Similarities Between Abigail Williams And Elizabeth Proctor

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The Females of Salem
In Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, the town of Salem undergoes great hysteria following a series of witchcraft trials. This town is lead by a group of Puritans who strongly believe in damnation if you live outside of the social normalities. So when a young and trusted girl named Abigail Williams cried witch, the town of Salem went into a frenzy. Along with Abigail Williams, another important female role was Elizabeth Proctor. While Abigail is naive, deceitful, and fueled by love and anger; Elizabeth is an honest, conservative, compassionate, and devoted wife. While Elizabeth and Abigail are very different, they share one common interest, John Proctor. John Proctor, who is the husband of Elizabeth Proctor, has an affair
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She longs for the love of John Proctor as expressed in this quote, “ I will not, I cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!”(Miller.22). Abigail does whatever she can to get John back, from trying to kill Elizabeth Proctor, to accusing her of witchcraft. Elizabeth on the other hand is very old fashioned. Elizabeth lives a simple puritan lifestyle, and she even tries to forgive her husbands atrocious affair. Elizabeth is known to be a very truthful woman, she doesn’t pay the naive games that Abigail plays. While Abigail is motivated by something superficial, Elizabeth is motivated by the love of her family and husband.

Although Abigail and Elizabeth are very different, they share the same love for one man. John Proctor is the center of their attention. While Abigail may think that John loves her, he was only lustful with her. Elizabeth on the other hand has John's devotion. That’s the difference between them, Abigail is vindictive and naive, and Elizabeth is forgiving and righteous. Elizabeth expresses her forgiveness in the following passage, “He have his goodness now.God forbid I take it from him!” (Miller.134)

All in all, Abigail and Elizabeth are very different. Throughout the play you’ll realize that every little thing they do drives them further apart in comparison. From Abigail’s vindictiveness to Elizabeth’s compassion, these females are complete