Besides Abigail, who else is mainly responsible for the Salem witch trials in The Crucible?

It is hard to assign blame to specific characters because there are so many who are complicit in allowing the witch trials to happen. Many people in Salem (with some exceptions such as Giles Corey, Francis and Rebecca Nurse, and Elizabeth Proctor) get caught up in the hysteria and are therefore contributors to the entire debacle. But there are a few characters who have the authority and responsibility to stop the trials or add to the madness. 

For example, Deputy Governor Danforth is shown evidence that those accused might be innocent but he's more concerned with the reputation of the court than he is with justice. He illogically reasons that since witchcraft is an invisible crime, there can be no witnesses to defend the accused. 

Therefore, who may possibly be witness to it? The witch and the victim. None other. Now we cannot hope the witch will accuse herself; granted? Therefore, we must rely upon her victims--and they do testify, the children certainly do testify. (Act 3) 

Using this logic (or lack of logic), Danforth has essentially made it impossible for those accused to defend themselves. 

We can blame the town as a whole for being so religiously fanatical that they are easily terrified by the girls' story. But since Danforth has the most power in these proceedings (and considering he's seen evidence that the accused could be innocent, and does nothing), he's quite responsible. Danforth is in a position of responsibility. He was elected or appointed to make responsible decisions. Therefore, with that position of power comes more responsibility. For similar reasons, Reverend Parris, the local religious authority, also fails to even attempt to stop the trials. 

One could also make the case that John Proctor, by taking advantage of Abigail, instigated everything. However, he does try to make things right. 

Danforth is in a position of authority and he shows no sense of justice with this responsibility. Other than Abigail, he does the most to exacerbate the hysteria when he orders the arrest of the 91 Salem farmers who sign a deposition stating the good character of Elizabeth, Rebecca, and Martha. 

Who dies in The Crucible?

Many people die offstage in the play, but perhaps the most important death in The Crucible is that of John Proctor. His death is also his redemption because he refuses to make a relinquish his honor by falsely confessing.

Because of the manipulative lies that Abigail and the other girls tell, several characters in the play are investigated for practicing witchcraft. Early on, Mary Warren warns Abigail that their lies will hurt people and could lead to people’s deaths. She says,

Abby, we’ve got to tell. Witchery’s a hangin’ error, a hangin’ like they done in Boston two year ago! We must tell the truth, Abby!

However, Abigail will not back down from her lies, despite the lives that are at stake. Later in the play, Judge Danforth notes that “twelve are already hanged" for witchcraft, though he does not name everyone who has died. When he refuses to confess to witchcraft, Giles Corey is crushed to death, and Rebecca Nurse is sentenced to die along with John Proctor. However, the most dramatic death is, as noted, that of John Proctor.

Just before John is scheduled to be hanged, Elizabeth asks to speak with him. John asks his wife for forgiveness and also asks her whether he should falsely confess to witchcraft to save himself. However, when the officials ask him to sign a confession for them to publicize, he refuses tp publicly ruin his good name, even to save his life. The play ends as John leaves to be hanged.

In The Crucible, was Abigail solely responsible for the Salem Witch Trials?

There are many other people to blame.

1.  The Putnams.  Mrs. Putnam was fixated on assigning blame for the death of her children.  She had already resorted to witchcraft to find out who "murdered" her children, so was quick to jump on the accusation band-wagon.  Thomas Putnam, we learn in act three, had been "prompting" his daughter to cry out against people whose land he wanted to take when they were imprisoned.

2.  Reverend Parris.  Quick to blame those who didn't like him, and to try to win favor in the town by being a lackey to the judges, Parris often sided against the townspeople, asking incriminating questions and giving the judges prejudiced backstories on people brough into the courts.  He also conveniently left out the fact that his own niece had been caught dancing and concocting spells in the forest; desparate to protect his reputation, he didn't tell this information.

3.  Danforth and Hathorne.  These judges often rejected logical fact, devised tricky scenarios and questioning, and refused to hear testimony that would prove the innocence of so many that were accused.  Once it became clear the accusations were false, they clung to their pride, refusing to recant convictions, so that their reputations wouldn't be foiled.

Those are just a few people that contributed, and were all too happy to jump in and ride the wave of accusations. I hope that helped; good luck!

