How Is Elizabeth Presented In The Crucible

Have you ever craved to be the center of attention? Spun a lie to feel important? However what happens when that certain lie begins to spiral out of control? In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, this complex situation happens to Abigail Williams; she is a mere child of seventeen years old, who frightens her peers due to her belligerent behavior. Therefore, when she begins to falsely accuse townspeople of being witches, her peers begin to blindly imitate her. Their duplicity soon has their whole town, Salem Village, in an uproar. There’s a mass panic as neighbor turns upon neighbor, eagerly wanting to add to the numbers of the accused. Abigail feeds off of their hunger for witches and continues to accuse people with no thought about their well-being, which begins a destructive cycle fueled by her flaws of selfishness, childishness, and self-entitlement that eventually results in the
In Act 2 Elizabeth is arguing with Proctor and confesses some concerns she has about Abigail. “Spoke or silent, a promise is surely made. And she may dote on it now—and I am sure she does—and thinks to kill me then to take my place” (Miller Act 2). Here Elizabeth is warily expressing what she fears Abigail stands to gain by implicating her as witch since she’s realized that Abigail is desperate to get what she wants by any means possible. Abigail is well aware of the amount of sway she holds the trials and aspires to put it in good use. This sense of power overtakes her and makes her want for more, whether that is through accusing more people—just because she can—or removing Elizabeth. But Abigail reasons that once she has removed Abigail from the equation she’s essentially won and gained the highest power of all, being by Proctor’s side. This intense focus on Proctor only serves to push him even further away and pushes her closer to the downfall of losing him and herself in the