Character Analysis (Abigail Williams) In the small town of Salem Massachusetts lives a group of early 17th century puritans who are faced with a cultural scandal brought on by a group of lustful teenage girls. They soon become victims of denial, guilt, and mass hysteria when the girls begin accusing the citizens of the town of witchcraft. These puritans who look for signs in everything were quick to pass the blame on to one another as they took note of any act or thought by that other person that in any way could be related to Satin.
Abigail Williams, who joins a group of friends in the forest one night to perform some kind of witchcraft-related ritual in order to change the feelings of the man that they liked so he would then feel the same towards them. In doing so this was supposed to allow them to live happily ever after with the man of their choice.
Abigail
Deposition of Abigail Williams v. George Jacobs, S...
"The witch no. 1" lithographThe town priest, who was walking through the woods during this same time happened to encounter this strange act. Seeing him the girls ran knowing that sever punishment would result. That next morning many of the girls would not rise in fear of what would happen to them. When Abigail what confronted by the priest she attempted to cover up what was being carried out in the forest that night. Small lies led to larger ones triggering a chain reaction of blame and denial. Applying these actions to Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development Abigail would appear to have exercised her freedom in level one at this point.
Throughout her live, the majority of Abigail's inspiration seemed to portray the life of John Procter. In this recent event of chaos, John strived to maintain the goodness of his name. This attempt was soon attacked by the relentless pursuit of the self centered Abigail Williams who was emotionally torn apart by John's will to marry someone else. As the court room filled with those who were accused of witchcraft, the girls were relentless on getting themselves off the hook by making it known that these other people who were brought before the court were indeed involved in those actions which were against the law and that they were responsible for any wrongdoing that had been carried out in the past by the girls themselves. This then led to many false accusations of the innocent which later led to their death. It was said that any person who confessed to this crime would not hang but would indeed give themselves a bad name throughout the town. At any sign of an individuals innocence in the court room and Abigail would then pretend to have been overcome by some evil spirit brought on by that person. This also set off a reaction which compelled the rest of the girls to do the same. With their great faith in god, those who where charged with this crime refused to confess to something they did not do and were later hanged because of it. John Proctor and his wife were among the last to die due mainly to Abigail's constant anger toward their lover for each other. The Salem witch trial was later ruled out due to the deaths of many innocent people who refused to confess to this crime.
The Pickman House, Back view that abuts the Salem ...
"Court Trial of Witches", illustrator unknown
Title page of "A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of...