Chapter 4 of 29 · 5'03"
Abigail catches John Proctor alone and tries to revive their affair, but he refuses her again and again. "Wipe it out of mind," he tells her: "We never touched." She answers by attacking his wife and insisting he still loves her, turning rejection into a threat against Elizabeth.
Proctor Tells Abigail It's Over
Proctor Draws the Hard Line
❝ Monologue · 9 lines Abigail's Outburst
She builds from a single claim to a full accusation, letting every sentence carry more heat.
In this scene, John Proctor sends his servant Mary Warren home and is left alone with Abigail Williams. She comes close and pleads for a tender word, but Proctor tells her the affair is over and to forget it. When she mocks his wife Elizabeth and claims he still loves her, Proctor threatens to whip her.
Under the fight is an old desire that only one of them has given up. Abigail keeps reaching for the language of love — "Give me a word, John. A soft word" — while Proctor answers with distance, saying "No, no, Abby. That's done with." Her real weapon is the truth nobody is supposed to mention: "I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I come near!" Faced with that, Proctor draws a hard line — "I will cut off my hand before I'll ever reach for you again" — and orders her, "Wipe it out of mind. We never touched." But Abigail will not accept a version in which nothing happened, and she turns his refusal into a case against his wife, calling Elizabeth a cold, sniveling woman who is blackening her name. The choice is already clear: the affair can be buried or turned into a weapon, and Abigail has decided which.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“But I will cut off my hand before I'll ever reach for you again.”
The vow to cut off his own hand makes refusal absolute, turning a breakup into mutilation.
literary
“Wipe it out of mind. We never touched.”
He orders the memory erased and rewrites the past in one breath, denying it ever happened.
Formal
“I'll not be coming for you more.”
The continuous future makes the ending sound like a stopped habit rather than a sudden fight.
Formal
“and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!”
She concedes the sin first, then claims his love anyway, so the concession becomes an attack.
literary
“No, no, Abby. That's done with.”
The double no cuts her off, and done with declares the whole affair closed.
Informal
I look for John Proctor took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart! I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men! Now you bid me tear the light out of my eyes? I will not, I cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!
Up next · 05wheels within wheelsThe scene: Proctor Clashes With ParrisHe has decided to end the affair and return to his wife. Abigail keeps testing for tenderness, so he answers with hard, final language — cutting off his hand, forgetting it ever happened — because anything softer reads to her as hope.
He admits he may think of her softly from time to time, so some feeling remains. But he insists he will never act on it again, which is why he turns every plea into a refusal and tells her to put it out of mind.
Proctor blames Elizabeth for pushing Abigail out, and Abigail sees her as the reason she lost him. She calls Elizabeth a cold, sniveling woman who is blackening her name in the village, aiming the anger at the wife rather than at Proctor.
They had an affair while Abigail worked in the Proctor house, and Elizabeth found out, dismissed her, and has not forgiven her. Abigail still believes Proctor loves her and is waiting for him every night.
She will not stop pressing him and turns to insulting Elizabeth. When she tries to twist him against his wife, he ends the argument with the threat of a whip, the one authority he still has over her.
