Everything began when a girl named Abigail was working for the Proctors in their home. Elizabeth at sometime found out that John had sexual relations with Abigail, so she took the situation into her own hands and fired Abigail. From that point on, Elizabeth was a bit wary of John's words, wondering and questioning in her mind whether they were true or not. She found it hard to forgive him for his actions. .
Meanwhile, while John and Elizabeth were having problems in their home, outside in the town people were being accused of witchcraft right and left. The main accuser was Abigail. Her and her friends had actually been some of the first accused of witchcraft because they were seen dancing naked in the woods, an unheard of act in their Puritan society. So to get themselves out of a potential death sentence, they started accusing innocent people. They did it with such resolution that many of the people believed them and came to fear some of the accused. Now Abigail didn"t tell anyone that everything they were saying was untrue. She only told John Proctor. Another very interesting bit of information in this conversation was not well taken by Abigail, either. John said that he would never again even think about going back to Abigail. That comment spurred on a very evil plot by Abigail to completely remove Elizabeth from the picture so she could have John to herself. .
Abigail is a conniving and evil girl, whose main concern is her own well being. She felt that if she could get rid of Elizabeth then John would be hers. So she accused Elizabeth of being a witch, knowing that Elizabeth would be hanged if convicted. She already had much of the community convinced her stories were sincere, so she knew this little lie would not be any less believable than the other ones she had already told. Of course, Elizabeth was not exactly delighted about being falsely accused. Her life was on the line because people believed the words of Abigail.