Diagnosing Abigail Williams in Crucible by Arthur Miller

Every story, every fairy tale has a villain, the antagonist, the person who is responsible for most of the bad things that are going on. In Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams is the main antagonist who shows a lot of promise in being an evil person. She is an irredeemable character whose actions and consequences are responsible for the hurt, pain and death of many people in Salem. Abigail can be described as a very bitter and vengeful person. She is young and of low social status but this does not stop her from being selfish, manipulative and responsible for the conviction of innocent people and blindly leading other girls to do witchcraft for her vendetta. She is, however, a powerful person, in character, bold and beautiful. She uses her charm and power to bring chaos to the town. And she has no remorse for her actions. The latter is a classic display of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).

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NPD can be described as an overwhelming and persuasive behavior which shows abnormal and exaggerated inference to one's importance. A person with NPD has excessive admiration for themselves and the need for others to have similar feelings if not more towards them. This person lacks any warm feelings towards any other person but themselves and spends most of their time thinking of how they can achieve ultimate power and success so that the can feel good about themselves and others can stand in awe for their dominance and success. Such people are superficial and look at outward appearance and success and do anything within their means to achieve their goals even if it means hurting others and taking advantage of them. There is no precise age when this disorder starts and its cause is unknown. Its treatment follows the same notion, and it is unchartered territory. Most people with NPD such as Abigail Williams do not see and think they have a problem making therapy and diagnosis difficult.

Abigail uses manipulative means to show her NPD when she persuaded other girls to take part in her witchcraft endeavors which were in her best interests of cursing Elizabeth Proctor as revenge for being fired as the servant in the Proctor home when it was discovered she was having an affair with John Proctor. She does not see her faults in the actions. Furthermore, when she is caught by her uncle, Parris, and questions as to her actions and whereabouts in the forest during the night, she openly lies that they were dancing and manipulates the other girls into going with the story. Further questioning led to the truth being revealed to which she quickly changes her view and accuses Tituba and other citizens of invoking them into witchcraft in order to cover her tracks. She drank blood, in order to take Elizabeth's place beside John as she believed cursing Elizabeth would lead her back to the man she loved. She believed that John still loved her. Abigail is the ringleader of the witchcraft tendencies in the town but she goes around accusing everyone else who are convicted and she's, left scot free. Being unmarried, an orphan and of low social class, Abigail was always keen on getting power and she goes to the extent of running away to England with her uncle's possessions after leaving the whole town in shambles. She has no remorse for her action or whether innocent citizens would be convicted or hanged. She seized an opportunity at her disposal to gain success and power even it meant hurting family and people closest to her. She had her revenge on Elizabeth and John whom she left convicted and hanged respectively.