...other evils portrayed, Abigail Williams is by far the biggest evil throughout the story. She is a wicked teenaged girl who has her heart set on a man that she will never have and that causes bitterness to develop. While other characters display flaws and moments of unreasonableness, Abigail shows her level of monstrosity through manipulation, compulsive lying and allowing anyone and everyone to get hurt in order to obtain what she wants. Abigail is extremely manipulative, she has many people under the thumb of her control and often uses it to her advantage. For example, the girls all go into the forest and dance, and do other things considered unrighteous by the town. Abigail uses fear to manipulate...
Words: 1032 - Pages: 5
...The model in question is a journey through the trials of Salem in the eyes of Abigail Williams. With this representation, it is an acquired knowledge that the personality and traits of the young woman resemble more demonic features than the people she accused. Many of the items on this replica involve the places and actions seen in her devilish activities. The noose on the hill signifies the agony of death hanging over Abigail’s head. She is in constant denial through the play, and blames many of her own faults on others. With punishment and death in her view, she assembles a plan to save herself while causing grief to others. She cries witchcraft on many innocents to make the scapegoat. This, in result, sends many other people to the noose instead of herself and she must live in constant knowledge of the lies she expressed and the lives she terminated....
Words: 667 - Pages: 3
...Character Analysis of Abigail Williams Author Miller’s drama The Crucible takes place in the seventeenth-century in Salem, Massachusetts. Salem suffers from witch-hunts, trials, and false accusations. In effect, the town is full of worry and suspicion; and when young girls falsely accuse self-righteous neighbors in Salem of witchcraft, the town goes against itself, which ultimately causes a conflict between power and aggression. The personality of Abigail Williams, the understood leader of all the young girls, ultimately causes the whole play to go into effect. Abigail displays that she is sinful, envious, and manipulative. Abigail Williams’ characteristic of sinfulness causes her to be the antagonist of the whole play. Abigail commits...
Words: 906 - Pages: 4
...Research Analysis over Abigail Williams Arthur Miller said in an interview once, “ I took creative license with her character to make the connection between sexuality and politics more dramatic,” (Shmoop). This is one of the reasons Arthur Miller made Abigail Williams in The Crucible so different compared to the real Abigail. Abigail Williams was an 11-year -old girl who lived in Salem and worked for the Proctor family, John and Elizabeth, before the time of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Before the trails even started, Abigail and her cousin, Betty Parris, got into fortune telling their future like who they would marry and what their social status would be. After a while they got the other girls in town to start playing their fortune telling...
Words: 326 - Pages: 2
...Character Analysis Abigail Williams Abigail Williams is the vehicle that drives the play. She bears most of the responsibility for the girls meeting with Tituba in the woods, and once Parris discovers them, she attempts to conceal her behavior because it will reveal her affair with Proctor if she confesses to casting a spell on Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail lies to conceal her affair, and to prevent charges of witchcraft. In order to avoid severe punishment for casting spells and adultery — not to mention attempted murder when she plots Elizabeth's death — Abigail shifts the focus away from herself by accusing others of witchcraft. This desperate act of self-preservation soon becomes Abigail's avenue of power. Abigail is the exact opposite of Elizabeth. Abigail represents the repressed desires — sexual and material — that all of the Puritans possess. The difference is that Abigail does not suppress her desires. She finds herself attracted to Proctor while working in the Proctor home. According to the Puritanical mindset, Abigail's attraction to Proctor constitutes a sin, but one that she could repent of and refuse to acknowledge. Abigail does the opposite. She pursues Proctor and eventually seduces him. Abigail's willingness to discard Puritan social restrictions sets her apart from the other characters, and also leads to her downfall. Abigail is independent, believing that nothing is impossible or beyond her grasp. These admirable qualities often lead...
