Abigail: “villain or victim”

           How does Miller’s writing incline you to one view to another? 

  Abigail is portrayed as a manipulative girl who turns Salem upside down throughout
the play. Although, in other people's opinion, she was rather portrayed as a victim and
did the vengeful things she did due to confusion of the true meaning of love. By using
and analysing a myriad of language techniques used by Miller as evidence, we will
finally come to a conclusion on the argument of whether Abigail is the “ villain or victim”
of the play.

  By reading the script of “ The Crucible”, one may suggest that Abigail was the
vindictive girl who was accomplished at bringing pain, death and harm to those around
her. This play consisted of a series of dialogues which proves this point .Abigail’s signs
of villainy can be seen started from page 18 where she said “ Let either of you breathe a
word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in black or
some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you!” she said to
her friends, indicating that she will harm the people and friends around her for her own
gain or survival painting Abigail as the antagonist of the story. Abigail apparently drank
chicken blood as a charm in order to bring Elizabeth Proctor to her death. “ You drank a
charm to kill Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!” Abigail said. We
know that Abigail was in an affair with John Proctor. As I said, she would’ve attempted
to harm the people surrounding her in order for her personal gain therefore we can
consider Abigail as the main villain of the play. 

We could also consider Abigail as the person who started this whole witch-hunt. “ I want
to open myself!...I want the light of God. I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the
devil: I saw him”. She knew that if she admits that she was casting charms with Tituba
in the woods and confesses to witchery, she’ll be forgiven. Therefore, she herself falsely
admits that she’s a witch while dragging other people down with her thus starting this
whole outbreak. This is atrocious considering the fact that Abigail was the one who
convinces Tituba to go outside and do the sorcery.  Miller creates this feeling of tension
and chaos rising. “ I saw Sarah Good with the devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the devil!
I saw Bridget Bishop with the devil!” This is a parallel of McCarthyism, the practice of
making accusations towards people without any solid evidence. This book was written
in 1953 which was the period where Joseph McCarthy was accusing the people in the
government constitutions for being communists or communist sympathizers. Later on,
these people became subjects to countless aggressive questioning and investigations.
This is associated with this play because we can also see Abigail here falsely blaming
people and causing hysteria in the village like Joseph McCarthy causing hysteria in the
50s, with this in mind, this is significant because it suggests that what’s happening in his
time is also quite similar to what’s happening in Salem. The reason behind Arthur
highlighting this is most likely because he wanted to show how the events from three
hundred years ago are really comparable to the events happening at his time. Abigail is
making unsubstantiated claims of witches in Salem. This links to my point of Abigail
being an antagonist in the Crucible because we learn she will drag down the entire
village in order for her to survive.

  It is my view that other readers would believe that Abigail Williams is actually the victim
of the story. After all, she’s still seventeen year old, meaning she is still a hormonal
teen. In act one of “ The Crucible”, we learn that Abigail and John Proctor used to be in
an affair. John Proctor’s speech on page twenty-three says “ Abby, I may think of you
softly from time to time. But I’ll cut off my hand before I reach for you again.” For John
Proctor, Being in an affair with Abigail for a short amount of time while his wife Elizabeth
Proctor was sickly was just considered tomfoolery, but in Abigail's point of view, she
considered her and Proctor official. This is why Abigail showed strong feelings for
Proctor while proctor suggested that she forgets about their affair. We can see her hurt
and anger clearly on page 24 where she said “ I look for John Proctor that took me from
my sleep and put knowledge in my heart. I never knew what pretense Salem was. I
never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and
covenanted! And now you bid me tear the light out of my eyes? I will now. I cannot! You
loved me John.’’ Her feelings towards John Proctor can be clearly seen in that speech
by her. She’s still young, therefore she takes things seriously which is why she took the
affair seriously and thought that John Proctor actually loved her. In this situation, it was
as if she was fooled with love. This suggests that Abigail is actually a victim of the story,
her emotions were played with. 

It seems that Abigail might’ve had trauma as a child. She’s living with her uncle,
Reverend Parris due to the death of her parents. “ I saw Indians smash my dear
parents’ head on the pillow next to mine.” Abigail never had the feeling of love nor
affection inside her . She was never hugged, complimented or never even shown an act
of affection. Her parents died, she never had a feeling of being loved. This shows why
Abigail was truly affected by the actions of John Proctor. At the prime of John and
Abigail’s affair, she was loved, she was cared for, she was shown love. This shows why
Abigail was scarred internally as John told her to forget it. After her parents were
murdered by the Indians she lived with her uncle; who didn’t care much about her. This
was why she was affected negatively or in other ways, she had a childhood trauma.
Therefore, she brought everybody down for her own survival. This shows that Abigail
was affected by the death of her parents in a bad way, she was the victim due to this
thing which will be in her mind and heart forever. This agrees with the point of her being
the victim.

It is my opinion that Abigail is the catalyst of the terrible events in this play. Starting from
doing witchcraft to making a scapegoat of everybody so that she could hide her own
case . She is a villain due She is a villain due to the McCarthyism aspect because of her
acts. She falsely accuses the citizens of Salem so that she can get away with what she
actually did. This caused a hysteria in Salem like it did in the U.S in the 1950s due to
the second red scare. In summary, Abigail’s actions teach us that every action has a
reaction that will follow our name throughout our lives.

Zaw Min Thwe