Blame is an inevitable defense mechanism we strike up to avoid awareness of our flaws or failings. There’s less effort involved in recognizing our own contributions to a bad situation than in accepting the fact that we’re at fault. It’s convenient to blame someone else than to accept responsibility, and that is exactly what Abigail did in the act The Crucible by Arthur Miller.

In Act 1, when Reverend Hale pressures Abigail for an answer to who was practicing witchcraft, she blames Tituba, Reverand Parris’ slave, for Betty Parris’s strange illness.

ABIGAIL: She made me do it. She made Betty do it. (Miller 40)

She knew her uncle Mr. Putnam saw Tituba chanting in the woods, and that Mrs. Putnam believes Tituba has the ability to conjure spirits. By way of proof, Abigail accuses that Tituba forced her to drink blood, and bewitched her at night so she would wake up naked. To save herself, Tituba confesses that she has seen many witches with the devil. Seeing a way out of their predicament, both Abigail and Tituba claimes to conspire with the devil. With this shift of focus, both of them starts naming people in the town. Like the snowball effect, things quickly escalated, and suddenly, no one is safe from being accused of witchcraft.

ABIGAIL: I saw Goody Hawkins with the Devils!

Betty: I aw Goody Bibber with the Devils!

ABIGAIL: I saw Goody Booth with the Devils! (Miller 46)

Initially, Abigail accused a person of witchcraft to secrete her immoral acts, but ultimately, witchcraft is the only explanation everyone focuses on, and people irrationally blames each other for consorting with the devils. It soon gets blown out of proportion and becomes a massacre of innocent people.