but one, the seventh: Thou shalt not commit adultery. This is a serious failing, because the Puritans believed that all of God's laws are summarized in the Ten Commandments.You've probably had the experience of blanking out on a test. You know the answer, it's on the tip of your tongue, but no matter how hard you try to think of it, it just won't come. Hale seems to realize that this may be the case here; he decides to let it pass, even though he has misgivings.Proctor then tells him what Abigail said, that "the children's sickness had naught to do with witchcraft." Hale is shocked, and wants to know why Proctor has kept this information back. The answer Hale gets alarms him more than anything he's heard tonight. Proctor doubts the existence of witches, and Elizabeth agrees with him. Witchcraft is Hale's specialty, remember, and he knows that the first thing a witch will say is not, "I am no witch," but "There's no such thing as a witch."Notice two things in this passage. The first I've already mentioned, the fact that some "will swear to anything before they'll hang," and Hale knows Proctor's right in saying this. The second thing occurs when Proctor assures Hale that Elizabeth is incapable of lying. Abigail, in Act I, repeatedly called Elizabeth a liar. But Abigail, as we've seen, is a liar herself. On the other hand, Proctor, in Act III, will repeat his claim that Elizabeth cannot tell a lie, and it will ruin them both. Arthur Miller is here preparing us for that catastrophe.^^^^^^^^^^THE CRUCIBLE: ACT II, SCENE 5Things begin to happen very quickly. Giles Corey and Francis Nurse come in; their wives have been arrested. In one very short scene we find out that: 1) No one is safe, if these two godly women can be accused; and 2) The accusers are seeking revenge--on Rebecca Nurse for murdering Goody Putnam's babies, and on Martha Corey for murdering Walcott's pigs. These two facts can add up to only one thing: Elizabeth Proctor is next....