In The Crucible, was Abigail solely responsible for the Salem Witch Trials?

Although Abigail Williams is very much to blame for the witch trials, she is certainly not the only one who is responsible.

After all, she is just a teenaged girl.  If she had brought these accusations forward and the adults in the community had not believed, nothing would have happened.  So, to me, the real blame lies with people like Parris and Hale and Danforth.  They are the ones who take the accusations seriously (for various reasons).

I would also blame the people like the Putnams who have power and use the trials to get more.  And I would blame the society as a whole for being so gullible that they would believe the girls.

Who is most responsible for the innocent deaths in Salem in The Crucible?

I agree with the previous commenter that Abigail Williams is, undoubtedly, the character most responsible for the deaths in the witch trials. However, I think one could make a good argument that Deputy Governor Danforth is, likewise, very responsible. She is the main accuser, but he is the one who gives legal weight to her accusations; she names names, but he believes her (or claims to). In Act Three, he tells Francis Nurse, "a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between . . ." Problematically, Danforth interprets people's fear of the court or any concern that the girls are dishonest as evidence that they could be working against the court. He believes that, if someone is innocent, then they have nothing to fear from the court, and we've already seen that this is flatly untrue.

Moreover, Danforth tells John Proctor, "We burn a hot fire here; it melts down all concealment." Unfortunately, he is completely wrong here, too. The accusing girls are dissembling, led by the arch liar, Abigail, and her minion, Mercy Lewis. Danforth is so proud and so protective of his own authority and power that he cannot consider the possibility that he is being fooled by the children.

Speaking of pride, he also asks Corey, Proctor, and Nurse, "Do you know that near to four hundred are in the jails from Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature? . . . And seventy two condemned to die by that signature?"  He says this as though it were something to be proud of! The fact that he has condemned four hundred to jail and over seventy to death isn't something he should pride himself on. He can be proud of his experience, his education, and what have you, but to glory in the imprisonment and executions of individuals seems callous.

Then, he tests John Proctor's honesty in the court by publicly interviewing Elizabeth Proctor, his wife, and trusting in her honesty, as per his testimony that she does not lie. Rather than understand that his wife might lie in order to protect his reputation, Danforth takes her statement—that she only fired Abigail because she was displeased with the girl—as truth, and John's—that he had an affair with Abigail and that this is why Abigail lies now—as false. It's pretty ironic that he gets it wrong, considering his confidence in his own discernment.

In Act Four, we see that, though it is possible that the individuals scheduled to hang are innocent and that their hangings could cause a rebellion in the town, Danforth's primary concern is still his own authority. He says, 

I will not receive a single plea for pardon or postponement. Them that will not confess will hang. Twelve are already executed; the names of these seven are given out, and the village expects to see them die this morning. Postponement now speaks a floundering on my part; reprieve or pardon must cast doubt upon the guilt of them that died till now. While I speak God's law, I will not crack its voice with whimpering. If retaliation is your fear, know this —I should hang ten thousand that dared to rise against the law, and an ocean of salt tears could not melt the resolution of the statutes.

Danforth cannot see anything but his own power. He will not consider doing anything that could reduce his power and authority, even if it is the better, the juster, thing to do. To say that he would rather hang thousands than listen to concerns about the corruption of the court says quite a bit. His concern for human life is small, if it exists at all; in this way, then, is he very responsible for the deaths in Salem. If he cared less about maintaining his power and more about finding the truth, the trials might have gone very differently.

Who is most responsible for the innocent deaths in Salem in The Crucible?

While many different characters in Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible" pointed fingers at innocent other villagers, Abigail Williams is most responsible for the deaths which took place in the play. Although Abigail did not accuse all of those arrested and tried on witchcraft charges, she was the first character to "cry witch."

The hysteria that broke out in Salem, in the play, was all based upon the fact that Abigail could not face the fact that she had been caught by Reverend Parris dancing in the woods with Tituba. While not alone, there were many other girls with her, Abagail feared that the truth about her asking Tituba to create a potion to kill Goody Proctor would become common knowledge in the village. Abigail's name had already been soiled by Goody Proctor firing her after finding out about the affair between her husband (John Proctor) and Abigail. If it were to come out that Abigail had danced naked and drank blood in order to kill Goody Proctor her name would be even more blackened.