Words: 690 - Pages: 3
...Kenya Finch Mr. Osborn Per. 7 March 17, 2012 Character Analysis Essay The world is made of all different types of people with different qualities. Some qualities we all share and some we don’t. We value some more than others and look down at some. Often the qualities that are look down on is what society seems to create the most around and pay the most attention to. Throughout the reading of The Crucible there are many characters that have been introduced with different qualities. One of the characters that have been introduced that has qualities that stands out more from others which are manipulative, devious, and inconsiderate. The character I’m talking about is Abigail Williams. All throughout the story Abigail displays all these qualities and many other but those three are the ones that are displayed the most. Out of all qualities Abigail displays devious is the one greatly revealed. Throughout the story there are many events that happen that Abigail had something to do with, with each event Abigail always has a different story from what actually happens and convinces people that her story is the truth. One event that happens that displays this would be when Abigail was in the woods with the girls dancing and took it to the next level by drinking blood and taking off her clothing. Before the questioning of what happen in the woods Abigail states “Shut up! All of you. We danced. That is all, and mark this, if anyone breathe a word or the edge of a word about the other...
Words: 957 - Pages: 4
...Hannah Rogers 10/26/15 Character Analysis of John Proctor Arthur Miller’s The Crucible has a variety of characters that are hard to connect with. The story takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the late 17th century. Puritans made up most of the population in the area, and their court systems were based on their religion and what they believed God would want them to do. They were particularly against witchcraft, and believed that those who practiced it should be put to death. However, a seventeenyearold girl named Abigail Williams had been practicing witchcraft with her friends in the woods, and basically got caught. To cover up the situation she accuses innocent people in the village of doing it in such a way it made the judges believe she was seeing the devil with them, which saved herself from trial. John Proctor though, is no fool. Once he makes this clear to Abigail, she decides to accuse his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, of witchcraft out of jealousy because at one point she and John had a brief affair, and she felt that Elizabeth got in the way of their love. John Proctor is strong though, and will stand up for what he believes in many times throughout the story. John Proctor was pious, fallible, and a man of integrityho valued having an w honorable name in the community. He was a farmer and dedicated his time to hard work. However, he is a human which means that he made mistakes. When Elizabeth Proctor saw signs that he might fancy Abigail...
Words: 513 - Pages: 3
...Then the wicked Abigail starts claiming she saw townsfolk consorting with the devil. One of the people she denounces Elizabeth Proctor wife of John Proctor who once had sexual relations with Abigail. Throughout the play Mary Warren appears to be the weak one and at first wants to confess to the activities in the woods, but in Act 2 Mary Warren is believed to be helping Abigail...
Words: 768 - Pages: 4
...Analysis Abigail will stop at nothing to get what she wants no matter the cost or consequences. She is a jealous and deceitful woman in the Crucible by Arthur Miller. Miller writes about how she tries to manipulate people in order to get what she she desires. Her actions in the short story “The Last True Witch Hunt” further prove these characteristics about Abigail and how she behaves. In act one Abigail was talking to the other girls who were involved in the incident in the woods. She said to them “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 reckoning that will shudder you”. (p. 1244) Abigail is threatening the girls that if they were to tell anyone about what they were really doing in the woods that night she would harm them. This shows that Abigail is willing to threaten her own friends in order to protect herself. In my short story about Abigail she is willing to get another woman killed in order to be with her husband, exactly like she attempted to do in The...
Words: 620 - Pages: 3
...In a character analysis, the writer explains how a character and his or her conflict(s) helps readers understand a major theme. Whether it is a major or minor character, either one can illustrate important key themes. In a short story, novel, poem, play, etc., based on a character’s words, thoughts, and actions, one can comprehend their value, and the strengths and weaknesses of their personality. In The Crucible, Miller, Arthur. John Proctor, the play’s tragic hero and a man that lived during the Salem witch trials of 1632 through 1962, is a farmer and tavern keeper living in Massachusetts. John Proctor, known to be an honest, upright, and blunt spoken man is a kind soul that lacks the intention of forgiving his evil sin of adultery with Abigail Williams. Trapped in an unbreakable belief due to his affair, John Proctor believes he damaged the relationship with not only his wife, but with the Man, he praises mostly, God. Battling with his secrets, John must soon reveal to the city and lose...
