An analysis of the character of Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Melting Pot (2023)

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An analysis of the character of Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Melting Pot? ›

Abigail is vengeful, selfish, manipulative, and a magnificent liar. This young lady seems to be uniquely gifted at spreading death and destruction wherever she goes. She has an eerie sense of how to manipulate others and gain control over them.

Abigail is vengeful, selfish, manipulative, and a magnificent liar. This young lady seems to be uniquely gifted at spreading death and destruction wherever she goes. She has an eerie sense of how to manipulate others and gain control over them.

Of the major characters, Abigail is the least complex. She is clearly the villain of the play, more so than Parris or Danforth: she tells lies, manipulates her friends and the entire town, and eventually sends nineteen innocent people to their deaths.

Indirect characterization is heavily used throughout the play. Indirect characterization is Revealing a fictitious character's personality through his or her actions, speech, or appearance. Abigail williams uses indirect characterization heavily also by allowing herself to show emotion through her character.

Many characters take on this in the play, but one particular character of note, is Abigail Williams. Abigail Williams gives off that she's innocent and non guilty of incidents that have occurred, but in reality, she's scared of potential consequences because she is responsible for the Salem Witch Trials.

Abigail Williams (born c. 1681, date of death unknown) was an 11- or 12-year-old girl who, along with nine-year-old Betty Parris, was among the first of the children to falsely accuse their neighbors of witchcraft in 1692; these accusations eventually led to the Salem witch trials.

Abigail Williams is perhaps the most prominent main character in The Crucible. She leads a group of girls into the woods to dance with Tituba, her uncle's slave.

Elizabeth (Betty) Parris and Abigail Williams

Betty and Abigail soon accused Tituba, the enslaved woman owned by Samuel Parris, whose subsequent confession launched a full-blown witchcraft crisis in Salem.

Abigail and the other girls are afraid of being caught experimenting with witchcraft. Abigail has a pretty pronounced fear of abandonment. The whole town is afraid of the Devil invading Salem or false accusations of witchcraft that lead to whippings, hangings, and imprisonment.

Abigail Williams is a manipulative character in Arthur Miller's play “The Crucible.” Miller illustrates this through the stage directions in Act One. It states, “…an endless capacity for dissembling.” (Miller 1130). This trait is how Abigail avoids conflict throughout the entire play.

How does Abigail protect her reputation? ›

Protecting her reputation motivates Abigail Williams to accuse others of being a witch. She will say or do anything to cover up the fact that she took a blood charm to kill John Proctor's wife, whom she had affair with.

Elizabeth Proctor is accused of witchcraft by Abigail Williams because Abigail wants to marry Elizabeth's husband, John, with whom she had an affair while serving in the Proctor household. “She wants me dead,” says Elizabeth of Abigail, and indeed, Abigail does intend for Elizabeth to die.

Abigail Williams

Parris, and his daughter, Betty. In a conjuring rite in the forest, where Abigail and other girls dance wildly around a cauldron, Abigail drinks rooster blood in attempt to summon spirits to kill Elizabeth Proctor.

For example, indirect characterization describing a protagonist might read, “John snapped at the man without warning,” whereas direct characterization would say simply, “John was short-tempered.”

Indirect characterization shows character traits without directly telling them to the reader. The writer employs literary devices such as similes, metaphors, and analogies, as well as descriptions of character details such as their appearance, actions, thoughts, words, and reactions from other characters.

It is the physical description of the character and what they look like on the outside. For example, if a character has red hair and freckles, that would be part of their appearance. Another example might be if a character is always impeccably dressed.

Although Abigail Williams is typically thought of as the antagonist of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, she is in fact a victim as much as any other tragic character in the play. The true antagonist of the play is the town of Salem itself, because of the judgemental and self concerned peoples, and its oppressive views.

Truth, Illusion, and Desire

Szabó uses the mystery of Abigail to investigate the ways in which illusions can eclipse reality as a result of one's longing for salvation and love, even when the truth presents itself before our very eyes.

Many of the characters are motivated by jealousy and greed in The Crucible. Abigail is motivated by jealousy of Elizabeth Proctor; she wants Elizabeth to die so she can marry John, Elizabeth's husband.

Finally, Abigail Williams is selfish. She shows no remorse for causing the death of 20 innocent people all because of her want for John and to save her reputation. Abigail's motivations stem from her character traits.

Who does Abigail blame? ›

1185). Abigail accuses Tituba to manipulate the situation so that her actions are not exposed to prove she is the real “witch”. She then goes on to lie in court, and she falsely testifies, “Goody Proctor always kept poppets”(Miller III. 825-826).

Abigail then tries to blame Tituba that threatening her because she believes that Tituba has been messing with her mind as she has a hint that she had conjuring the spirits.

Abigail uses her authority to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. She threatens the other girls with violence if they refuse to go along with her plans, and she does not hesitate to accuse them of witchcraft if their loyalty proves untrue. Such is the case with Mary Warren.

Thus, she falsely confesses to witchcraft. Abigail's so-called confession begins the long series of events that will lead to Abigail condemning both the Proctors to death.

Only when Proctor accuses Abigail of being a whore does she end her fit and lose credibility with Danforth. When Proctor tells the court of his affair and Abigail's plot to kill Elizabeth, he gives the court another opportunity to end the trials.

Over the course of the first two acts, it is revealed that Abigail used to work for the Proctors but had an affair with John; she was kicked out when Elizabeth confronted John with her suspicions and he confessed.

Why is Abigail afraid the others will confess what they were doing in the woods? She is afraid because she knows that they will incriminate her. How does Abigail treat the other girls? She treats them badly.

