The Crucible - Act 1 – Abigail Diary.
Lauren Shortman - 10R - Crucible Coursework
The Crucible - Act 1 - Abigail Diary.
Today was sheer joy watching everyone going potty over some dumb dancing in the woods. We were lucky though. I still can't believe uncle caught Mercy dancing naked! God only knows what he'd have done if he had have caught me drinking blood! I'm not too sure about Mary Warren though. Even Mercy said she thinks she means to tell. She's so naïve. I knew she shouldn't have come. She won't be able to handle it all. The word's already got out and she's throwing all the blame on me.
"I never done none of it, Abby. I only looked!" What a cheek.
Betty is making the whole thing look incredibly suspicious. Dancing in the woods has suddenly changed to witchcraft. We could get into so much trouble if the word witchcraft is even mentioned in Salem. She's lucky I only gave her good whack! If it wasn't Mercy and Mary Warren in the room, and it was uncle or old Goody Putnam I'd be hanged by now.
"You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" Stupid child! What did she think she was saying? Does she not understand the seriousness of what we're involved in? If this gets out at the wrong time, Salem will erupt!
Word is that Tituba was conjuring up spirits for Mrs Putnam, and that she involved us girls without our knowing. It'll be easy to get people to believe that she bewitched us, and then we can say that there are others involved with witchcraft. Betty and the others have already cried out Alice Barrow, Goody Hawkins, and Goody Booth. God knows whom else. That harlot Elizabeth Proctor only has to have her name breathed and she'll be hanged, drawn and quartered! This town needs a good clearout.
I know it's all worth it now. After speaking to John today, I can tell he's unhappy. He knows that the only woman who can make him happy is me. Only trouble is, in the eyes of God I am not yet a woman, and also in the eyes of this wretched town, it would be a sin, but as soon as his dear old worn out housewife Elizabeth is gone, it will no longer be a sin. I could see it in his eyes. He puts on this act to the world saying that he loves her and it was all a big mistake. He may be in denial but I know John. I know him better than that old bat does. I've seen his barn in a light she'll never see shine! John knows how Salem will react if anyone found out about us, but as soon as she's gone, everything will be alright. He can't wait to dance on her grave. And I'll be the one to make that wish come true. I knew today that he couldn't resist me. Why else would he come here? Everyone knows about his feelings for Parris, and I know he didn't come just to see some dumb entranced child. He came to see me!
Soon he can have me. Tituba has confessed to witchcraft and names are already being mentioned. If I can involve Elizabeth Proctor somehow John could me mine! I hope so, I really do hope so!
Xxx Abigail xxX.
Act 2- Elizabeth Diary
6:30pm
He came in late this evening. I knew when he came home that he'd been into Salem. He says he was planting all the way out to the forest edge. Maybe he was, but he did say earlier in the week that he was going to go into town.
It's been just less than a year and I still can't help but get suspicious at the slightest thought of him going anywhere without telling me first. Everything he does he has to run by me beforehand. It makes me sick treating him like this, but ...
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6:30pm
He came in late this evening. I knew when he came home that he'd been into Salem. He says he was planting all the way out to the forest edge. Maybe he was, but he did say earlier in the week that he was going to go into town.
It's been just less than a year and I still can't help but get suspicious at the slightest thought of him going anywhere without telling me first. Everything he does he has to run by me beforehand. It makes me sick treating him like this, but what else can I do? How can I be sure he's ... oh look at me. I can't even trust my own husband. I wish I could. I can see it's killing him as much as it's killing me. Everything he says he has to think about first, in case he offends me in the slightest way. Any other woman would love it. I've got him right under my thumb. I'm complaining about it, but I'm the one who's making him like it. At least when he's like this I know where he is and what he's doing, but now he's never gong to be the same. However much I want him to be, I won't let him. As long as that harlot's around, John and I will never be able to get on with our lives.
