Abigail Williams Is the Epitome of Selfishness

This prompt asks a basic question about human nature. As human beings, do we allow our consciences to guide us toward morale actions? Although a few misguided people ignore their consciences for selfish reasons, the majority of people listen to their conscience. This is illustrated in The Crucible by the characters of Abigail Williams, John Hale, and John Proctor.

Abigail Williams is the epitome of selfishness. Throughout the whole play she does not care about anyone but herself. When she accuses other people like Tituba or Elizabeth about being a witch, she does not feel any remorse doing this. At one point she accuses Tituba of doing sorcery but in reality Abigail begged her to do sorcery. Even when Abigail is watching Tituba get a beating for her lie she still feels no remorse. Another attribute that shows she does not have a conscience is she will turn on people in a heart beat. One example is when the girls want to go tell the truth Abigail threatens them she will kill them. She says she will kill them like the Indians did to her parents. At one point John Proctor gets Mary Warren to finally testify against the girls. When Mary Warren does this Abigail instantly turns on her and says Mary’s soul is attacking her. Lastly she is doing all this for all the power. At the beginning she drinks blood so that John Proctors wife would be cursed. When this doesn’t work she accuses Elizabeth Proctor so she can marry John Proctor. At the end when John Proctor dies she steals Parris’s money and leaves.

Unlike Abigail, John Hale shows a lack of selfishness. One way he shows this trait is he is not in it for personal glory. At the beginning he goes to Salem because he feels it is his duty to find witches. He actually studied about witches at the college he went to. Also when someone is accused he does not instantly believe the accuser. He then goes to the person that was accused and hears their story as well as the accusers. While all