When John Proctor and
Abigail speak personally in Act One, he tells her, "Abby, I never give you hope to wait for
me." However, she is incapable of grasping that their sexual relationship, a relationship
that ended seven months prior, does not mean to him what it has meant to her. He insists,
"Abby, you'll put it out of mind. I'll not be comin' for you more." Again, she is
unwilling to accept the truth of what he's said: their relationship is over in every possible
sense. She thinks John is "surely sportin' with [her]," but it is clear to us that he
is not. Her insistence that he must be joking indicates her inability to see the
truth.
Though John does confess that he may have some lingering feelings for
Abigail -- he admits to looking up at her window -- he has determined to put those feelings to
rest and never act upon them again. He says, "I may think of you softly from time to time.
But I will cut off my hand before I'll ever reach for you again." She assumes that his
statements have more to do with a controlling wife rather than anything to do with herself, and
she begins to insult them both, saying, "Oh, I marvel how such a strong man may let such a
sickly wife be--," before John cuts her off. It seems that John was Abigail's first love
-- and first lover -- as she says that he "put knowledge in [her] heart" and she
insists that he still loves her, no matter if its a sin. She cannot recognize that this is not
true; there is simply no evidence that he ever loved her or that this was
anything other than a sexual relationship for him.
No comments:
Post a Comment