Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Overview… a young woman who has a whole town in her thrall. Abigail Williams is 17 years old, an orphan, and the former servant of John Proctor. He fired her, but Abigail knows that’s only temporary. Still, she’s angry – and she has a plan for getting back at everyone in Salem that’s offended her. All she has to do is fake a few fits, make up some visions, and point fingers. No one thinks straight once witchcraft is mentioned, and Abigail knows just how to use that to her advantage.
Personality… manipulative, accusatory, and imaginative. Abigail is able to coerce the other girls in Salem into following her bidding through a mix of threats, lies, and power trips. She’s obsessed with John Proctor, and hates Mrs. Proctor passionately. But there was at least a spark of tenderness in her at one point, enough to make a good man like John look on her with affection. Maybe the power she gained through the witchcraft trials was too much for her to resist.
Get to Know her in...
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The movie is centered around the Salem Massachusetts witch trials of 1692. The movie is based on the play "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller. He also wrote the screen play adaptation.
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The Crucible is a play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. Based on historical people and real events, Miller's drama is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town's most basic fears and suspicions; and when a young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbor to testify against neighbor brilliantly illuminate the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence. Written in 1953, The Crucible is a mirror Miller uses to reflect the anti-communist hysteria inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthy's "witch-hunts" in the United States.
