The Crucible

"The Crucible" Essay

In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, there is one character who, because of her selfish

and evil ways, causes the destruction of many people in the town of Salem. This

character is Abigail Williams. In the play, jealousy, and self-interest are the two

characteristics that are seen constantly throughout the play. These characteristics pertain

particularly to Abigail, and give a graphic description of her life, and how she deals with

things in it. Throughout the play she gets worse and worse each time something major

happens.

After her affair and failure with voodoo, she was overcome by love and jealousy,

and she was willing to do anything to get John back to her own self. Since she was

overcome, she had no concern with morals, and starts to sin heavily by starting the witch

trials, which causes the deaths of many people in the town. Abigail doesn't want anyone

to find out that she was in the forest so she harshly threatens Betty Paris and Mary

Warren not to say anything. 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... And you know I can do it... I can make

you wish you had never seen the sun go down."

She fell in love with John Proctor after their affair, her morals and her whole life

began to fall apart. She started to be overcome with her feelings of love, and her passion

for John was enormous. After she was denied these things she could no longer control

herself, and her whole reason for living became to get back John. This shows that when a

person is given something, which they enjoy, and