We can tell that he does not mind threatening people that he believes are lower then him but he does not let people who believe that they are higher then him push him around. He stands up for himself and for what he believes in, even if it means going against authority, “I like not the smell of this ‘authority’.”
He understands and admits what he had done wrong, even though he does not tell everyone until a point of crisis (when Abigail prays in the court: “Whore!”). He tries so hard to keep away from Abigail and temptation and tells her that “We never touched...” and that he “never give you hope to wait for…’him.
As the play progresses we watch as he tries to save his wife and friends while trying to stop Abby. Even when he is offered his wife’s freedom, by the judge Danforth, on the condition that he “will drop this charge?” he replies that he cannot, as that means he would have to forget about his friends, proving to us how deep his loyalty to his friends is especially when we realize that he is willing to doom his good name in order to prove his case against Abigail. He prefers to sacrifice what is most precious to him rather than leave his friends in the lurch.
He gives up his reputation, that he tried to keep righteous and worthy, to save his wife and friends. He tells the judge that “A man will not cast away his good name.” He cast aside something that he felt was so important to him for the love for his wife, showing us how strong his emotions are and his sense of guilt.
But even though he admits to lechery with Abigail he cannot bear the thought of confessing to something that is a lie to save his life (Act 3). He could not bring himself to betray his friends so that he could live a liar’s life, for he believes that he is “not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang!”. He keeps his loyalty to his friends intact by dieing a ‘hero’s’ death and his personal integrity. It is this that Miller stresses most: “How may I live without my name?”
While Proctor is not the conventional hero he at least tries to help people instead of being like Abigail who seems to have no morals and will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
Although there are many people in this play that could be called a villain Abigail Williams stands out as the worst, at least in my opinion.
The former maid of the Proctor house, she was turned out when Elizabeth Proctor found out about the affair between John and Abigail. None of them told anyone about the relationship and because of that Abigail was able to use against Elizabeth and tells Parris “she hates me…for I would not be her slave!”
In the first scene she acts as though she is an innocent in the crisis but she quickly shows herself to be manipulative and a liar, “no one was naked!…he saw you naked.”
She is revealed through Betty to be capable of murder too- “You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!”; she hides this, understandably, from the authorities, but not from the girls that danced with her. She frightens them into submission and lets them know that if any of them breathes a word she will bring a pointy reckoning tat will shudder them.
She proven to be violent, ‘smash’s up’ Betty ad is menacing toward the other girls and later on to Danforth, telling him to “beware, Mr. Danforth. Think you be so mighty that the power of Hell may not turn your wits?”, warning him not to cross her. She shows no remorse for anything she does and feels no guilt for accusing all those innocent people of witchcraft just so she can accuse Elizabeth Proctor.
She blames everything on someone else never taking the blame herself, “She made me do it!..” when asked by Hale whether she had done magic in the forest. She betrays the man whom she claims to care about to save herself when Proctor is accused of witchcraft she does not say anything to help him (Act 3)
Even though she claims to care for Proctor and love Betty (“I would never hurt Betty. I love her dearly…”, she does not, she cares for no one but herself.
She is also a thief and a coward. After Proctor is arrested she no longer has anything keeping her in Salem and, as the judge no longer trust her, she and Mercy Lewis run away with thirty-one pounds stolen from Parris’s safe.
In short Abigail is a lying, manipulative, murderous woman whom will do anything to achieve what she wants.
In conclusion I believe that Miller intended there to be many different characters that could be the villain or the hero but that Abigail and John stood out more than the others.
Imy Jacobs
10X English
