The Crucible: The Real Witch Essay

Crucible Essay

The Real Witch

Abigail is the cause of the atrocities that went on in the Salem Witch Trials because she has the power to manipulate people. Abigails power over her friends is the reason why the court didnt know who or what to believe during the trials. Although Abigail ultimately wants John Proctor to fall in love with her again, and her efforts fall short, she is still entertained by all of the drama she started to get to him. Her plan is to blame people for seeing the devil and watch them be tried and hanged. Her manipulative power to pursue John Proctor completely backfired on him the first time, causing a lot of drama between him, his wife, and Abigail in the court especially, but he was smart enough not to fall in love with the real witch, Abigail, again.

Abigail uses her power to make her friends scared of betraying her. She convinces her friends to dance in the woods with her, which is as illegal to Puritans as drugs are to Americans these days. Although Parris sees close to everything that went on in the woods, Abigail doesnt take any of the blame for it because she doesnt want to be punished. Abigail could have easily left her story saying they danced in the woods and assure him it wouldnt happen again. If that had been the case, the Salem Witch Trials would have never happened. Abigail also demands her friends to keep hush about the events that happened in the woods. If they didnt, she threatened that she would make them wish they had never seen the sun go down, (Miller, 20). These kinds of threats are what give Abigail the power she has over her friends. This holds especially true in court when Mary Warren tries to confess that witchcraft isnt real. The most important point in The Crucible is when Mary Warren confesses that the girls are just pretending, but Abigail cant accept that fact yet because she hasnt reached her goal, getting John back. Instead of admitting it, Abigail causes a bigger scene and points fingers at Mary Warren until she admits that witchcraft is real.

Obviously when Abigails friends betrays her, she will immediately points fingers at that person and accuse them of being a witch. This gives her a lot of power to control many people in the story. So whom does she actually accuse? The real question is who doesnt she accuse? Abigails favorite game is the blame game. She uses the blame game against Mary Warren and anybody else who claim that witchcraft is not real. To avoid being punished by Parris for the events that went on in the woods, Abigail accuses Tituba of praying to the devil. This is what really starts everything because Tituba is an easy target and is whipped until she confesses. Once Abigail sees how fun it is to see others in pain, she starts to accuse everyone, which causes witch hysteria. Avoiding punishment is the least of Abigails worries though. Abigails first priority is to get John Proctor back. If she ever returned after running away, she would be the most hated person, over the Putnam family, for the commotion and deaths she is responsible for. One of those deaths is John Proctor. So, ultimately, she would have accomplished nothing and lost everything including all of her power. She continues to play her witch because its fun to her and to her friends. Like Rebecca Nurse says,

I have seen them all through their silly seasons, and when it come on them they will run the Devil bowlegged keeping up with their mischief. I think shell wake when she tires of it. A childs spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back. (Miller, 27)

Not so coincidentally, Abigail accuses Rebecca Nurse, who is the only voice of reason in the story, shortly after she says that. Although all of Abigails lies do not lead her anywhere closer to her getting back the love of her life, John Proctor, somehow she finds entertainment in the confusion she causes.

Abigails motivation for all of her witchcraft nonsense was because she wanted to beguile John like she had in the past. Since nothing normal she tried was working, Abigail thought drinking a love potion, or birds blood, in the woods was the best way for John to fall in love with her. One of the reasons why John Proctor stayed true to his word and ripped up the confession paper was because he wanted to forgive himself for cheating on his wife with Abigail and show he was an honorable man. Abigail wouldnt let go, which was the problem for John, his wife, and the court. John was over Abigail and wanted to stay away from her, but she wouldnt leave him alone until she had him back. His wife, whom John Proctor tried to gain trust back from, found it hard to believe something wasnt going on between him and Abigail because of the fact that she kept showing up in his life. If she had left him alone and moved on, John would be able to gain trust from his wife and wouldnt have to choose to be hanged to show her how honorable of a man he was. In fact, if Abigail had not manipulated him in the first place, none of this confusion would have taken place. All of the chaos Abigail caused is because she is obsessed with John Proctor.

Abigail is a true witch. Not the kind that flies on a broom stick or believes in the devil, but the kind that is manipulating and uses threats to gain power over people. Her posy or group of friends only listen to her because if they dont they know she will accuse them of being witches. Speaking of accusing people, Abigail is the best at the blame game. If someone turns on her or doesnt believe in witchcraft, BAM, fingers are pointed at them. Then that turns into many girls versus one innocent person, who is only trying to stop the nonsense. The only person Abigail wouldnt think to blame is her love John Proctor, the reason she set out on this ridiculous mission to accuse everyone of being a witch. Abigails motivation for all the mayhem she caused was John Proctor. All she wanted was for him to love her, like he had before. Abigail could have chosen a different way to handle the situation. Actually, Abigail could have done a lot of things differently to prevent all the atrocities she caused. She could have admitted that it was her idea to dance in the woods. She also could have decided not to threaten her friends to gain the power that she would eventually lose in the end. But of course, since Abigail is the real witch, why wouldnt she want to cause mayhem? It is her job after all.