7:45pm
I wrote to you last not long after tea. Well maybe I am treating John right after all. He was only alone with Abigail eight days ago! He is right, I forget nothin' and forgive nothin'! And to be quite honest I think I have reason to do so. If he's forgot Abigail, why hide it from me that he was alone with her? Is he worth all the bitterness and detest I feel when I look at him? I could've found out if only I could have held my gaze longer after telling him that I knew him as a good man - only somewhat bewildered. I stared right at him when I said it. And I meant every word of it. If only Mary hadn't have arrived home, I could have looked deep into him found out if there was any love left inside of me.
Well I couldn't find out whether or not there is any love left there. My heart says yes, yet my mind says no. What does it matter now anyway? I've been named. Defended by Mary, but I've been named none the less and when the likes of Goody Osburn are being hanged, what chance have I? Mary Warren's poppet didn't make things any better either. That lying whore, that Devil shaken scheming little whore wants me dead, and she's going the right way about it. John doesn't see it but I do. She knows there is an unspoken promise between herself and John. The promise John could have broken this very night, and all this could have been stopped.
It was late when Hale arrived. Lucky, as the boys were fast asleep. The more I think about it, the clearer things become. If only Hale knew about Abigail, he would understand too that this is all too far fetched to be true. He would realise that this is all Abigail's fault. She's the most scheming, vindictive person I have ever met. Whatever did John see in her? Now I'm being charged for witchcraft all because of my husbands lust for an eager ready to give everything child. Yes. She is still a child, and the harlot going to get me hanged. She wants to dance on my grave with my husband. I only hope he doesn't fall for it again.
What does it matter if he does anyway? I've got no chance now.
I'm going to make sure my children never find out the truth. When I'm gone I don't want them thinking that their mother was a witch and their father a sinner. I simply hope I can make it through this trial, and then I won't have to worry about that. When this is all over I'm taking my children and John and I'm getting out of this town once and for all. I'm begging the Lord to help us through this. I just want Abigail out of our lives for good. I'm going to make that girl suffer for this!
Xxx Elizabeth Proctor xxX
Act 3 - John Proctor Diary.
Elizabeth is pregnant. My wife is sitting lonely in jail, accused of being a witch and she's pregnant. Can't Abigail see what she is doing? She has already wrecked my marriage, now she's playing with the lives of my wife and children!
What has come of this? What has come of this? Why does she have to lie? Why doesn't she understand? It is Elizabeth I love, not her! How is it she manages to manipulate all those poor girls? Questions. That's all they are. Questions. No one can answer them. Accusations, people listen to. Lies, people listen to. Rumours, people listen to. But the truth? No one wants to hear the truth. They want stories. Gossip. Well it's my wife that all the gossip is about! My wife and my friends wives!
Like Hale said, today he has signed away the soul of Rebecca Nurse, and seventy-one others, and I'm the only person on this earth who knows that it is all lies. But there is nothing I can do about it. I've told them that Abigail told me it was all sport, yet they choose to believe that she was under the control of a spirit, and the show she put on to make them believe it! She started shivering and screaming. All of them there in the court, screaming. Mary Warren tried so hard to tell the truth but Abigail told the court Mary was sending out her evil spirit upon them. They were screaming on and on about a bird in the rafters. Poor Mary was so terribly frightened of Abby. The child is a lunatic. She's mad, and so are all the others, including Mary Warren for following her. She's got them all at it. If anyone in Salem has the Devil in them, it's her! She is evil. She is going to have seventy-two people killed within the next week, if that! People that have never even stepped a foot in her way. Never done anything to hurt anyone.
Oh Elizabeth. If only you knew how much I love you, and how sorry I am. I've tried everything today. If only you had told the truth. What's more important, my reputation or the chances of our boys getting their mother back home where she belongs? I don't care what people say about me. I made a mistake and hell I'm I paying for it! But you are too, and you shouldn't be. I committed the crime of lechery!
I can't begin to imagine how Elizabeth is feeling today. Having to come into that room in front of those people, being questioned about the faithfulness of the man she married. After all I've put her through she tried to defend me. She tried to cover up the fact that I sinned against the Lord and I lied and deceived my wife and family. She tried to defend me... I can't live without you Elizabeth! I'm sorry... I'm so, so sorry! I never meant to hurt you. You only thought to save my name and look at you now! I'm so stupid.
