Motives of Abigail Williams in The Crucible Essay

Motives of Abigail Williams

The Crucible is a story about a group of young girls, who begin to accuse the innocent residents of Salem of committing witchcraft. The girls came up with these accusations after being caught dancing in the woods by Abigails uncle, Reverend Parris. After several accusations of witchcraft against them, Abigail Williams, the antagonist of The Crucible, began to lead the girls into denying the charges by pretending to be victims of witchcraft. As a result of this deceitfulness, many guiltless people, such as Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey, were found guilty by the court and sentenced to death by hanging. However, although many people would agree Abigail Williams is a rationalizing miscreant, the hardships she has encountered has made her a victim of her own mischief.

Abigail Williams mother and father were killed when she was younger. The Indians smashed her parents heads together which caused them to die. When you love your family at such a young age it influences who you become later on, in life. Unfortunately for Abigail she was orphaned and ended up working for John Proctor. She went and lived with her uncle whos name was Reverend Parris; he had a daughter named Betty Parris who was one of the kids who were "sick." Her uncle always said Feel the weight of truth because he knew that she lied occasionally to him. Your parents are the ones who are supposed to teach you the things that are wrong and right and without them you dont always know what the best decisions are in life. Abigail has made bad choices in her life such as when she said I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you... I can make you wish you never seen the sun go down! While working with John Proctor she became attracted to him, he was an older man and with her being at such a young age she shouldnt be interested in him.

Abigail Williams is a young lady of seventeen, so she was easily influenced. Abigail was influenced in many ways. John Proctor was one of her influencers John not only fails to respond to Abigails very real and understandable hurt, but absolutely refuses even to acknowledge that the affair ever occurred. This influences Abigail to want to get rid of his wife Elizabeth Proctor. Tituba also influences her to do witchcraft for getting rid of Mrs. Proctor, which later leads to Abigail accusing others of witchcraft. "And instantly Abigail points at Tituba, She made me do it!" These two examples show how others influenced her to do what she did. Added on to this was the pressure from her peers. Not only did the girls look up to her but she was also afraid of being accused of witchcraft by one of them. To cave in and say that they were pretending would have been suicide for her, and at her young age having an affair wasn't something to take lightly, nor was and is suicide. She fell in love, and the only way she could be with the man of her dreams would be to kill his wife. So, when the chance came to get rid of all the people they disliked, she took advantage of it.

Hardened by her childhood, Abigail began to work under John Proctor as a servant. During the duration of her stay, Elizabeth Proctor became ill for much of the time and John Proctor grew desperate for attention and love, which he turned to Abigail Williams for. While working for the Proctors, Elizabeth grew suspicious of an affair between John and Abigail. Though she had no evidence that an affair occurred until months later, Elizabeth fired Abigail strictly on the grounds of distrust. Abigail says; "She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! She is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her!Let her turn you like a-.." Abigail accuses Elizabeth Proctor of ruining her reputation, and she also insults the man she is in love with. Elizabeth later admits that there is truth to the charge that she is biased towards Abigail. Shortly after the argument John Proctor, ashamed in fear for his marriage began to deny that the affair ever happened.

Even though Abigail Williams turns out to be a miscreant, she has faced many hardships within her life. This has made her a victim of her own misconduct. Throughout the play we see how shes always searching for attention, because of her parents not being alive to give her the attention she needs. Abigail's just an obedient girl who happens to be misunderstood. She sets herself up as the antagonist, but truly shes just a girl who's not sure what the greatest things to do are.