Who Is Abigail Guilty In The Crucible

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John is hesitant about exposing Abigail in court as a fraud because of the repercussions it could have on his life and reputation. If John claims that Abigail is a fraud, Abigail will most likely reveal their affair to the court. Even Mary Warren knows the consequences of what Abigail will do and she warns John, “Abby’ll charge lechery on you” (Miller 80). He would be forced to admit that he was a lecher and that he committed the act of adultery, which goes against the Ten Commandments and effectively ruins his name in the town. There is no way for John to prove Abigail guilty without ruining himself in the process. He also feels that he does not have ample proof, as he explains to Elizabeth, “If the girl’s a saint now, I think it is not easy to prove she’s fraud, and the town gone so …show more content…
She thinks he still wants to protect Abigail and still cares for her. Elizabeth reveals her distrust when she says to Proctor, “If it were not Abigail that you must go to hurt, would you falter now? I think not” (Miller 54). Although John insists he has no feelings left for Abigail, Elizabeth is worried that he is only holding back from going to court to save Abigail from getting hurt. She even worries that he is lying to her: “John, you are not open with me. You saw her with a crowd, you said. Now you—” (Miller 55). John’s actions have caused Elizabeth to lose almost all of her trust in him. Elizabeth’s lost of trust in John is similar to Shay’s lost of trust in Tally in the book Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. After Tally begins to fall for David, Shay’s romantic interest, and the two begin to date, Shay begins to see a different side of her friend and feels that Tally is no longer loyal to her. She is incredibly hurt by her friend’s actions. Both Elizabeth and Shay feel betrayed and question their partners’ motives as well as the status of their own