Growing up, there is always the kid that everyone is afraid of. No one dares to sit next to them, but when they tell a student to move, that person doesn't hesitate. They are always the first person picked for teams simply because everyone is afraid to play against them. Everyone listens and obeys. They have somewhat of a dictatorship over those who surround them. They may come in different genders, names, sizes, and appearances, but there are there, in every town, playground, street, high school, and workplace. In "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams takes this role in Boston, Massachusetts in the late 1600's. Throughout the entire play she is manipulative, psychotic, and intelligent yet troubled young girl.
Abigail is the epitome of what defines manipulation. She uses everyone around her to her advantage. She intimidates the girls into not saying incriminating things in court. Abigail abuses her knowledge of John Proctor's lechery and adultery by declaring, "You are no wintry man, John.
Arthur Miller, American playwright
Abigail
Deposition of Abigail Williams v. George Jacobs, S...I know you." to keep him quiet in the earlier stages of court proceedings. She even goes as far to hit and threaten Betty saying, "'Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you... I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!" to keep her from telling the truth and siding against her. All the girls seem to be under her control because of her somewhat scheming behaviors throughout the entire play.
In "The Crucible", Williams has many psychotic traits. She won't accept that John Proctor doesn't truly love her, but was simply caught in the lust of a man's hormones. He claims, "She
thinks to dance with me on my wife's grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a whore's vengeance, and you must see it." All she wanted was to take Elizabeth Proctor's place. She accused many people, and many were hanged because of her insane obsession with John. She says, "I cannot sleep for dreamin'; I cannot dream but I wake and walk about the house as though I'd find you comin' through some door." She pleads with him, and doesn't believe him even when he pushes her to the ground in the deleted scene of act three. She insists that he is doing this for "show" to satisfy his wife. In factuality, he realizes how insane this girl really is, and wants to save his wife and the wives of his friends.
Abigail Williams, despite her less appealing traits, is a very intelligent person. She plans ahead and has a majority of the Salem Village believing that people are bewitching her. She faints on cue during trials to further her accusations. Abigail watches Mary Warren make a doll for Elizabeth Proctor and then stick a spare needle into it for safekeeping. She then she concocts "proof" of witchcraft by saying Elizabeth, the "owner" of the doll stuck it into the doll, which was a model of Abigail. She screams of pain when having dinner with the judges of the court. She slyly frames Elizabeth of witchcraft threw her smart thinking.
In "The Crucible", Abigail Williams is a manipulative, psychotic, and intelligent kid that has her village wrapped around her finger. She is in control of everything around her. Abigail, the antagonist, in truth is a character of simply bad intentions. Her sole mission is to be with John Proctor at any cost, even the price of the lives of the citizens of the Salem Village.
Legend (Abigail Williams EP)
ABIGAIL SPEARS
Symphonic black metal band Abigail Williams playin...