Throughout The Crucible, many literary elements are shown through many different characters. One character who seems to stand out in the story is Abigail Williams. For the most part, the people in the town of Salem see her as a wholesome young girl. Little did they know, she would be the cause of a widespread hysteria amongst their town.
Abigail is a young 17 yr old who is the niece of reverend Parris. She Lives with reverend Parris in his household after being fired as a worker for the proctors. One day out in the woods, Abigail and her friends were dancing around a cauldron. Parris spotted them from far away and confronted Abigail on the topic of witchcraft. He asked what she was doing dancing in the forest and if she conjured any spirits. She Lied and said they were just dancing and that they never conjured any spirits. Abigail knows that lieing is a sin but committing witchcraft is an even greater sin that could be punishable by death. Abigail actually drank blood out in the forest which is a sin in itself and she threatened all the other girls that if they were to tell on her then they would die. This struck a great fear in the girls. This caused them to lie about witchcraft throughout the story. Because of this lie, they would have to pretend that they saw the devil throughout the rest of the story.
Love can make people go to desperate measure to get what they want. Abigail Williams tries to get another mans wife murdered because she has an obsessive lust for him. This goes to show that many young adults confuse love and lust. Abigail thinks that she is in love with John Proctor after he has an affair with her. Abigail never had a relationship with Proctor but yet she feels she is in love with him. John denies Abigail saying that it will never happen because he loves his wife. Their relationship isnt the strongest but love is there. This so called love drives Abigail to accuse Johns wife of witchcraft so that she is to be hanged for committing sins against the bible. She thinks that killing Johns wife would make him love her even though John has told her otherwise so many times already. Her actions actually hurt John greatly throughout the story. Without this lust for John Proctor, Abigail wouldnt have a reason to falsely accuse Ms. Proctor of witchcraft.
Fear can make a person do unordinary things. The girls are so afraid of being punished that they use scapegoats to pawn off their punishment. They blame many innocent men and women of being witches because they are afraid to tell the truth. This causes them to create and avalanche of a lie that they cannot stop without stating the truth. The girls cant say it was all Abigails fault. At this point they cant say that they made up witchcraft because the fear that was brought out in the town. If one of the girls were to say it was a hoax, nobody would believe them because of the others. Even if all of the girls said it was a hoax it would be hard to get the town to believe them. The townspeople believe that since witches are in the bible, then it must be true. When things start to go wrong, the townspeople blame in on somebody and call them a witch. The witch trials could have been prevented if it wasnt for the fear throughout the town.
The Crucible has many literary elements throughout the story. Many of these elements are blatantly shown through Abigail Williams.
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