Abigail Williams, The Crucible Character Essay

Abigail Williams, The Crucible Character Essay The Crucible is a significant literature work that reveals an important period of the America colonial history. In its depiction of Salem witch trials of 1692, the book presents a heavy criticism of the witch-hunting ideology of that time rooted in McCarthyism. Apart from the historical perspective, the story addresses gender roles and the change in role models across times. The dynamics of girl group interactions, their struggle for male’s attention and complexity of sexual issues occupy a large portion of the analysis (Bovard 82). From the point of the female competition for the power and recognition in the male-dominated society, Arthur Miller generated several female characters, whose value and relevance for the story was equivalent to the protagonist’s role of John Proctor. The core female figure in Miller’s book is Abigail Williams depicted by the author as simultaneously the devil and the victim of the then puritanism mentality (Bovard 82). Besides, the overall character of Abigail represents the controversy between her appearance and actions. As a brief background to the story, one need to know that English settlements in the colonized America of the 17th century experienced regular encounters with Indians, indigenous American people. Salem founded by English puritans bordered York occupied by Indians, who, in their turn, suffered from English settlers’ attacks (Schissel 56-57). The growth of Salem families occupied predominantly with farming forced them to grasp new territories governed by indigenous people. Continuous struggles with neighbors and Indians produced adverse effects on Salem farmers, who explained their losses of livestock and harvest as well as other negative life events by God’s wrath. In their faith, Salem puritans promoted strict service to God, which implied women’s subordinance to men and the prohibition of any entertainment activities, including childish games (Schissel 58-59). The infamous witch trials were a consequence of that puritanism mentality. Abigail Williams depicted as a young beautiful girl is associated with the evil, who took a human appearance to convince Salem women to sin. From this angle of view, Abigail has no shame or hesitation when initiating a playful ritual with her uncle’s daughter in the forest (Bly 20). In Miller’s narration, Abigail is responsible not only for starting a witch game with her cousin, but also for shifting the blame on their slave Tituba. That behavior allowed the girl to escape charge and prosecution in the puritanism society of Salem and to continue amusing herself by engaging new participants in her play and further pointing out those “bewitched” to Salem community. A series of witch rituals conducted by Abigail in favor of her entertainment resulted in the accusation and death of 200 Salem women (May 16). While depicting the pre-conditions of witch trials, Miller tries to identify and explain motives of Abigail’s cruelty. Living in the male dominated puritanism community, the girl might have no other way to escape the public prosecution for performing her joyful rituals in the forest. However, the experienced success and victory over Salem men in proving her innocence and convincing the community in the bewitched nature of the selected women underpinned Abigail’s desire to strengthen her power and impact on others. Unarguably, her character depicts solid leadership abilities and natural charisma, which were historically attributed to male personality (Bovard 82). In other words, Abigail’s actions may be interpreted as a struggle against the system, where women had to voice and right to self-expression. Another critical point of Miller concerns the love affair between Abigail and the married John Proctor. The then puritanism society did not accept divorce or other violations of t he marriage agreement (Miller xi). As such, in her violent play, Abigail might target Elizabeth Proctor to eliminate the barrier to the happiness sought with John. To sum up, the character of Abigail is controversial and complex reflecting problems of the then society.