I stick by what I said in court. In Salem, God is dead! It is true; they are pulling Heaven down and raising up a whore!
Xxx John xxX
Act 4 - Reverend Hale Diary
I came here to bless the child of a Reverend who was entranced somehow, thought to be the power and the workings of the Devil. Now I have discovered corruption, hate, and perjury in the courts of Massachusetts. I am involved in the wrecking of families, marriages, lives and homes. Now I wish I'd never set foot in this town. I've been investigating compacts with Lucifer, abominations, witchcraft and wizards. I've never seen a society so shattered by corruption, vengeance, blasphemy and lechery. All this is going on in one town. Everyone is out to get someone else and the innocent are being persecuted! I am involved.
Only now have I realised what was really wrong with her. She was terrified of her father, but more so of her cousin, Abigail. They had been caught dancing and chanting in the woods. Abigail knew exactly what would happen if Parris found out that she had took Betty with her. So she scared the wits out of the poor girl, and the wits out of all the other girls involved. I have no right to judge anybody here, I do not know them, but I can tell the difference between witchcraft and vengeance, and this is pure vengeance.
I feel this is not Gods work I do. I have signed away the souls of over seventy people who I now believe are good, hard working covenant Christians. I now insist upon praying with those that are left. I have quit the court but I must work with those left and get them to confess. They do not deserve to die like this. At least I can help get them through this with dignity. Quitting that court is the best thing I have done since I first set foot in Salem, there was too much contention there. I feel the results of this trial are my fault. I put these innocent people under those ropes and now I need to get them away from them. Rebecca Nurse is a good woman, she must confess. If she would confess her life would be saved and the other seven should follow her example, but she's a strong woman who will stand by her word. This is going to be hard. I put them in that jail so I'm going to do everything I can to get them all out.
7:30am
Of all the souls I signed away, none are left. None of them were guilty of witchcraft. They only confessed to save their name, and they died for it! This morning I saw true pride and faith in Rebecca, Elizabeth and John Proctor. Rebecca and John rest in heaven now knowing that they have told the truth. My heart goes out to Elizabeth and those boys today. I beg forgiveness from those lives I have taken and their families.
This is a ghost town in which I stay. The stench of rotting crops is lingering. That smell will stay with me till my dying day. It is the smell of death in Salem. No good man is left here only those who condemned seventy-two victims. They are victims of deceit and corruption, love and hate. The people who condemned them have signed their treaty to the Devil. The only evil in this town is the evil that people brought upon themselves to believe that innocent covenants were part of this scandal. I am one of those people! A harlot's cry has ended and destroyed lives, and God damn that child if she pleas to any kind of innocence again! Her name is as black as soot in the eyes of the Lord. If my life was to be taken to save the lives of Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor then it should have been. They were as good as you could get. Parris and Abigail have always struck me false, but who am I to judge? The only judge is God, and soon everyone will meet his or her judgement day. I would give anything to see the day when Abigail Williams meets hers.
As for Salem, I hope it can rebuild its society. I am not staying around to see if it does. At dawn today, I saw the last executions of the Salem witch trials take place, and that is something I will never forget, I will never forgive myself for not doing more to save the innocent souls of those who have been affected by this tragedy. This whole thing was a tragedy...
Xxx Reverend Hale xxX
The Crucible- by Arthur Miller
Echoes Down the Corridor!
Not long after the fever died, Parris was voted from office, walked out on the highroad, and was never heard of again.
The legend has it that Abigail turned up later as a prostitute in Boston.
Twenty years after the last execution, the government awarded compensation to the victims still living, and to the families of the dead. However, it is evident that some people still were unwilling to admit their total guilt, and also that the factionalism was still alive, for some beneficiaries were actually not victims at all, but informers.
Elizabeth Proctor married again, four years after Proctor's death.
In solemn meeting, the congregation rescinded the excommunications - this in March 1712. But they did so upon orders of the government. The jury, however, wrote a statement praying forgiveness of all who had suffered.
Certain farms which had belonged to the victims were left to ruin, and for more than a century no one would buy them or live on them.
To all intents and purposes, the power of theocracy in Massachusetts was broken.
