The Crucible: Abigail WIlliams

Essay by Blondiegrl99High School, 10th grade October 2014

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Abigail Williams has run away after her last testimony June 3, 1692. It was announced that she stole all her uncle's money and left with Mercy Lewis. It is being rumored that she and Lewis ended up in the east coast and that she has been forced into prostitution in order to have food to live. This would have been shocking if not for John Proctors "confession" of their affair. Nothing has been recorded of her ever since.

Williams was a main accuser in these witch trials. It started when Williams and a large group of girls were found in a forest around a fire by her uncle, Reverend Parris. She claimed that they were just dancing even though Parris had seen a girl naked, and a fire with a specimen in the middle. Soon after, Abigail and Betty, her cousin, began experiencing sickness and were checked by and doctor.

When the word had gotten out that it might have been witchcraft, Abigail was quick to accuse Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba even though Abigail was the one who begged tituba to help them with their fortune telling/ After warrants were out for their arrest, Abigail threatened the girls to not speak a word of what happened in the forest to anyone or else she would kill them. She says, "I saw Indians smash my dear parents' head on the pillow next to mine" (The Crucible 1.119). This is a good indication on why she finds joy in hurting others because she is retaliating from her parents death. When Abigail went to court for this trial, she claimed she "saw the apparition of Sarah Good at her examination pinch Betty Parris and set her into fits and also Betty Parris and Ann Putnam Jr." (Yost 2002)

Overall, Abigail...