Winona Ryder found playing Abigail Williams engrossing and disturbing. "I've heard Abigail called the villain of the piece, but I am not so sure," she says. "She's never given any power...Abigail understands that she can get power and attention so she goes with it. There's always a part of her that knows she is fooling, but I think she is convinced spirits are attacking her. I see her as insane in a way, but so is the whole town. It is like a disease."
Do you agree with Ryder's assessment of Abigail? Why or why not? Be specific and clear.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ryder when she says that Abigail is convinced that spirits are attacking her. I am a true believer that once you start lying you can never get that back.You lie to cover a lie. Sooner or later it becomes this circle and there is no turning back. I do not agree when Ryder states that Abigail is given no power. I understand that someone does not physically give her power, but Abigail believes she can run the show. She is the one that keeps telling everyone that these people are witches. They believe her because she is a young adult and she could never lie. Abigail got so caught up with the witchcraft buzz that she let it consume her. When all the madness is going on during the day Abigail truly believes everything that is coming out of her mouth is true. By the end of the night though I think she knows she is wrong. Why else would she run away?
ReplyDeleteI don't believe this at all because she knows that she is not getting so called "possessed" by the devil. In the movie she has to put on an act so that people believe her, so i don't understand how you can think your really being possessed by spirits. I do understand that while playing the part of Abigail you could feel that it could be scary nit at the same time I feel as though it is all for show. But this is just in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with Ryder’s assessment of Abigail at all. I do not agree with her assessment because who cares what the character is like in the story. The fact is that you are playing a main role in the play. I think it would be so fun playing Abigail. It would be fun playing her for a few reasons. The first reason I would like to play the character Abigail because I am a guy and it would so much fun portraying a girl. Another reason I would like to be Abigail is because she is a sophisticated character. She is hard to figure out and is well known by everyone in the book. I would also like to portray Abigail because she has the courage to have an affair with John Proctor.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ryder. I feel like Abigail is taking advantage of her being able to get away with all of this. She is a very selfish person and does whatever she can do to not get blamed about anything. She also does act like spirits are taking over her and making other people be accused. Personally I think that it is very immature to do something like that. If she is mature she would take the blame for what she has done and pay the price. Also i think she is just taking everything to far. Abigail has never been given power but not that she has stared this she thinks that she has all of the power.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree with Ryder. I did not like Abigail Williams whatsoever in the story. She is portrayed as a heartless character that only cares about herself. Without even trying she is given power of all the girls and takes advantage of it for her benefit. She does all this so she would not get caught. Abigail had people killed just by her word only. The judge and the rest of the village should have at least listened and put into consideration of what John Proctor, Mary Warren, Elizabeth Proctor, and some other people in the village were trying to tell them. Inside of her she knows that if she is caught she would be killed instantly, but she just does such a good job of hiding the truth no one suspects her.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Ryder about her views about Abigail. Yes, I think that she is the villain of the story and that she knows that she could get power and control. Abigail doesn't think that she is being controlled by spirits. It is her way of getting what she wants and taking advantage of her pure name and her young, innocent, age. She has to act like a female dog because she doesn't feel comfortable with herself. I feel like that she would of made any kind of lie that was realistic to that time period. If everyone killed people for, example, believing in spiderman, then she would make up a lie saving her self. She is selfish and doesn't care about the fate of others. She is the center of her own world.
ReplyDeleteI disagree when Winona says that Abigail is never given any power. After she is able to make someone be accused of witchcraft, the town gives her all the power. They believe her when she is pretending to see the devil. When she accuses someone, they get rid of the people almost immediately. I do not believe that Abigail is convinced spirits are attacking her. The only disease that is spreading around the town is how easily people are manipulated.
ReplyDeleteI sort of do agree with Winona Ryder. I think that Abigail is a mean and insane girl. Abigail reminds me of Hitler because she formed a dictatorship of all the girls and had people killed for her own selfish reasons. Does that remind you of Hitler? It does to me. I think that Abigail knows that the spirits are not attaching her but she doesn’t want people to know she was lying from the beginning. I think that she is a good actress and if she would have used her talents for good she may have been very successful. After a while she starts to try and take advantage of the girls because she knows they are scared of her and will not give her up to the court. But in the end I think she realized she was wrong and so she escaped and ran away from her problems just like Hitler did when he killed himself.
