In The Crucible by Authur Miller, Abigail had quite the arrogance but there is more to it. The argument is that she lies; she manipulates; and she lets people get hanged for it. There may be excuses like Abigail doesn’t have her parents or maybe no one taught her right from wrong but those aren’t very good excuses. Abigail is the greatest villain because she lies, manipulates, and lets people get hanged for it.
The first reasoning over Abigail being the greatest villain, is that she fabricates to the fullest. She doesn’t care about how people feel or what’s going to happen to them if she lies , she just does it to save herself from any punishment or harm. For example, she lied about being in the woods. Abigail told Reverend Parris that because she knew she wasn’t supposed to be out there that late at night doing whatever they were doing. Abigail also told him that because she knew she would get in trouble for being out there so she lied as much as she could to get out of it. Secondly, she lied about spirits being in the court when Mary Warren turned on her because she was saving herself once again because she’s basically standing Mary Warren up .
The second reasoning is manipulates or set to say, she maneuvers her way through things. She gets away with things because she threatens people like, when she threatened the girls not to tell what went on in in the woods. Abigail said if they told she would come back and haunt them , that’s why they were lying and being dramatic in court. So, usually if someone is threatened, they end up following what they do because they’re afraid . But in Mary Warren’s case Abigail was starting to make her life a living hell by telling the courts that she was doing witchcraft that’s because Mary told the court the girls have been lying.
As for the final reasoning, which leads back to the first reasoning, she let people get hanged for her lies. Abigail watched them get hanged as well. She didn’t really care about what she has done because it all leads back to her saving herself so she doesn’t get in trouble. She faked things in court about other people for witchcraft. Mary got accused by Abigail and Mary turned it onto Proctor which got proctor hanged and she didn’t do a thing about it because either way it saved her from any harm. But Abigail did try to get Proctor to run away with her, but he denied the offer because she also tried to get Elizabeth hanged as well but it didn’t work because Elizabeth was pregnant. Abigail is mad because Proctor didn’t choose her, but it goes back to her being very greedy.
The book/movie showed a lot of evil that Abigail did but there could be some counterarguments. For example, she wasn’t taught right from wrong. But Abigail was around people who were caring and loved her, those people could have taught her right from wrong. Parris took her in after her parents died. He’s a Reverend so he knew what was right and what was wrong. Also, she must know right from wrong because she threatens people. If Abigail didn’t know her rights from her wrongs then she wouldn’t do it if her rights weren’t technically wrong. She is old enough to know what’s right and wrong. Yes, she has been through a lot but that doesn’t mean she has to act out because of it. Abigail could’ve changed her ways, but she decided not to, she decides to take things way too far, but she didn’t care. Which makes her evil .
In the end, Abigail is the greatest villain because she lies, manipulates, and lets people get hanged for it. Abigail tells fabrications to the courts. She makes other falsehoods on other people in the village. She maneuvers her way through things by saying or doing things that make people not go against what she says. For example, she told the other girls not to say anything or she would haunt them forever. But the worst of all, she lets people get hanged for all the fabrications she made up. Abigail may have not grown up so well, but that doesn’t mean she had to act the way she acted. The people around her or the people she lived with could have or did teach her better than that. Abigail had quite the arrogance to save herself. Why so? Why is she responsible for her actions? She had time to change, change her words, and change her actions, but she chose not to.
