Please shed insight on the following essay topic: "It is Abigail Williams who deserves the blame for the outcome of Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible. To what extent do you agree?" A few quotes as well would much appreciated.

One could argue that Abigail Williams is primarily responsible for the witch hunt in Salem that results in numerous arrests and the deaths of innocent citizens. In order to avoid being punished for dancing in the wilderness and casting spells on citizens, Abigail Williams leads the group of girls that accuse numerous innocent citizens of participating in witchcraft. In act 1, Abigail threatens the other girls against disclosing the truth about what happened in the forest and exposing her as a liar. Abigail illustrates her malevolent, violent nature by telling the girls,

Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it; I saw Indians smash my dear parents’ heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down! (Miller, 20).

When Abigail discovers that she is highly revered throughout the community and enjoys her new position of authority, she perpetuates the witchcraft hysteria by falsely accusing innocent citizens of colluding with the devil. Abigail also attempts to get rid of Elizabeth Proctor in order to have John to herself by stabbing herself with a needle and blaming Elizabeth's spirit. In act 2, Cheever discovers a needle in Elizabeth's poppet and says,

The girl, the Williams girl, Abigail Williams, sir. She sat to dinner in Reverend Parris’s house tonight, and without word nor warnin’ she falls to the floor. Like a struck beast, he says, and screamed a scream that a bull would weep to hear. And he goes to save her, and, stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out. And demandin’ of her how she come to be so stabbed, she testify it were your [John's] wife’s familiar spirit pushed it in (Miller, 74).

Abigail also pretends that Mary Warren's spirit is attacking her in act 3 when her authority is challenged, and she continues to falsely accuse innocent citizens of witchcraft, who are arrested and eventually hanged if they do not confess. While Reverend Parris, Deputy Governor Danforth, Judge Hathorne, and Reverend Hale are partially responsible for the witch hunt, Abigail Williams is primarily responsible for the incarceration and deaths of numerous innocent citizens.