Act 3 of The Crucible

Act three of the Crucible was quite a climax. The husbands of Rebecca Nurse, Martha Corey, and Elizabeth Proctor try to reason with Danforth, the judge, into letting their wives go. Although Rebecca, Martha, and Elizabeth are innocent, they are still going to be hung because the young girls accusations. In this act, you find out that Elizabeth is again pregnant with John Proctors baby. This is the reason why she does not get hung as soon as possible. Also Mary has agreed to tell the court that she had lied about the accusations. Even though Mary was scared of what the outcome was she decided to do what was right. After Mary's testimony, they do not know what to believe because either she had lied before or is lying now. They question her why she lied and ask her if she's lying now because of the Devil. She answers truthfully but is crying hysterically because all of the pressure put against her. As she tells her testimony, Abigail sits in the room denying everything Mary says. Abigail calls Mary a witch and gets the other young girls to attack her with words. They start to mock every word that Mary says. Danforth asks Mary if she is conjuring them to repeat as she says and John Proctor sticks up for her saying they are only copying her and they think it is a game. John Proctor then admits that he had an affair with Abigail Williams. Danforth, Hathorne, Hale, and Parris are shocked by what he is admitting and they know that what John is saying is serious because, no one would take adultery as a joke during this time. They then start to believe him so Danforth calls in Elizabeth to tell him why she really fired Abigail. She tries to save Johns reputation and does not tell Danforth they had an affair. She only admits that she was scared he "fancied" Abigail. Because of this Danforth then did not believe John Proctors testimony. After all of this chaos, Mary Warren knew that  if she was on John Proctors side that she would get hung with his. So as childish as she is, she turned on him and told the court that the devil is with him and he forced her to make these accusations. She knew if she did not get hung, Abigail was going to hurt her.