For most people, with the word "Puritanism" comes the idea of modesty, a strong belief in God and Jesus, purity, and living according to the Bible. However, in Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible", despite the fact that teenaged Abigail Williams lives in a Puritan household, she proves to be deceitful and vain. Literary critic Wendy Schissel suggests that Abigail could not have been capable of seducing John Proctor, a married man whom she has had …showed first 75 words of 1058 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1058 total…material to win over a man. Wendy Schissel's opinion that, "a seventeen-year-old girl, raised in the household of a Puritan minister, can [not] have the knowledge of how to seduce a man" is unjustified. Although she is Puritan, Abigail proves to be quite knowledgeable naturally, merely by observing the results of her own actions and those of others. It is made lucid throughout the book that Abigail Williams is indeed capable of seducing John Proctor.