Editorial: The Ghost of Abagail Williams - The Crucible · 5:52am Aug 17th, 2020
The following essay was written for a literature class I took in college. At the time, one of the plays we had to read was from Author Millier's "The Crucible." It is dated, April 18th, 2019.
The Ghost of Abigail Williams
The Arthur Miller play about the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1693 is a private commentary about the McCarthy trials of the fifties that have stubbornly stuck around with us to the modern-day. Deemed as a classic in both theater and literature in America, The Crucible is something that has the reputation of haunting those who come across it in some way. Be the play itself, whether from watching a live version or reading the script or watching the movie adaptation from the 1990s, it has cast a spell with its gothic story, enduring characters, and the countless themes that many people could interpret in just as many ways.
That being said, it's curious to hear that the main focus is solely on the original intent of the writer. It's no secret that at the time, Mr. Miller had crafted this dark tale about what happened in Salem and that it was meant to be an allegory for America of his time. It's perfectly understandable to address this point in which adds a certain depth to the events of the play. However, this paper is asking for a different perspective – one that probably has rarely been addressed despite its influence and rank in the American literary canon: why was The Crucible, a play that was originally meant to address those in the 1950s still timeless? Although tackling how well its themes address the political climate of the time is good, is there something in said themes that endure to this day?
As mentioned, the play has a complex web of countless themes and ideas that play off each other. So, with that in mind, how can one pinpoint of what makes this story so timeless? Luckily, the key to understanding how this play has endured comes from what could be the most interestingly written antagonist in American literature – Abigail Williams. Through her words and actions, she embodies the three essential themes of this play: manipulation, scapegoating, and power.
The character of Abigail, who's the niece of the village's reverent, is a teenager that has a simple motivation whose actions have dived into her vicious complexity. Simply put, the seventeen-year-old wants to be the wife of John Proctor, who was a past lover of hers before the beginning of the play. The major problem is that Mr. Proctor is already married and as long as his wife is alive, he refuses to have anything to do with Abigail. Like any other girl in the Puritan village of Salem, she doesn't want to get into any major trouble that, at the very least, would be branded as adultery or at most, witchcraft. Once the frenzy starts, she spies a golden opportunity to get rid of John Proctor's wife, even if it means manipulating the judges and the other girls to get what she wants.
But how and why does she carry out these things? In Act I, when her cousin Betty pointed out that she didn't tell her uncle "…. You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" (pg 18.) After a slap across the face, Abigail turns to the other girls and gave them this threat:
Now look you. All of you. We danced… And that is all. And mark this. Let either of
you breathe a word, or an edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you
in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder
you. And you know I can do it… I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can
make you wish you had never seen the sun go down! (pg. 19.)
When she is later confronted by Reverent Hale, someone that was sent to determine if there was witchcraft in Salem after knowing what happened in the forest. Abigail lied to him at first saying that their dancing was innocent, but once the boiling kettle where a frog jumped in was brought up, she then made up another lie that the slave of Reverent Parris (her uncle) tried to make a pact with the devil.
However, it wasn’t until Tituba falsely confessed to witchcraft saying that there are other witches in Salem does Abigail solidify her power by giving the grown-ups the very lie they wanted to hear by exclaiming: "I want to open myself! I want the light of God… I danced for the Devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus… I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!" (pg. 45.)
In Act II it is revealed that Abigail planted a rag doll with a needle and gave it to Mary Warren, who was the current servant of the Proctors. Later on, an arrest warrant was sent for Goody Proctor who was accused of attempted murder through witchcraft by Abigail. At that point, it's made extremely clear that the young girl is using the trials to kill Goody off. After John's wife is dragged away in chains, he turns on Mary saying that she must tell the truth, but she is more terrified of the girls, especially Abigail, knowing that they'll turn on her if she did.
In Act III, the antagonist had perfected the art of manipulation. After John brings up the accusation through Mary to Judges Danforth and Hathorne, they question Abigail if all this time they had only pretended to be attacked by spirits and witchcraft. From there, she fools the judges along with the other girls by doing exactly that – pretending to be attacked by spirits and witchcraft. As much as Mary, and later John, try to tell the judges that it isn't real, everyone there has bought into the illusion of it all, not only sending Mr. and Mrs. Proctor to prison but forcing Mary back on their side as well.
