ths were to be shutunless otherwise asked to speak. It is not surprising that the girls would find this type of lifestyle veryconstricting. To rebel against it, they played pranks, such as dancing in the woods, listening to slaves'magic stories and pretending that other villagers were bewitching them. The Crucible starts after the girlsin the village have been caught dancing in the woods. As one of them falls sick, rumors start to fly thatthere is witchcraft going on in the woods, and that the sick girl is bewitched. Once the girls talk to eachother, they become more and more frightened of being accused as witches, so Abigail starts accusingothers of practicing witchcraft. The other girls all join in so that the blame will not be placed on them. InThe Crucible, Abigail starts the accusations by saying, "I go back to Jesus; I kiss his hand. I saw SarahGood with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!" Anothergirl, Betty, continues the cry with, "I saw George Jacobs with the Devil! I saw Goody Howe with theDevil!" From here on, the accusations grow and grow until the jails overflow with accused witches. Itmust have given them an incredible sense of power when the whole town of Salem listened to their wordsand believed each and every accusation. After all, children were to be seen and not heard in Puritansociety, and the newfound attention was probably overwhelming. In Act Three of The Crucible, the girlswere called before the judges to defend themselves against the claims that they were only acting. To provetheir innocence, Abigail led the other girls in a chilling scene. Abby acted as if Mary Warren sent herspirit up to the rafters and began to talk to the spirit. "Oh Mary, this is a black art to change your shape.No, I cannot, I cannot stop my mouth; it's God's work I do." The other girls all stared at the rafters inhorror and began to repeat everything they heard. Finally, the girls' hysterics...
