Similarities Between Abigail Williams And Lady Macbeth

Hiding the truth and speaking falsely is a theme that has been thoroughly explored by many artists and writers, with a similar conclusion for most of them. Deceit emerges as an evil device, a dark and never-ending tunnel from which it is difficult to get away, for a lie leads into another one, the same way as a step leads into another. Nonetheless, despite initial appearances and all the twists and turns the tunnel might have, it finally ends abruptly, and light, that is to say truth and virtue, prevails. That is what seems to happen in the plays Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, and The Crucible, by Arthur Miller.

Abigail Williams is a main character in The Crucible who seems to follow the advice that Lady Macbeth gave his husband regarding how to lie. Abigail actually look[s] like the innocent flower, for she is a young girl whom nobody seems to mistrust, and everybody refers to her and her friends as the girls, something which adds to her the power of innocence. However, she is the serpent under [the flower], for she takes advantage of how people trust in her and uses this in her favour to attack with her lies. Abigail knows that they will trust her because she bear[s] welcome in [her] eye[s], and
Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to kill Duncan, while Abigail forces the other girls into lying by threatening them, for she tells them that if any of them breathe[s] a word about [witchcraft], [she] can make [them] wish [they] had never seen the sun go down.. What makes them (Abigail and Lady Macbeth) guilty is inducing others into evil, not just doing evil themselves, but inciting; for he who incites becomes overwhelmingly powerful. Incitement is their weapon and their greater device, they slowly soften the conscience, until words penetrate it, incitement builds its nest in it and then it is too late to get rid of