The Crucible

In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams' behavior is not without reason; her mental instability is to blame for her actions. For example, she saw her parents murdered as a child and this seems to have lead to her being mentally unstable. John Proctor, a much older man, also basically sexually abused her. And her being raised by Reverend Parris, the paranoid, power-hungry man, is sure to be messing Abigail up in some way or another.

As a young girl, Abigail witnessed both her mother and father murdered by Native Americans. Surely witnessing such a violent act had some effect on Abigail's mental health. The following quote is of Abigail threatening the other girls to keep quiet about what happened in the woods.

"Let either of you breathe a word, or the 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 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! (Act one)"

This particular quote shows how Abigail thinks she can hurt the other girls because of what she saw happen to her mother and father. Her bullying and manipulative attitude can be blamed on the murder of her parents.

Early in the play, it is established that Abigail and John Proctor have had an affair, this being the reason Goody Proctor fired Abigail and also why Abigail starts the whole fiasco in order to get of Good Proctor so she and John can be together. Why Abigail thinks calling witchery on massive amounts of people will allow her and John to be together is beyond the understanding of the writer of this essay. But for some reason, she thinks this is a good idea and proceeds to aid in the accusation and death of 19 innocent people. One who is mentally stable would surely not take such extreme actions.

Another point is that Reverend Parris, her uncle, has been raising Abigail. This man is paranoid, and more concerned with his reputation that the health of his own daughter. Reverend Parris doesn't seem to be the kind of man who would raise a fit child, seeing how said child grew up to think that having an affair with a married man more than twice her age, and whom is also her boss, is acceptable. Abigail Williams was raised by an idiot and it certainly