The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is known to be a play with much controversy. Additionally, the Salem witch trials, the event taking the setting of this story, proves to be very complex when considering the characters in the novel. Susan Abbotson, an author commenting on the play, states that while reading The Crucible, the audience is able to see characters in the twisted society that are “open to corruption in the pursuit of personal gain.” The story may be very interesting, but as Susan Abbotson notes, the characters are what really captivate the audience. Throughout the story, the different characters are shown to be various types of evil, and they prey on the benevolent characters indirectly, mainly through …show more content…
Ever since that happened, Danforth constantly refused to believe that all the witchery was made up, notwithstanding the fact that it was. He made minimal effort to help the good people of Salem, and made a huge effort for the bad, and his underlying motive for helping the ill-intentioned was to hold power. This is proven in act four of the play, where Danforth refuses to talk about the Andover incident, where a similar event occurred, but it all turned out to be wrong. As the play states, “We’ll come to that; speaking nothing of Andover.” (Miller 123). Danforth did not even give a second thought about the chance that everything that is happening may be wrong, and unjust. Thus, it is shown throughout the play that the antagonists and protagonists are divided, shown by the different characters intentions, as seen with …show more content…
Abigail is definitely the best character to fit Abbotson’s description, as she was willing to do anything for her personal gain. Abigail’s goal in the play was to have Proctor all to herself, as it is revealed that they have had a sexual relationship previously. Abigail is known as the cause of all the witchery nonsense, as she is the first one who uses it to cover for her evil actions to get Proctor’s wife killed. Despite the fact there are many instances where this can be proven, one very particular event was where Abigail forcefully stabbed herself and accused Elizabeth of doing it. “Abigail were stabbed tonight, a needle were found stuck in her belly-” (Miller 76). As the quote shows, it was very mysterious how the needle appeared there, and although highly possible, the town did not accept to believe she stabbed herself. After the town started screaming witchery when she did, she tried to use it to get Elizabeth, Proctor’s wife, killed legally. This is clearly for her personal gain, and even if she was not exactly open to corruption, one can say she was already