Preview

The Prime Instigator of Conflict Is Fear

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
732 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Prime Instigator of Conflict Is Fear
The prime instigator of conflict is fear

When we people feel frightened, it is often that the fright itself is the point when conflict is build. It is not wrong if we say that conflict is not only triggered by fear. There are many things that could cause a conflict, but when you think a bit further, these things are caused none other but by fear. Hatred of one person to the other is generally caused by fear that also brings up anger and envy. Fears of the uncertain future and death also provoke conflict. When people is scared of what others might do to them, they will make the first move and strike without realizing or trying to understand them first which caused a misunderstanding that will again root to conflict. A Moslem, sometimes has a false interpretation when trying to understand their religion. They were trying to fulfill their belief needs, and yet their fear of the American society leads them to terrorize U.S and so started the war between them. The same thing could be applied to the protest against the authority.

In ‘The Crucible’, Abigail Williams is the one who initiate conflict in Salem, which results in the death of many innocent people who are falsely accused of witchcraft. Abigail started her lies due to save her name in the village that already blackened, and as the story goes on, to save her life as well. With the arrival of Reverend Hale, the simple matter of ‘dancing in the wood’ could no longer be put behind. Abigail has no other choice but to keep lying, a lie that was once only to save her life is now threatening the whole village and people who are initially not involved in it. She does not hesitate on telling lies, and her true motive is now colored with her fear of losing her former lover. This fear is far greater than her conscience, and eventually devours it.

Reverend Paris as a minister has a fright on his own that makes him not doing his job rightfully as the enforcement of justice. For the sake of his name, his family and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Salem Witch Trials can be described as a set prosecutions of people who were charged with witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts despite a lack of evidence. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, portrays the catastrophic events that occurred in Salem and their impact on their society. In the play, Abigail Williams is dismissed as the servant of the Proctors due to her affair with the husband, John. Proctor wants to move on after the affair as he states, ‘I may think of you softly from time to time, but I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again (1270)”.…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The setting of Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, conveys a powerful structure of jealousy to the reader’s understanding that Abigail Williams’ decision in concealing her affair with John Proctor will prevent charges of witchcraft on John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor. In addition, Abigail William is marked as the lowest in the social pyramid in Salem. Witchcraft gave her instant recognition within Salem which fed her power from within, which led to the circulation of innocent people being indicted with false accusations.…

    • 80 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “ The Crucible “ Abigail was accused of the Salem Witch Trials and the dreadful hangings because she was always sneaky, mean, dishonesty, and was the one to blame for when stuff happened. "Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I'll ever reach for you again”. Abigail tried to kill Elizabeth with a curse in the beginning of the play because she had always wanted to marry John Proctor and she thought that the time was right. Therefore, mainly everyone in the village didn’t trust Abigail because she tried to sneak behind Elizabeth back and tried to set her up for the kill. Abigail was the cause of the Salem Witch Trial all because she fell in love with a married man.…

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    John Proctor Sacrifice

    • 1868 Words
    • 8 Pages

    She was then taken in by Reverend Parris, her uncle, and was able to find employment in the Proctor household, which led to the development of the conflict in The Crucible. Abigail was sent away from the Proctor household after Elizabeth found out about the lecherous acts between Abigail and John Proctor. The build up of experiences, from the murder of her parents up until the first act probably led her to the current disposition she is in during the play. She easily prioritizes her own desires at the expense of others, even going to the extent of cursing Elizabeth Proctor during prior to the first act and, later on, blaming Elizabeth Proctor for practicing witchcraft. Abigail Williams does not seem to be bound by moral standards, as seen in her continuing active participation in the witch hunt and conviction of a number of Salem's citizens. Her knack for mischief develops further towards the third act, when Mary Warren came forward with the claim that she had lied about being afflicted by supernatural forces. This statement could have displaced the previous accusations that Abigail and her friends had given in the past. Abigail, recognizing the possibility of being imprisoned for deceiving the court, started acting as if Mary Warren had cast her spirit on Abigail and her friends. Mischief turned into vengeance at this point, when the girls were too deep into their lie that self-preservation and hatred towards those endangering that self-preservation fueled their…

    • 1868 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Crucible - Summary

    • 1148 Words
    • 3 Pages

    We are warned about Abigail before she even utters a word, Miller gives us a quick overview of her personality ‘Abigail seventeen enters- a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling.’ We see that before we even get to know Abigail we are told that she is very good a telling lies. But at the start Abigail does try to start off telling the truth when she does tell her uncle about the dancing and she pleads with him that young Betty is not witched. However, we do see the dark side of Abigail, when she is talking to all the girls saying that they only danced and Tituba conjured spirits not them and if they told Abigail would ‘come to [them] in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. 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!’ We can see the extremes Abigail would go to keep this a secret. We know that Abigail is just plain bad, there isn’t a lot of good in her at all. Also we see that Abigail perhaps because she is raised as an unloved orphan, she loves to be the centre of attention when she can be. So when Tituba was confessing to Reverend Hale about conjuring spirits. Abigail noticed she wasn’t getting any attention so she confessed to witchcraft just to get some praise off of the back of Tituba. To get even more praise and to become even more absolved she starts naming random names. Abigail with or without realising it starts something, that she may think she can control, but as the lies gather momentum and as the crucible burns hotter, she cannot and she has completely gone too far with the lying and cannot turn back. Abigail Williams' lies and deceit is done to maintain her sense of control over the group and to ensure that what she covets or desires is what will be gained. In Act II, the focus is the realm of the internal. The effect of…

