Cady Heron

The Harkness note I chose to focus on was courtesy of Gwyneth, who pointed out that Hester and Abigail are opposites in how they approach their difficult circumstances.  

Whereas Hester fully and selflessly accepts responsibility and punishment for her actions--protecting Dimmsdale, even though he is clearly also at fault, and obediently wearing the scarlet letter, despite the humiliation--Abigail denies her wrongdoings until the last possible minute, at which point, rather than acting nobly as Hester does, she does all she can to mar other people's reputations and exact personal revenge.

Abigail's scheme to ruin her enemies through a web of lies mirrors the actions of Cady Heron in the movie Mean Girls.  Much like Abigail, Cady is a teenage girl who becomes extremely manipulative and has no problem betraying her friends if it means moving up in the world/achieving her own selfish goals.  Also similar to Abigail--who is doing all that she does in an attempt to win the affection of John Proctor--throughout the course of the movie, Cady's main goal becomes dating her enemy's ex, Aaron Samuels.  Just as Abigail wishes to ruin Elizabeth, John's wife, Cady wishes to ruin Regina, because she is a direct threat to Cady's chances at having a relationship with Aaron.  Overall, there are a shocking number of similarities between Abigail and Cady's mean spirited and self-serving behavior.