The Women in Salem

In The Crucible Elizabeth is presented as “cold”. Elizabeth is not as cold as she comes off to be, she is more resentful if anything. Elizabeth wants Proctor to feel guilty for having an affair, and won’t let him forget it. Elizabeth may come off as cold when it comes to Proctor and Abigail because she feels there is something there. Proctor denies it many times, but she still sees Abigail as a threat. She is also cold with being so unforgiving of proctor because he committed adultery. Despite her trouble with forgiving Proctor she is honest and has a faithful personality when it comes to family. Though Abigail believes she is a cold woman as she says, “she is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her!” In ways Elizabeth proves this as she is always unhappy, and suspecting of John Proctor being unfaithful. Elizabeth never shows her coldness to any outsiders, she portrays an innocent and confident her. Abigail Williams is seen as “vengeful” this statement is true. Abigail wants Elizabeth Proctor dead, so she can be out of the way and she can have John Proctor all to herself. She goes as far as to falsely accuse Elizabeth of witchcraft, so that she can be taken away. Abigail uses her friends and other women to make this all come true, she is able to be her manipulative self and get people on her side. She threatens them into following her plan of deceit saying, “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word about the other things, or I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you”. Abigail knows the girls fear her and uses this as her advantage. She is so vengeful that she needs to get everyone on her side, to believe everything she says to get what she