With Abigail’s actions, Miller is trying to convey that someone gaining even a small amount of power can corrupt the balance of society.
This is Joseph McCarthy’s real life parallel of Abigail Williams. Joseph McCarthy was a United States Senator. He was the face of the period most commonly known as the red scareRed Scare, where they tried to find evidence of communism in the United States. They both dropped out of school, and they were insignificant to their communities before they worked their way up in society. Both accused people of being something they were not, and they were not able to accurately prove the accusations. Joseph and Abigail gained power that they did not originally have. Joseph was strongly against communism; he thought he was doing good. bothBoth were looklooked down upon in the end, they abuseabused their power to convict innocent people of crimes they did not commit. They useused hysteria to their advantage, because in all the chaos, it becomes easier to get away with things. Miller uses these comparisons to show how crazy people get when given too much authority.