The townspeople do not know exactly what the girls were up to, but there are rumors of witchcraft. Parris had discovered them, whereupon Betty fainted and has not yet recovered. Conversations between Parris, his niece Abigail Williams, and several other girls reveal that the girls, including Abigail and Betty, were engaged in heretical activities in a nearby forest, apparently led by Tituba, Parris's slave from Barbados. Reverend Parris is praying over his daughter Betty Parris, who lies as if unconscious in her bed. After being accused of witchcraft, Abigail led all the girls to blame everyone of witchery, leading to the infamous Salem witch trials. An angry Abigail went to Tituba, a black slave from Barbados and got all the girls to perform a Voodoo chant that would make men love them, but Abigail turned it into a spiteful chant after drinking chicken blood. After she had a sexual affair with John, Abigail was discharged by Elizabeth, who cursed her name. She eventually became the housekeeper for John and Elizabeth Proctor. She was played by the late Mylène Demongeot in the 1957 film adaptation, by Winona Ryder - who also played Veronica Sawyer in Heathers - in the 1996 film adaptation, and by Angela Bettis - who also portrayed Carrie White in the 2002 TV movie adaptation of Carrie - in a 2002 Broadway production.Ībigail was raised as an orphan after her parents were killed by Indians. She is an intelligent and manipulative young woman from Salem during the seventeenth century, who single-handedly started the Salem witch trials as does her controversial real-life counterpart of the same name.Ībigail is described as "seventeen with a remarkable capacity for dissembling" who covets Elizabeth Proctor's husband John Proctor and tries to get Elizabeth killed in the Salem witch trials. ~ Abigail Williams threatening to kill any of the girls in Salem who would reveal the truth about her.Ībigail Williams is the main antagonist of Arthur Miller's 1953 play The Crucible. And I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down! And I have seen some reddish work done at night. I saw Indians smash my dear parents' heads on the pillow next to mine. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you! And you know I can do it.
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