail Williams is more immoral than Rebecca nurse and Tituba because Tituba only confessed with craft because she was threatened. Rebecca nurse was only accused of witchcraft because the Putnams didn’t like her and wanted to see her executed

Overall, Abigail is the most immoral character in The Crucible because she has an affair with a married man, she is manipulative, blackmails other characters, want’s Johns wife dead, and acts extremely selfish. She is more immoral than Rebecca Nurse and Tituba because they were wrongly accused and forced to confess do to the grudges people have against them. Abigail proves Miller's claim that selfishness only leads to widespread harm to one's community. Arthur proves that Abigail's selfishness leads to 14 people being executed in the salem witch trials.