Crucible Ocho

1.) Proctor: "A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer. I see his filthy face! And it is my face, and yours, Danforth! For them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud--God damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together!" (Miller 119-120)

Proctor has lost it. He can not, no matter how he tries, persuade the court that there is nothing unnatural about these girls, especially after Abby's little charade. Proctor is fed up with it, and calls the court out. He claims that the devil's face is not what they believe it to be, but that it is in fact, themselves. The people that fear to find the truth, but rather wallow in their ignorance because it is safe--those are who Proctor calls the Devil. The court fears the truth. They have undergone this entire situation as if everything was true, and condemning innocents because of it. Now that they have been shown the truth, they are afraid of acknowledging it, because it would prove their fallibility and everything would be their fault. They will burn because they are the reason the madness still continues. Their fear will cause the madness to spread like a virus, infecting other villages until it consumes them all. If they had gotten over it at this time, it would all be over.

2.) Parris: "Judge Hathorne--it were another sort that hanged till now. Rebecca Nurse is no Bridget that lived three year with Bishop before she married him. John Proctor is not Isaac Ward that drank his family to ruin. To Danforth: I would to God it were not so, Excellency, but these people have great weight yet in the town. Let Rebecca stand upon the gibbet and send up some righteous prayer, and I fear she'll wake a vengeance on you" (127).

John Proctor is condemned!? Inconceivable! Well, actually, pretty conceivable, considering the end of the last act. Parris is starting to doubt. At first, he was itching to cry "witch!" at someone, and would not believe proof of anything to the contrary. Now, he is starting to wonder. Rebecca Nurse, who is condemned, is not a bad person. She is a respectable woman in the town with some weight in it. She has never harmed anyone, except for Putnam's accusations, and those are only accusations. John Proctor's only blemish before his attack on the court was that he did not go to church, but still was religious. Parris knows that the people they are condemning for the Devil's servants are far from that. Not only that, but he knows the people they are condemning are popular in town. Hanging them could spark a rebellion in town, just like the whispers in Andover.