Proctor Forces Mary to Testify, Explained：make your peace with

What's really going on

Mary's fear is not cowardice; it is arithmetic. She knows exactly what Abigail can do, and she says it plainly: "Abby'll charge lechery on you, Mr. Proctor!" That line reframes the whole scene. Proctor wants Mary's testimony to save Elizabeth, but the price is his own reputation, because Abigail holds their affair over him. Proctor's answer — "Then her saintliness is done with" — is a man deciding he would rather be exposed than let his wife hang. He insists the family "will slide together into our pit," refusing to let only Elizabeth fall. The scene is the moment Proctor stops managing appearances and accepts public shame as the cost of doing right, even as Mary, still terrified, keeps repeating that she cannot.

Theme

このチャプターで学べること

• Lechery is a heavy moral charge, not a casual affair.
• To make your peace with something is to accept it.
• The what-clause defines who they really are.
• Repeating I cannot shows a character breaking down.

発音のポイント

• tell it in — Between vowels the t flaps, so tell it in sounds like tell-i-din.
• into our — Link into our into one smooth phrase.
• ripped away — The ed in ripped is often dropped before away.
• I cannot — The final t in cannot nearly disappears, leaving only the emotion.