John And Elizabeth's Abuse Of Power In The Crucible

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the readers are faced with John, Abigail and Elizabeth’s love triangle and its impact on the Salem witch trials. In The Crucible, the responsibility for the Salem tragedy falls on the shoulder of the three main characters, because each character’s action takes part in a chain reaction, which, ultimately, leads to the tragedy. This can be proven by Abigail’s manipulative nature, Elizabeth’s coldness, and John’s abuse of power and lack of self-control.
Abigail’s manipulations are partly responsible for the hanging of the 19 innocents. From act 1, her manipulative nature can be seen. She manipulates the girls with whom she practiced witchcraft with to not tell anyone what they did otherwise she would “bring [them] a pointy reckoning that will [shudder] them” (20). We can see other evidences of her cunningness in act 3, where Mary Warren, John’s current servant, accuses her and the girls of faking their ability to see spirits. Abigail, and the other girls, faked in front of the court to see spirits and fainted, which Mary was not able to do. Her acting was so good that Mary went back to her, knowing she would not be able to win.
Abigail was John’s servant. She is in hardly any position of authority. Proctor is the owner of the property. While he could have said no to her advances, he still chose to have an affair with her while his wife was sick. In the time period of the story, adultery was punishable by death, and John probably knew that. Even if he admits in act 3 that “he lusted” over Abigail, it does not matter, since he has already given Abigail false hopes, and, thus, the motivation to pursue him