What’s the difference between Abigail Williams and Satin? Very little! Abigail turns life around for many innocent citizens of Salem. She took away their freedom and attacked their emotions. Abigail shows many similar qualities to Satin in The Crucible. She certainly rejects God and does what she wants to do regardless of whom it may hurt. Abigail Williams was a menace to society because she destroyed the calm community of Salem through her destructive, sinful acts. Abigail tries to steal Goody Proctor’s husband John.
Abigail makes an attempt to kill Goody Proctor by casting a spell upon her. She had been Goody Proctor’s servant, but Goody Proctor dismissed her. Abigail turned from God when she cast the spell on Goody Proctor. She drank blood and spoke over a boiling caldron. Abigail also had an affair with John, and she wanted to have John to herself. Abigail was completely engulfed in the idea of spending the rest of her life with John. This would never happen, because John didn’t love Abigail.
However, Abigail was not willing to let anything stop her in her quest for John. Abigail and the other girls had a dark secret. Abigail was willing to do anything to hide the truth from the world. All the girls were lying the whole time about being bewitched. Abigail was a very controlling person. She was able to use this quality about herself to intimidate the other girls to not confess, but keep acting and lying with her. Abigail showed the other girls by accusing Mary of witchcraft that she could condemn anyone that tried to reveal her secret.
Showing the girls that if they weren’t with Abigail, they were against her, the girls didn’t hesitate to listen to whatever Abigail said. With Abigail controlling all the girls, and the girls being the only means of anyone getting convicted of witchcraft, there was no fair justice. If they were accused of witchcraft, they had two options. Their first option was to admit their crime, and then they had to sign a document that declared them a sinner. This document was hung above the church door so that everyone could see. If they decided to not admit their sin, there was no forgiveness.
Regardless of who they were, there was no escaping death. Once convicted of witchcraft, and if they didn’t confess, they were set in jail to wait for the day that they would be hanged they for their crime. Many innocent people died, and they all had one thing in common, they had Abigail Williams to blame for their lose of life. Abigail Williams was a menace to society because she destroyed the calm community of Salem through her destructive, sinful acts. Everyone in the village looked down upon her by the end of her deceitful acts.
It is a shame that no one could have known the truth behind Abigail’s lies, for they might have been able to warn someone. However, even if anyone had known the whole story of Abigail in the woods with the other girls, it probably wouldn’t have helped much. Abigail could have easily turned the tables saying that they had bewitched her. Since there was no hard evidence to convict someone of witch, only the word of the children, there was no avoiding Abigail’s destruction. The Salem witch trials were doomed to happen, and their destruction was immeasurably harmful.