She threatens, lies, was convincing, and she fooled the judges by pretending to be afflicted by witchcraft, but what about how she convinces all these learned adults so easily? This is where the genius of Miller comes into play, as the playwright uses what was not only considered real, but an actual threat of the time – witchcraft. In the setting of the play of the 1690s, especially in the British Colonies of North America, for anyone to settle there was like trying to live another planet. To the Puritans, on the one hand, try to enforce a righteous society through the Bible and on the other was terrified stiff of what might be going on in their own backyards. For them, America was untouched by all things Christian and instead was inhabited by the Devil. Everything that doesn't equal the teachings of the Bible including the Native Americans and the slaves that were brought in was something they didn't understand and thus feared.
This was the reason why Abigail so was brilliant when it came to creating scapegoats. All throughout the play, she had used the prejudices, the ignorance, the hatred, the beliefs, and fears of her village in ways that, to the eyes of the Puritans, justified her actions in her attempt to get what she wanted. How? In the first Act, she blamed Tituba, a slave from Barbados of tempting the girls into witchcraft (a very easy target that (putting the race argument aside) she has been teaching some of the spells of her culture and even her songs in her native tongue). Immediately after, she accuses those that are considered outcasts of the village such as beggars and people who didn't have the best respect in Salem. Her targets were the outsiders, those that the Puritans wouldn't miss and would gladly get rid of for the sake of their land.
But to make the scapegoating complete, she and the girls pretended in court that the spirits of those of who are accused were attacking them into silence. In any other court, especially for the time period, this sort of behavior would be dismissed. However, given that the belief of witchcraft was as real as the village, even Judge Danforth remarked:
In an ordinary crime, how does one defend the accused? One calls up witnesses to prove
his innocence. But witchcraft is ipso facto, on its face and by its nature, an invisible
crime, is it not? Therefore, who may possibly be witnessed to it? The witch and the
victim. None other. Now we cannot hope the witch will accuse herself; granted?
Therefore, we must rely upon their victims – and they do testify, the children certainly do
testify. As for the witches, none will deny that we are most eager for all their confessions.
(pg. 93)
It is this very level of belief that even one of the girls, Mary Warren testified when she was questioned how come she pretended to see spirits.
"I – I cannot tell how, but I did. I – I heard the other girls screaming, and you, Your Honor, you seemed to believe them, and I – It were only sport in the beginning, sir, but then the whole world cried spirits, spirits, and I – I promise you, Mr. Danforth, I only thought I saw them but I did not."
This all leads to the most important question of not only about the play, but of what happened in Salem all those centuries ago: if the girls knew what they were doing, why did they accuse and hang so many of their fellow villagers? If one saw or read the play, one would think that Miller has brought up what could be the most compelling reason of all – power. For these teenage girls, they would have absolutely no say whatsoever in their communities. Not just because of their age, but for the fact that the Puritan society has long expected them to be quiet, obedient people who are just barely above children, that to give them a voice or a role in their local government was considered nonsense. Then one day, a slave tells of witches in Salem, and that was the golden opportunity for someone like Abigail to jump right in. Overnight, she and the other girls have more power than any other in New England. They could change the justice system to their whims, having control over the life and death of their fellow neighbors. They can easily accuse anyone of witchcraft, and it would be on the burden of the accused to prove innocent or falsely confess that they are witches. Be it through their families to do all the accusing, they themselves for their own reasons, or perhaps a combination of both, these girls had a voice. They had power. They became God's finger to smite those who stood in their way.
It's reasonable to conclude that the reason why “The Crucible” has become timeless is because of the themes that Abigail displayed. It is her tactics of manipulation; her skillful use of scapegoats and raw power is still seen to this day. Admitting it or not, in the news and online we often find the ghost of Abigail Williams that still haunts us. Here a politician lies and manipulates others into silence. There a bigoted online group who claims they fight for justice creates scapegoats for others to rally behind to vow to rid the world of what they deem as the outsider. And even in our own communities from schools to local councils, that Machiavellian power is present to keep those who have and recently got into power to keep it that way by any means necessary. As long as we still see the spirit of Abigail, there will still be cries of seeing those who are dancing with the Devil.
To the author - Incredible! is all i can say. beautiful analysis, don't often something like this on here.
(i find this song oddly appropriate...don't know if you're even a fan of her music!?!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DP4q_1EgQQ
Note: wrote this on Sunday throughout Monday night.