Antagonist of the Crucible: Abigail Williams

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible one of the main characters, Abigail Williams, is
a girl who had no real importance in her town of Salem except that her uncle was
the town reverend and in fact she also had a bad reputation because of an love
affaire she had with a well-respected man named John Proctor. She then went on to
be the main reason why dozens of townspeople were sent to jail or sentenced to
hanging in Salem. The worst part about all her testimony and accusations was that
they were made up.
Abigail is the antagonist of the play. She stands opposed to John Proctor, even
though she claims to love him and want to be with him. Her refusal to believe that
their affair is over, and her desire for revenge on John and his wife, Elizabeth, drive
the action of the play. Abigail accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft and makes up lies
that send both Proctors to jail, and John to his death. Abigail always acts selfishly
and to save her own skin. At the same time, Abigail serves as a “crucible” for the
other characters, especially John. Her actions cause him to choose between his
honor and his life, and renounce his past mistakes. Abigail also causes Elizabeth to
reconsider whether she’s been a good wife to John. While Abigail doesn’t change
much over the course of the play, she inspires great change in others. None of the
events of the plot of the play would have happened if Abigail had simply confessed
to dancing in the woods with Tituba. Instead, her lies end up killing dozens of
people, including the man she claims she loves.
Its is evident in The Crucible that Abigail Williams is the antagonist of the story
based on her willingness to do anything to get her way, her not following the 10
commandments, and her lack of morale.
To start off, Abigail Williams is the antagonist of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible
because of her willingness to do anything to get her way. Throughout The Crucible
Abigail Williams is doing mean things to people, threatening them, and fabricating
stories to get her way. This can be seen in The Crucible when Abigail threatens the
other girls in act 1, “Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured
Ruth Putnam's dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. 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 saw Indians smash my dear parents' heads on the
pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can
make you wish you had never seen the sun go down! (She goes to Betty and
roughly sits her up.) Now, you—sit up and stop this!” (Miller, 20). This quote
shows the true motives behind Abigail’s actions, even as she tries to get the girls to
agree on a story to protect herself she uses the threat of violence to keep them in
line is part of the reason why her doing anything to get her way makes her the
antagonist. Another example of Abigail doing anything to get her way can be seen
after she is caught dancing in the woods she eventually ends up blaming Tituba and
says Tituba forced her to dance and work for the devil and to help her own case she
says she saw Sarah Good and Goody Osbourn with the devil also because she
knows they are easy to convict of witchcraft. This shows how it is easy to see
Abigail Williams is the Antagonist of The Crucible based on her willingness to get
her way even if that means threatening her friends and blaming others for forcing
her to dance in the woods and practice witchcraft.
Another characteristic of Abigail Williams in The Crucible that makes her the
antagonist is her not following the 10 commandments in regards to her actions and
testimony in her overly religious society. At that time in their society breaking the
10 commandments was very uncommon in all aspects and for Abigail Williams to
do it so frequently with no remorse is astonishing. Abigail Williams can first be
seen breaking one of the 10 commandments when she commits adultery with John
and then tries to convince him to continue their relationship and cheat on his wife
more. "I have a sense for heat, John, and yours has drawn me to my window, and I
have seen you looking up, burning in your loneliness. Do you tell me you've never
looked up at my window" (Miller 23). In this quote Abigail is inquiring whether
John has thought about her or not because she wants to continue their relationship,
which would be a sin, and breaking one of the 10 commandments of adultery.
Abigail Williams is again seen breaking one of the 10 commandments when she
bears false witness multiple times in court and makes multiple testimonies about
seeing and hearing spirits of people working for the devil. One example of her
bearing false witness is when she pretends that Mary Warren transformed her spirit
into a yellow bird and is controlling her mind and the other girls mind. In this
situation out of nowhere Abigail started to pretend to talk to this ‘bird’ and the other
girls followed suit because they were manipulated and threatened by Abigail to do
what she says. Another example of Abigail bearing false witness can be seen when
she says she saw various townspeople with the devil and signing his book which is
getting them hung even though she did not really see them with the devil or see the
devil at all. Abigail repeatedly not following the 10 commandments throughout the
crucible shows how little she cared about what she was doing and how it affected
others, which is why she is the antagonist of The Crucible.