We were dancin' in the woods last night, and my uncle leaped in on us. She took fright, is all. A trill of expectant laughter escapes her, and she dares come closer, feverishly looking into his eyes.
You'll be clapped in the stocks before you're twenty. He takes a step to go, and she springs into his path. A soft word. Her concentrated desire destroys his smile. That's done with. We learn that both Abigail and John have told lies: they have deceived people about their past relationship, and they continue to lie about it.
But to this person who knows her deception, Abigail tells the truth that she was dancing in the woods and Betty took fright. You didn't tell him that! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor! Now shut it! She dissolves into sobs. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam's dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. 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! She goes to Betty and roughly sits her up. Now, you—sit up and stop this! But Betty collapses in her hands and lies inert on the bed.
She uses the threat of violence—along with their belief that she might know some real witchcraft—to keep them in line. She told it to me in a room alone—I have no proof for it. The others come in soon after. She starts to turn. She turns to him. I'll not have your suspicion any more. It could have been his knowledge that he still desires her, or it could just be that he knows it would make his wife suspicious. Proctor continues toward her. Abby'll charge lechery on you, Mr.
She'll ruin you with it, I know she will. Then her saintliness is done with. Mary backs from him. We will slide together into our pit; you will tell the court what you know.
I will bring your guts into your mouth but that goodness will not die for me! Now Hell and Heaven grapple on our backs, and all our old pretense is ripped away—make your peace! He throws her to the floor, where she sobs, "I cannot, I cannot. It is a providence, and no great change; we are only what we always were, but naked now.
He walks as though toward a great horror, facing the open sky. Aye, naked! And the wind, God's icy wind, will blow! Proctor decides that the only way for justice to occur is to let go of his deception, to lay bare his deeds before the court, realizing that he will suffer and be punished because of his past sins. But it is those same past sins that have made his wife vulnerable, and so honesty is now a grave necessity.
What see you, Elizabeth? Were I stone I would have cracked for shame this seven month! Whatever promise she may sense—break it, John, break it. I'll go. He starts for his rifle. But pray, begrudge me not my anger! Do you truly think me base? The promise that a stallion gives a mare I gave that girl! But I'll plead no more! I see now your spirit twists around the single error of my life, and I will never tear it free!
She has an arrow in you yet, John Proctor, and you know it well! Sensing this, Elizabeth doubts him, which keeps their relationship strained and awkward even seven months after his affair with Abigail ended.
HALE, quietly — it has impressed him: Proctor, let you open with me now, for I have a rumor that troubles me. It's said you hold no belief that there may even be witches in the world. Is that true, sir? I have wondered if there be witches in the world—although I cannot believe they come among us now.
HALE: And you, woman? HALE , shocked: You cannot! Hale, when she keeps an upright way, as I have. I am a good woman, I know it; and if you believe I may do only good work in the world, and yet be secretly bound to Satan, then I must tell you, sir, I do not believe it. Hale stares at her. This be a Christian house, sir, a Christian house. HALE: God keep you both; let the third child be quickly baptized, and go you without fail each Sunday in to Sabbath prayer; and keep a solemn, quiet way among you.
His questions show that he still puts too much stock in the rumors flying around town. She does not answer. Answer me! Do you not know that God damns all liars? She cannot speak. Or is it now that you lie? DANFORTH, containing himself: I will tell you this—you are either lying now, or you were lying in the court, and in either case you have committed perjury and you will go to jail for it.
You cannot lightly say you lied, Mary. Do you know that? I am with God, I am with God. Sit you down, children. Silently they sit. Your friend, Mary Warren, has given us a deposition.
In which she swears that she never saw familiar spirits, apparitions, nor any manifest of the Devil. She claims as well that none of you have not seen these things either. Slight pause. Now, children, this is a court of law. The law, based upon the Bible, and the Bible, writ by Almighty God, forbid the practice of witchcraft, and described death as the penalty thereof. But likewise, children, the law and Bible damn all bearers of false witness.
Now then. It does not escape me that this deposition may be devised to blind us; it may well be that Mary Warren has been conquered by Satan, who sends her here to distract our sacred purpose. If so, her neck will break for it. But if she speak true, I bid you now drop your guile and confess your pretense, for a quick confession will go easier with you. Abigail Williams, rise. Abigail slowly rises. As the men argue, Reverend Hale arrives and examines Betty, while Proctor departs.
After Parris and Hale interrogate her for a brief time, Tituba confesses to communing with the devil, and she hysterically accuses various townsfolk of consorting with the devil.
Suddenly, Abigail joins her, confessing to having seen the devil conspiring and cavorting with other townspeople. Betty joins them in naming witches, and the crowd is thrown into an uproar.
A week later, alone in their farmhouse outside of town, John and Elizabeth Proctor discuss the ongoing trials and the escalating number of townsfolk who have been accused of being witches. Elizabeth urges her husband to denounce Abigail as a fraud; he refuses, and she becomes jealous, accusing him of still harboring feelings for her. Mary is sent up to bed, and John and Elizabeth continue their argument, only to be interrupted by a visit from Reverend Hale.
While they discuss matters, Giles Corey and Francis Nurse come to the Proctor home with news that their wives have been arrested. Officers of the court suddenly arrive and arrest Elizabeth. After they have taken her, Proctor browbeats Mary, insisting that she must go to Salem and expose Abigail and the other girls as frauds. The next day, Proctor brings Mary to court and tells Judge Danforth that she will testify that the girls are lying.
Proctor persists in his charge, convincing Danforth to allow Mary to testify. Mary tells the court that the girls are lying. When the girls are brought in, they turn the tables by accusing Mary of bewitching them. Furious, Proctor confesses his affair with Abigail and accuses her of being motivated by jealousy of his wife.
Meanwhile, Abigail and the girls again pretend that Mary is bewitching them, and Mary breaks down and accuses Proctor of being a witch. Proctor rages against her and against the court. He is arrested, and Hale quits the proceedings. The summer passes and autumn arrives. The witch trials have caused unrest in neighboring towns, and Danforth grows nervous. Hale, who has lost faith in the court, begs the accused witches to confess falsely in order to save their lives, but they refuse.
Danforth, however, has an idea: he asks Elizabeth to talk John into confessing, and she agrees. Conflicted, but desiring to live, John agrees to confess, and the officers of the court rejoice.
But he refuses to incriminate anyone else, and when the court insists that the confession must be made public, Proctor grows angry, tears it up, and retracts his admission of guilt.
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