Abigail makes this statement in The
Crucible when she is being cast aside once again by the man she loves (or at
least wants), John Proctor. Early in Act I, John and Abigail share a moment virtually
alone (Betty is unresponsive in her bed) in which Abigail confesses the girls had been
"sportin'" in the forest last night. This is the cause of all the uproar today, and
John recognizes Abigail's trouble-making ways for what they are, something about which
they both laugh. Soon, though, the conversation turns personal, and Abigail claims she
knows he still wants to be with her.
Proctor speaks
earnestly and forcefully, telling her:
readability="8">
Abby, I may think of you softly from time to
time. But I will cut off my hand before I ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of
mind. We never touched,
Abby.
This, of course,
infuriates the young woman who lashes out at him in her hurt. She begins by denigrating
his wife, Elizabeth, and ends with this satiric condemnation against all the "pure" men
and women of Salem:
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John Proctor...took me from my sleep and put
knowledge in my heart! I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying
lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men! And now you
bid me tear the light out of my eyes? I will not, I
cannot!
One can almost hear
her spitting out those words "Christian" and "covenanted." She is clearly incensed and
hurt and is now lashing out at the hypocrisy she sees in the people around her. The
great irony, of course, is that she is an exceptionally good liar, which is clearly a
sin (as his her adultery) and which condemns almost two dozen people to die. Miller's
stage direction for Abigail says she has "an endless capacity for dissembling"--in other
words, she is a magnificent liar. She has learned, she says, that the flawed, sinful
men and women of the town are not what they appear. If that is true, it seems she is
now one of them.
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