Abigail is selfish because she was willing to let people die so she could avoid her punishment. She is also selfish because she places her own needs before the community. One thing Abigail is selfish of doing is trying to get with John Proctor when he is married.

Abigail uses the witch trials to seek revenge on Elizabeth Proctor, her lover's wife, who fired her when she learned of her husband's affair. Abigail hopes that she can take Elizabeth's place as John's wife once she gets Elizabeth out of the way.

30. How do Abigail and the other girls turn the accusation against Mary Warren? They pretend that Mary Warren has turned herself into a bird who is now attacking the court.

What is the evidence of Abigail being cruel? ›

Abigail uses coercive power to threaten the girls because she doesn't want her reputation ruined, she knows she will be hung if the girls say a word so she tells them “I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” she basically implies she will kill them if they ruin her reputation.

Susanna Walcott, Mercy Lewis, Betty Parris

All of these girls possess a common fear of Abigail, and carry out her orders in an attempt to evade their own punishment at her hands.

Abigail has seen Mary Warren sewing the poppet in court and she knows that Mary Warren will give the doll to Elizabeth later. The fact that Abigail willingly inflicts a stabbing wound upon herself demonstrates how far she will go to destroy Elizabeth and possess Proctor.

Abigail herself, “leads the girls in their accusations in court against some of the most well-respected and good townspeople” (Blooms 16). She continuously accuses people that get in the way of what she wants. This vindictive behavior increases the mass hysteria throughout Salem.

Point of view is the writer's way of deciding who is telling the story to whom. Establishing a clear point of view is important because it dictates how your reader interprets characters, events, and other important details. There are three kinds of point of view: first person, second person, and third person.

The five methods are physical description, action, inner thoughts, reactions, and speech. We examined each method in a short example in order to have a good understanding of how authors use the various methods of characterization to develop the characters and create images for the audience.

Direct - Jane was a beautiful young girl. She had golden hair and blue eyes, which made her stand out from the rest. Indirect - When Jane walked in the room, nobody could help but look at her stunning, gorgeous face. She commanded attention wherever she went due to her good looks.

Direct Characterization tells the audience what the personality of the character is. Example: “The patient boy and quiet girl were both well mannered and did not disobey their mother.” Explanation: The author is directly telling the audience the personality of these two children.

Indirect characterization is the method used in literature to describe a character by revealing their thoughts, speech, dialogue, or actions.

Indirect characterization lets readers get to know a character through thoughts, actions, and speech. This type of characterization focuses on how your character interacts with other characters, as well as the world around them.

What are 2 examples of direct characterization? ›

Examples of direct characterization would be: ◾“Bill was short and fat, and his bald spot was widening with every passing year.” ◾“'Jane is a cruel person,' she said. '”

This occurs when an author gives you a character's thoughts, actions, interactions, speech, and context. For instance, "Mr. Deike slammed his fist on the his desk when the students didn't understand his instructions." From that action, you could infer about my character that I'm an angry individual.

Abigail is the antagonist of the play. She stands opposed to John Proctor, even though she claims to love him and want to be with him. Her refusal to believe that their affair is over, and her desire for revenge on John and his wife, Elizabeth, drive the action of the play.

The devastating past event of having her parents killed proves that Abigail is a victim of her society as she is an orphan. Parents play a key role for their children while they are growing up, they can teach them right from wrong and Abigail did not have these privileges.

She wants to abuse her power to make people agitated to not mess with her. Throughout the acts Abigail mainly uses Coercive, Legitimate and Informational power to make people fear her so she could get what she wants. Abigail is a manipulative person who will go out of the way to keep her reputation clean.

Abigail uses power and manipulation throughout the play to get what she wants and make people fear her.

Abigail knows that if she accuses someone, the court and adults will believe her. She feels in charge when accusing since people truly believe her. However, Abigail blames others due to the fact that she is selfish and self-centered.

In 1 Samuel 25, a beautiful story emerges, one of submission and deliverance. Abigail is a lesser-known heroine in the Bible, a humble woman who was married to a wealthy scoundrel. Abigail combined her wisdom with her wealth to appear before an approaching enemy to plead for the safety of her husband's household.

Character's view on herself

Abigail views herself as faithful to John Proctor because she does not want anyone else and she believes that what she is doing isn't as big of a deal as it should be.

Who is Abigail obsessed with? ›

She finds herself attracted to Proctor while working in the Proctor home. According to the Puritanical mindset, Abigail's attraction to Proctor constitutes a sin, but one that she could repent of and refuse to acknowledge. Abigail does the opposite. She pursues Proctor and eventually seduces him.

Abigail is motivated by jealousy of Elizabeth Proctor; she wants Elizabeth to die so she can marry John, Elizabeth's husband. Thomas Putnam is motivated by jealousy of other people's property; he wants George Jacobs to die so he can get his hands on a great piece of land.

Elizabeth Proctor is accused of witchcraft by Abigail Williams because Abigail wants to marry Elizabeth's husband, John, with whom she had an affair while serving in the Proctor household.

She accuses other people of witchcraft because it benefits her by helping her get out of trouble for dancing and conjuring in the woods; it also makes her seem more powerful (especially if those people "confess" and so corroborate her accusations).

Suddenly the townspeople revere the youth of the town, namely Abigail and the other girls, as instruments of God. Anyone who has crossed the girls lives in fear of being accused of witchcraft. As the leader of the group, Abigail has finally achieved the power she desires, and now she can use it to obtain Proctor.