Nice to eat you: Vampirism
In the book, How to read like a literature professor by Thomas Foster, Foster presents a symbolism that shows up in many books a similarly: Vampires. Vampires in many books is represented as an adult male taking the life away of a young girl. Taking the life as in having her waste her life on the man alone. In the book and movie Dracula, Vampires are also represented as beautiful males that suck the blood out of the girl and turn the girl into a Vampire as well. However, in The Crucible vampirism is represented quite differently yet similarly. In The Crucible vampirism is represented by a young girl, Abigail taking the life of many other people. Abigail, like the vampires represented in other books and Dracula, acts all sweet and saintly and one by one accuses a person by person and either puts them into jail or have them hanged. She takes the lives of innocent people and has them hanged with her status in the town as a saint.
Another instance of Vampirism, is shown in John Proctor’s adultery with Abigail Williams. In this case, John Proctor sleeps with Abigail Williams after being lured into it and for an instance shows that she loves Abigail. However when he comes to his senses and feels guilt toward his action, he confesses to his wife and the wife kicked Abigail out in the streets. But the drama does not end here, in anger, Abigail attempts various methods to kill Elizabeth Proctor. Truly believing that John loves her, she tries to kill Elizabeth and take the spot as John Proctor’s wife. John Proctor really represented a vampire who taken the innocence out of a child and put her out in the streets blind by his love.
Another instance of Vampirism, is shown in John Proctor’s adultery with Abigail Williams. In this case, John Proctor sleeps with Abigail Williams after being lured into it and for an instance shows that she loves Abigail. However when he comes to his senses and feels guilt toward his action, he confesses to his wife and the wife kicked Abigail out in the streets. But the drama does not end here, in anger, Abigail attempts various methods to kill Elizabeth Proctor. Truly believing that John loves her, she tries to kill Elizabeth and take the spot as John Proctor’s wife. John Proctor really represented a vampire who taken the innocence out of a child and put her out in the streets blind by his love.
Author's purpose
There is always an author’s purpose behind symbolisms in the book. Here the author’s purpose of representing both Abigail and John Proctor as vampires that take people’s life is to represent how power leads to corruption. In Abigail case, her power and status as a saint in the village had her accusing innocent people and ending up putting Elizabeth Proctor behind the bars in revenge. She was not only blinded by John Proctor’s fake love to her, but she was also blinded by the power and hatred she had with her. The power and status she gained by accusing people allowed her to try to kill Elizabeth Proctor. Miller’s representation of the vampire in Abigail and John Proctor really showed human’s ignorance and corruption with great amount of power and also ignorance in front of love.