How Is Abigail Justified In The Crucible

When placed in life or death situations humans always resort to our programed will to live. In doing so humans resort to their primal instincts for survival and will do anything to ensure their continued existence, even going to the extreme of killing another person. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible Abigail’s rebellion against the strict society in Salem leads her to lie against other people, ultimately condemning them to death. However, Miller creates an ambigram as the audience and Abigail have different morals about Abigail’s actions. From the audience’s point of view Abigail seems unjustified in her lies and appears as an antagonist. However, Abigail, justifies her actions because her lies protect herself and the other girls from being …show more content…
Once the girls start to consider telling the truth, which would get Abigail into serious trouble, threatens the girls saying,“ I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down” (1244). Miller’s word choice of reddish signifies Abigail’s threat to cause harm to the girls. Although this may seem to portray Abigail as the antagonist, Abigail believes that by threatening the girls she will protect them from the harsh punishment of the society for dancing in the woods. Therefore, the ambigram of Abigail’s threat may seem evil and corrupt, however, from Abigail’s point of view her threat protects the girls from falling into the societal trap of oppression by admitting to the sinfulness of dancing in the woods. Abigail displays the effects that John Proctor has had on her saying,"John Proctor...put knowledge in my heart! I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women” (1247). After John and Abigail’s affair Abigail believes that John has made her aware of all the hypocrites in Salem. Abigail knows that her consequences of her relationship with John under the strict