Abigail Williams Flaws In The Crucible

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In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Abigail Williams portrays the three character flaws of lust, envy, and selfishness, which leads her to be responsible for a majority of the tragedy taken place in the play. Miller’s character developement of Abigail throughout the play strengthens these flaws, adding to the overall death toll of the fact-based witch-hunts in the play. A character flaw Abigail Williams has in The Crucible is lust. After having an affair with John Proctor, Abigail longs for the physical touch of him again. She constantly makes it blatantly obvious that she is looking for a physical relationship with John, For example, in Act I, Miller records an exchange between John and Abigail, where Abigail says, “I am waitin’ for you …show more content…
Above anything else, Abigail is most envious of Elizabeth's relationship with John Proctor. After the introductory events of the play, Miller drops a clear hint to what Abigail hopes to gain from the Salem Watch Trials. In Act I, Betty, Abigail’s cousin, says, “You [Abigail] drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!” (18). This quote shows what envy urges Abigail to do. She is willing to do anything, no matter how illegal to get what she covets, which in this case happens to be John’s love. In another blatant attack of envy towards the Proctor’s relationship, Abigail accuses Elizabeth Proctor in court as being a witch. In Act II Elizabeth sees this coming and says, “She wants me dead. I knew all week it would come to this” (57). Abigail’s envy for what Elizabeth had was so strong that even the one she was plotting against was a aware. To confirm these envious attacks, at the end of Act III Abigail says, “Envy is a deadly sin, Mary” (106). This quote from the court proceedings is a subtle indicator that Abigail has suffered much from her passionate envy, and that she now knows for herself it is a deadly sin. All of Abigail’s envy causes so many more lives than necessary to be wasted to get rid of Elizabeth, and in the end drives her away from her own home in
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