ReplyDeleteI 100% agree with Ryder about everything she is saying about Abigail Williams. Abigail Williams makes everything she does so believable. The girls around her take after her. Abigail is bossy to the younger girls so she makes them do what she wants. She makes the girls and she convinced the town that other people spirits are attacking them. She can’t get the man that she wants. She started this whole witchcraft so John Proctor wife would be remove from the picture. So Abigail would be able to have John for herself. Abigail made witchcraft into like disease where the town were killing innocent town people.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ryder also. I think that Abigail lied that she had to start playing the role. She lied so much so that it seemed real that it started to become her state of mind that she was seeing things that were not there. Other girls just followed her example and the same thing happened to them. You get so into a lie it almost becomes the truth to you and you see no other way. By all of the lying she is able to gain this power that anyone she doesn't like, Abigail says they are witches and they are hanged. It seemed that all she cared about was herself and had to have what she wanted. If she did not get it she lied and tricked people.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Rider when she states that Abigail is being attacked by spirits. I think Abigail knows all along that there are no witches in Salem. To me she seems like that she is doing it for John Proctor attention. Abigail is given power by the town when she starts to convict everyone. She is given this power because the town believes that Abigail can do no wrong and would not just make up stories. I agree with Ryder's final statement that the whole town is crazy.
ReplyDeleteI do agree and do not agree with Ryder’s assessment. I agree because people always lie so they do not get caught for another something else. People always lie too much. I disagree because she isn’t given any credit for anything. She let all the witch stuff get to her head, and she could not ignore it. I think that she is not getting possessed by the devil .People are over reacting about the devil.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ryder's assessment because Abigail lied about everything in The Crucible and she blamed everyone for everything. I agree with Ryder that she is the one who is scared of the spirits and under the spirits instead of everyone that she named and blamed for it. Abigail got all the attention because it was like she was "queen bee" of everyone else. Nobody wanted to have anything to do with her because she blamed so many people for the things that she did.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything she says in that statement. Abigail is acting like a total goon throughout the whole book, but so is everyone else in the town. the number of people who act even remotely normal or use any common sense in the book could be counted on one hand. Abigail senses that she is getting a little power and she has never had any before, so she immediately starts abusing it and gets dozens of people killed and indicted. Everyone else is just crazy for believing all the nonsense she spits out.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Winona, Abigail knew she could get power so she lied about everything. Once it got to be very serious she didn't want to admit that she was lying the whole time. If you think about it Abigail is the first to start everything. Like when the bird was in the court room she could have just been making it up and the girls followed her because they were afraid of Abigail.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part i agree with Ryder when she says Abigail is convinced spirits are attacking her. i disagree with her statement "She's never given any power..." because in my opinion i think she has alot of it. Nobody hands it to her but all of the girls treat her as if shes the leader of the group. They follow her actions and do what she tells them to. As a result of this she tends to lie alot to the village because she knows how simple it is for her to make them believe her words. Her reputation is still considered pure and innocent and to keep it that way she continues to go against everyone. She starts the most drama in the play i personally think.
ReplyDeleteSorry Miss Ryder, I’m just going to have to disagree with you. Abigail is just an all around nut. There are a couple loose screws in that girl. Her marbles have been lost a very long time. Just seeing her actions in the play can clearly show she is right where she wants to be. Abigail has the town of Salem in her evil little fingers. Her manipulative tactics weren’t something that just happened as the plot unfolded, they were planned. As soon as she got caught, her menacing mind went to work on a plan to get her out of trouble or take the town down with her. An instant when she really showed her true colors was when she and her ‘gang’ confronted Mary Warren in Betty’s room after the adults left. She threatens and strong-arms Mary to get her way. Abigail does this throughout the entire story. And on the topic that she believed she was being possessed by demons is absurd. I could probably make a more convincing display of being possessed than her weak performance. All and all I have to say she’s just a bad cookie from start to finish.
ReplyDeleteI completely disagree with Miss Ryder. Abigail Williams is a mean, arrogant, immature child ruining the life of others to win the heart of John Proctor. At the beginning of the book I felt a little sympathy for Abigail because it seemed as if no one cared for her. The only guy that showed he a little piece of love said it meant nothing to him. However, as the play continued Abigail Williams took the trials way to far. She saw nothing and it was all sport. In the court room scene she acted as if she were seeing the devil but as soon as John brought up their love life she immediately snapped out of it. Abigail used her power to bring down and destroy people she felt were in her way. She is an evil person no matter how you look at it.
ReplyDeletePersonally I disagree with Ryder's comments. I do not feel that Abigail is actually insane, she is sadistic and evil. It has been said many times that the power of evil derives from the seed of untamed intelligence. I think that Abigail is the most intelligent person in the town. She has everyone in the town wrapped around her finger of manipulation and getting so caught up in her web of lies they cannot find their way out. Abigail Williams is well aware of her lies and does not mind telling them. Nor does she believe her own lies.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with Winona. Abigail is fully aware that she does not have any spirits attacking her. If she really believed that then she would not have left town when she was about to be caught. She would not have backed down so easily when Dansforth told her that she was mistaken when she accused reverend Hale. Abigail has more power than any of the people in Salem. She can sentence someone to death just by saying they are a witch out of her own personal hatred towards them. The people of Salem are scared and confused, and Abigail takes advantage of that.
ReplyDelete