Crucible Epilogue

Epilogue

Swaying back and forth upon the rope that he hangs from, is John Proctor.  Abby is struck by the horrible fate that she has brought upon John, her eternal love.  At this point Abby doesn’t know what to do.  Elizabeth is in a state of devastation and anger.   The hangings are over and Abby goes back home, straight up to bed.  She is tired and exhausted yet still cannot get a wink of sleep.  She keeps tossing and turning with the sight of her love hanging from his throat still in her mind.  Abby starts to examine the events that have occurred in the past months.  She starts to notice that many bad things happened to very good people.  She realizes that almost all of this somehow was her fault.  Abby is in a pickle, either keep up what she is doing and stays safe, or confess her pretense and free the innocent people in jail. 

Abby seems to make a drastic turnaround from her old self.  She makes the risky decision of confessing her pretense and all of her false accusations.  Abby is sitting at home, rocking back and forth, nervously by her fireplace.  She is trying to muster up the courage to explain and confess herself to the court.  Abby finally stands up and starts to creep to the courthouse.  She quietly slips into the courthouse and begins to walk down towards Danforth.   He is in session with a different defendant, but that doesn’t stop Abby.  In complete interruption, Abby yells towards Danforth, “I have a confession”!  In certain shock Danforth commands, “Well let it out then”.  “It was pretense all along sir, I swear of it, I see what I have done and cannot bare the guilt anymore”, Abby proclaims.  “And the other girls?” Danforth asks.  Abby continues, “I was fully responsible and put them up to it”. 

Abby walks out of the courthouse with a huge weight off her chest, but still has a chill running through her spine.  Almost as if she knows something bad will still come of this.  As she was leaving Danforth had Hale fetch the other girls to see if they would also confess.  If so Abby and the rest would all have avoided jail and would be free.  But Abby knows the girls will stick by her past word and keep up the charade.  Almost only minutes later, the other girls walk out of the courthouse with an angered look on their face as they see Abby.  Abby walks up to the girls and asked if they had confessed as she had.  All the girls at once start yelling and screaming at her, “Why didn’t you tell us to confess!”  “We are sent to jail now for your stupidity”!  Abby is stiff with fright and doesn’t know what to say.  So she eventually runs home, scared.  Abby thinks to herself, “What are they going to do to me?”  “Are they going to try to get revenge”?  Abby is almost shaking in her bed with true fright.  She then brings herself to the thought that she made these girls behave this way.  She was the leader and the other girls were the followers.  It was her fault for all of this.  Abby realizes she is stuck, and comes to a conclusion she believes is the only way out of this horrible mess she caused.

The next morning, Parris, the man Abby has recently been serving, goes up to Abby’s room to wake her.  In awe, Abby is not in her bed.  Most of her belongings are missing and the window is open.  Parris goes downstairs and comes to a realization when his horse is gone.  Abby is gone, and she is never to return.