questions are headed, but she doesn't know who talked. John may have confessed, but isn't it far more likely that Abigail, out of sheer spite, accused John first?Whatever Elizabeth's reasoning, she fails the test. She tells Danforth that her husband is no lecher. As Hale says, it's a natural lie to tell; she thought only to save her husband's name. But Danforth will have none of it. Proctor claimed that his wife couldn't tell a lie; very well, Elizabeth has just cleared Abigail. And Proctor's charge against Abigail was nothing but a last-ditch effort to overthrow the court.If you think for just a moment, this makes no sense at all. If Proctor is a liar, then saying that Elizabeth cannot lie could itself be a lie. Elizabeth also denied being a witch; Danforth obviously thinks this is a lie, or he wouldn't have found her guilty and sentenced her to hang. Why should he believe her now, when she denies her husband is an adulterer?One answer can be found near the end of the previous scene. In a stage direction Arthur Miller describes Danforth as "Himself engaged and entered by Abigail." This means that she has him somehow hypnotized, and that whatever Elizabeth answers, he'll see it as letting Abigail off the hook. If Elizabeth says, "Yes, Abigail's a whore," it could merely be a plot by the witch and her husband to discredit the court's chief witness against her.There's another possibility, that Danforth's "wits have been turned," just as Abigail threatened. If this is the case, then he simply no longer knows what he's doing.Don't forget that the court has based every one of its decisions solely on the "testimony" of Abigail and the girls. If Abigail has been lying, the court is destroyed. Danforth may be taking "any port in the storm" to keep his world from collapsing. Proctor cannot prove his charge, therefore the charge is false. Abigail is vindicated, the court is saved, and the witch is dragged back to her cell.^^^^^^^^^^THE CRUCIBLE:...