Words: 690 - Pages: 3
...class. To be perfectly honest, when I first picked up this text, I was unsure of what to expect. Apart from reading Shakespeare, I had never been exposed to reading in the playwright form. I did not know what my approach to the play was going to be or how I would react to reading it, or if there was a certain way in which I was supposed to be affected by it. I also had yet to read a text written by Arthur Miller, so I was unaware of his style of writing and again did not know what to expect from it. After finishing the play for the first time I was satisfied that I had thoroughly enjoyed reading the story, whilst developing a love hate relationship with some of the plot lines, characters and themes that it portrayed. At the beginning of the story, I found myself sympathizing with the character Abigail Williams. She is a young teenage girl, in love, and I felt myself trying to relate to her and the way she may be feeling, being rejected by the man she loves. Before Abigail’s true personality was revealed, I thought...
Words: 2843 - Pages: 12
...The Crucible Critical Analysis Shakespeare believes that a tragic hero has potential for greatness, but is ultimately destined to fail. The character falls from greatness because of their ‘tragic flaw’. In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, the protagonist John Proctor is portrayed as the tragic hero. He fits this description for a number of reasons. His tragic flaw or Achilles heel, like many other tragic heroes is his pride. Compounded with conflicts with circumstances, this tragic flaw leads to Proctor’s loss of life and arguably the loss of his eternal life as well. One of the major requirements to being a Shakespearean tragic hero includes having a tragic flaw. Proctor places a great deal of importance on his pride or what he considers dignity and self-respect. He lets pride overshadow his life and actions. He would rather maintain his pride or die. As the play nears its end in Act Four, it shows that he would rather give up his life, rather than post his fake confession on the church doors for the public to see. He states, “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life... How may I live without my name? I have given my soul; Leave me my name!” (Miller, 133). John is too prideful and unwilling to stain his reputation. He prefers to die rather than have his name stained because of a fake confession. He wants to leave his name intact for his family. Another example of this is illustrated in Act Two, where Elizabeth urges Proctor to go...
Words: 1106 - Pages: 5
...William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe It’s amazing that the lives of these two men were so different. They worked in the same profession, in the same town, at the same time, with the same people and in the same places (London theatres). They were contemporaries, both writers for the Elizabethan stage. Both wrote tragedies, Comedies and poetry. They were both respected among their peers. This is where the similarities end. While Both Shakespeare and Marlowe were great writers. Though Marlowe died early in his career he may have been remembered as well as Shakespeare but for different reasons. Educationally they were a great contrast. Shakespeare had had little schooling, quitting school when he was fifteen years old. Marlowe, by comparison, had two degrees including a master’s from Corpus Christi College at Cambridge University. Shakespeare had had no opportunity to learn foreign languages though Marlowe was fluent in many. In a similar manner, Shakespeare had had no opportunity to learn protocol of military life, legal matters or court manners, things in which Marlowe was proficient -- things that were frequently a part of many of the Shakespearean plays. There are more than a hundred duplicate lines in the works of Shakespeare taken from previous writings of Marlowe. Many readers, critics, and biographers have remarked on close similarities between Marlowe’s works and Shakespeare’s poems and plays. The following material is summarized by Alex Jack, editor...
Words: 619 - Pages: 3
...In Arthur Miller’s drama the Crucible, the main character John Proctor proves to show a copious amount of positive personality traits but is sinful to one fatal flaw, committing adultery with Abigail Williams that he can’t allow himself to be forgave for. Though Proctor believes this sin has damaged God’s view of him, the character has proven to show throughout the play he is capable of reclaiming his goodness. Ultimately, in the words of Hannah Montana, “Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody has those days.” Proctor realizes he doesn’t have to be a saint to be good. To understand how John Proctor reclaimed his goodness, the story needs to be set to when the reader is first aware of Proctor’s lost sense of goodness. The play introduced Proctor as a man repleted with guilt. Known for being highly respected in the town of Salem, he is struggling with his self image and sense of goodness, rightfully so. Following the event of Proctor...
Words: 730 - Pages: 3
...American historian, novelist, and professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Ellis was born on July 18, 1943 in Washington, D.C. and is still alive today, living with his wife in Amherst, Massachusetts and is the father of three adult sons. As for his career, he has had some impressive accomplishments in his lifetime and some not so pleasant scandals. Ellis earned his Bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary in 1965. He went on to receive many higher educational degrees from the prestigious Yale University such as the following: a Master of Arts, a Master of Philosophy,...
Words: 807 - Pages: 4
