Abigail Williams: Who and why?
Abigail Williams is presented as one of the main antagonist in The Crucible. From the outset of the play, Abigail’s self centred personality is shown. She uses threat and violence to get her ways and does not stop until she achieves her goal. The play starts with the Girls being question by Reverend Parris. When the girls all meet to discuss on what they could do, she makes all of the other girls swear not to tell Reverend Parris and Hale of what they did in the forest. Later when she is cornered by Hale’s questions, she blames everything on Tituba. She would avoid anything that is harmful to her and does not feel quilt in anything she does. When Tituba confesses of seeing the devil, she starts confessing names too so she can gain power as well. Abigail knew that she could gain a high status if she was known in the village for her honest confession and ratted out the devil out of the village. Her main goal from the start however, is to get rid of Elizabeth Proctor and take her spot as John Proctor’s wife.
Although she is evil in her intents and actions, she is clever in the way she gets her ways. She starts with pretending that she saw people with the devil and gained respect and title as a saint in the village. She then started to make efforts in trying to obtain her goal. Starting with accusing Elizabeth Proctor, when that attempt fails when Mary Warren protects Elizabeth, Abigail sees the doll that Mary Warren made and saw that she stuck the needle in the belly. And in the dining table with the judges, she pretends that she was stabbed by a spirit with a needle sent by Elizabeth Proctor. Her fox like approach to revenge is not the only instance of her cleverness. When John Proctor had accused her of being a whore, and that all her action was based on her goal to kill Elizabeth, she cleverly diverted the subject to accusing Mary Warren.
Abigail’s self centred personality and her effort in trying to gain John Proctor’s love can be said to be derived from her parents absence during her childhood. Without her parents, she had no one to be loved by and no one to love; however, upon meeting John Proctor, she had someone she loved and for once someone who loved her back even if it was for an instance. Because this was her first time loving someone and being love back, she wanted to keep that love. But the only way she could do that was to get rid of Elizabeth Proctor and take her spot as John Proctor’s wife. Her desperate need for love might have been the real reason she tried to take revenge upon Elizabeth and her crave for love can be explained by the absence of her parents during childhood.
Although she is evil in her intents and actions, she is clever in the way she gets her ways. She starts with pretending that she saw people with the devil and gained respect and title as a saint in the village. She then started to make efforts in trying to obtain her goal. Starting with accusing Elizabeth Proctor, when that attempt fails when Mary Warren protects Elizabeth, Abigail sees the doll that Mary Warren made and saw that she stuck the needle in the belly. And in the dining table with the judges, she pretends that she was stabbed by a spirit with a needle sent by Elizabeth Proctor. Her fox like approach to revenge is not the only instance of her cleverness. When John Proctor had accused her of being a whore, and that all her action was based on her goal to kill Elizabeth, she cleverly diverted the subject to accusing Mary Warren.
Abigail’s self centred personality and her effort in trying to gain John Proctor’s love can be said to be derived from her parents absence during her childhood. Without her parents, she had no one to be loved by and no one to love; however, upon meeting John Proctor, she had someone she loved and for once someone who loved her back even if it was for an instance. Because this was her first time loving someone and being love back, she wanted to keep that love. But the only way she could do that was to get rid of Elizabeth Proctor and take her spot as John Proctor’s wife. Her desperate need for love might have been the real reason she tried to take revenge upon Elizabeth and her crave for love can be explained by the absence of her parents during childhood.
Connecting to real life
Abigail really represents the government and Joseph McCarthy in the case of the McCarthyism period. The government, in attempt to “capture” all communist, first initiates governmental inspection of employees. Then they start to question innocent people to rat out communist names. The people in the court out of fear would name their friends and this process would go on for infinity. Abigail represents the government and Joseph McCarthy who initiated the Red Scare because similarly she started the Salem Witch hunt by accusing Tituba and all the other innocent people as witches. The start of chaos and the implant of fear in the people’s mind was started by Abigail and also controlled by Abigail. Abigail’s start and control of the Salem Witch hunt is similar to Joseph McCarthy’s and the U.S government’s start of the Red Scare in America.