Therefore, in order to save herself, Abigail began the accusations by stating that Tituba was a witch. From there on out, the accusations began to fly. Not only did she name Tituba as a witch, Abigail named many other Salem women as witches as well.

While she was not responsible for all of the accusations, Abigail certainly put it into the minds of the other villagers that accusations would be taken very seriously by the courts. Therefore, Abigail Williams was (by far) the most responsible for the many deaths in Salem.

In "The Crucible", who is blamed for the horrific event?

If one had to blame a single character in The Crucible for the horrific events in Salem, I would select Deputy-Governor Danforth. It is true that the witch-hunt begins in his absence. He clearly is not responsible for starting the crisis. Once the court is established, however, he is the primary figure of authority and he uses that authority to cause harm. In Act III, he tells Francis Nurse that four hundred people are in jail upon his signature, seventy-two of them condemned to hang. He seems curiously proud of this. In Act IV, he has already hanged twelve people and plans to kill more because:

Postponement now speaks a floundering on my part; reprieve or pardon must cast doubt upon the guilt of them that died till now.

In other words, he will kill more people to avoid having to admit that he has been wrong. Danforth gives the appearance of respectability to the corrupt court and allows innocent people to be killed because of his cowardice and vanity.

The vast majority of the blame, however, must be apportioned not to a "who" but to a "what." Superstition is really to blame for the witch-hunt. Even an educated man like Hale regards it as sinful even to question the existence of witches. Even at the end of the play, when he realizes how destructive his involvement in the trials has been, Hale does not understand that his blind faith has led him to spend his life pursuing knowledge of a non-existent phenomenon, which is to say, the opposite of knowledge, something very much worse than pure ignorance. The people of Salem are both ignorant and superstitious. No particular harm comes of their ignorance alone. John Proctor does not know if there are witches in the world and this lack of knowledge causes no problem for anyone, though it scandalizes the superstitious Hale. It is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge which goes by the name of superstition that causes all the deaths in Salem.

Who is responsible for the deaths of neighbors in The Crucible?

Giles Corey is one of the few characters in The Crucible who emerges with any credit to their name. A fundamentally decent, honest man, he works out pretty quickly that the whole witch-craze is nothing but mass hysteria based on lies and greed. More specifically, he knows that one of the main movers behind the witch-craze, Thomas Putnam, has been making false accusations of witchcraft against his neighbors just so he can get his grasping hands on their property.

Putnam knows full well that once someone has been hanged as a witch they have all their property seized and auctioned off at knock-down prices. He sees this as a great opportunity to acquire more and more land, thus making himself even richer than he already is.

Giles Corey plucks up the courage to come right out and make this accusation against Thomas Putnam in open court. He says that an honest man told him he'd heard Putnam say he was killing his neighbors for their land. Judge Danforth immediately demands that Corey reveal the identity of the informant, but he refuses to divulge this information.

And understandably so, because Corey's already got his wife into trouble with the authorities, albeit inadvertently, and he's seen what's happened to so many people for simply signing a petition. So he keeps his mouth shut. For that, he's arrested for contempt of court.

Other than Abigail Williams, who was the most responsible for starting and perpetuating the Salem Witch Trials in The Crucible?

The other girls that follow Abigail’s lead share some of the responsibility.

I find the most fault with Reverend Parris who has a moral obligation to find out if the girls are telling the truth. He lets himself get caught up in the mob hysteria and thinks more about his status than he does with doing the right thing. Being an adult and the religious authority of the town, he has the ability and clerical or moral authority to stop the accusations and trial at any time. He does not.

Danforth is more concerned with the reputation of the court than looking at the case objectively. Danforth reasons that if the accusations have all been false, it would reflect badly on the court. Hale is on the fence. When he arrives in town, he is relatively objective. In the end, he bends to the conformity of the town.

You could also blame the town as a whole. There are some examples, people like Giles Corey, who stand up to the hysteria and think objectively. But the majority of the town just goes with the flow. The town has a social, collective responsibility and they fail miserably.

If I had to pick one person, other than Abigail, it would be Reverend Parris because, for the reasons I mentioned.