    • 1148 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the beginning of the Crucible, a scene told the audience how a teenaged girl, Abigail, helped her employer, John Proctor, commit adultery. She knew she had grudges toward some people, including her mistress, because her lover confessed and she got fired. In an attempt to try and cover up her mess, she tries to “contact the devil” by dancing naked in the woods with her friends.…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "All is fair in love and war"-proverb. People will do anything for love. There is no act that is too bad or too good when going after the loved one. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller takes place in Salem in 1692/93 where Abigail Williams is the main character who acts among an evil intent because she can't be with her "love", John Proctor. She is willing to do anything to get Elizabeth out of the way so that she can fulfil her fantasy of being John's wife. John regrets committing adultery while his wife was sick and rejects Abby. Whereas others once reproached her for her adultery, she now has the opportunity to accuse them of the worst sin of all: devil-worship. The sin is fatal. Abigail manipulates and accuses her way up to increase her credibility to get what she wants.…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller based on the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials. Throughout the play we meet many characters who are motivated by different things. Abigail Williams is one of the most prominent characters in the play. Abigail’s powerful, attention seeking and vengeful ways add to the drama in Salem as well as deepen the plot in The Crucible.…

    • 486 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Abigail Williams is known for lying about her affair with John Proctor, but at what cost? To clear everything up, Abigail Williams is a character in the play called “The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller. Within the play’s first scene, Abigail is caught “dancing” in the forest by Reverend Parris, causing her cousin, Betty, to faint. As the scene continues, Rev. Parris starts to question Abigail about what she and Betty were doing, and she lies, saying that they were dancing for sport; the action that night resulted in her going to court to testify her innocence. Abigail, instead of answering questions about her night in the woods, starts to stretch the truth to the court about John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth, being a witch. She even goes as far as to drink blood as a charm to kill Elizabeth, and plant incriminating evidence against her. As we read the play, we can get a better understanding as to why Abigail went so far to cover up her affair with John Proctor. She wanted her name to be associated with strong and respectable, although why would a person go to such lengths just for a name?…

    • 985 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    All throughout The Crucible, Abigail Williams is seen lying to and manipulating people all in attempts to get what she wants and protect her reputation. Despite how heartless and dark these actions might seem, they are performed for one distinct reason: Abigail is already ranked in the lowest of the low of society, and being exposed for who she truly is—a liar who has partaken in witchcraft with her friends, Susanna Walcott, Mary Warren, Betty Parris, Tituba, and more, would bring nothing but pain, heartbreak, and quite possibly death to her. In Puratin societies, women were always considered “the weaker vessel in both body and mind” and treated poorly with disrespect, meaning that Abigail is obviously treated with this apparent disrespect.…

    • 651 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Abigail posses an immoral persona and many of her actions are unethical. She wants one thing and one thing only, John Proctor, a married man. She participates in infidelity and constructs a web of lies. She knows that it is a sin to have sex with a married man but continues to proclaim her love for him, “I will not, i cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is you love me yet!” (The Crucible, Act 1). In connection with the infidelity she lies on Elizabeth, Proctor’s wife, and says her spirit stabbed her when in reality she stabbed herself. Similar to her lack of emotions it proves how immoral, unethical, and selfish she really is.…

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Honesty in the Crucible

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Abigail Williams lies many times throughout The Crucible. In Act I, Abigail deceives Reverend Parris by claiming that the reason she was dismissed from working for the Proctors was due to the fact that “She [Elizabeth Proctor] hates me, uncle, he must, for I would not be her slave” (Miller 12). The reality of this statement is that although Abigail claims, “there be no blush upon my name” (Miller 12), Abigail was discharged from her laboring duties because she had a love affair with John Proctor. Abigail continues with this deception throughout the entire story, which later leads to the downfall of many others. Another example of Abigail’s dishonesty is while dancing in the forest one night with other girls, Abigail tried to cast a charm to kill Elizabeth Proctor so she could have John all to herself. When the villagers of Salem received word of this, Abigail quickly denies the accusations of witchcraft by diverting the attention to others by lying and claiming to have seen many people with the devil while in the forest. Another lie Abigail concocts in The Crucible is that Elizabeth Proctor sent her spirit on Abigail and claims “a needle were found stuck into her belly” (Miller 76), when in fact, Abby stuck herself just…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Abigail is a young girl who uses her imagination and intimidating power to install fear within fellow characters, which fuses the conflict for the entire play. In her hometown of Salem Massachusetts, witchcraft has been brought into play. Little do people of the town know Abigail and her friends are the ones who have started this crazy talk and are also the ones who are keeping it going. The girls and Abby soon become the town’s main source of evidence, for the girls would call out innocent names blaming others of witchcraft and following the devil. To install fear in the other girls, Abigail says to them, “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 is a very strong willed and manipulative child, and by saying this to her friends she made them fearful of her and they know to keep their mouths shut. The girls keep playing their little game giving Abigail more time to go after the one person she wanted gone the most, Goodie Proctor. Goodie is her main target because Abby wants her husband, John Proctor, and knows that she is the only thing in her way. A recent affair between Abby and John sparked an idea in Abby’s head that they would be together because she thinks he’d leave Goodie and only love her. Abigail’s greatest fears and conflicts seem to have derived from deep within herself. She does not want to be alone or unloved and now that she is controlling the people in the town she believes…

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the Middle East, the primary reasons for war is land ownership and religious domination. Palestine is a country that lacks military strength, therefore resort to terrorism to inflict fear upon Israel and the United States. Herbert C. Kelman article “The Israeli–Palestinian Peace Process and Its Vicissitudes” points out supports that terrorism contributes to the ongoing process of warfare. Additionally, Nadi, N. Rouhana “Psychological Dynamic of Intractable Ethnological Conflicts” generally shows how during war, countries influence their citizens to have a negative view the oppose group to cope with the news of violence and gain support. On the individual level, Rachael M. McNair “Violence Begets Violence: The Consequences of Violence Becomes…

    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays