"As Clean as God's Fingers"

If she is innocent! Why do you never wonder if Parris be innocent, or Abigail? Is the accuser always holy now? Were they born this morning as clean as God’s fingers? I’ll tell you what’s walking Salem—vengeance is walking Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law! This warrant’s vengeance; I will not give my wife to vengeance!

                                  —John Proctor in Arthur Miller’s  

                                             The Crucible, 1.2, p. 44

One of the reasons why I love this play so much is that Miller gives all of the actors so much to work with, and this monologue of Proctor’s is no exception. Just shy of the end of Act 1, Proctor gives this speech when he finds out that Abigail Williams, his wife’s former serving-girl with whom he had an affair, has accused his upright, righteous, God-fearing wife, Elizabeth, of witchcraft.

Proctor knows that Abigail looks to get rid of Elizabeth and take her place in the Proctor household, but he hasn’t taken her or the situation of the court proceedings seriously until now. Prior to this accusation, based on the reports from their current serving-girl, Mary Warren, Proctor and Elizabeth were discussing whether or not he should visit the court and repeat what Abigail told him the day her cousin Betty took sick—that the girls were dancing in the woods, got frightened when her uncle, Rev. Parris, discovered them, and there was no witchcraft involved.

Proctor’s having a difficult time trying to figure out what to do here, because if he gets involved with the proceedings, he knows that he will eventually have to admit that he had relationship with Abigail while he was married. He knows that will damage his honor, reputation, and family, not to mention his credibility in court. Proctor’s spent seven months trying to atone for his wrong-doing, and now he’s attempting to do the right thing by telling the truth of what happened. The problem is that the town is primed to believe the girls’ lies.

Parris is angry with some of the townspeople for not coming to church regularly enough, not contributing enough to his salary, and in the Proctors’ case, not allowing him to baptize their youngest child. Parris’s pride has been wounded, so he latches on to this issue of witchcraft to exact his vengeance on those he feels have wronged him. We already know that Abigail wants to be the new Goodwife Proctor, so she’s using this opportunity to try to make that happen, not to mention the fact that she enjoys wielding so much power over so many people who have disapproved of her “loose ways.” Ann Putnam has borne eight children, but only one has lived more than one day, which makes it very difficult for her to be around Rebecca Nurse, a mother and grandmother of many. Thus, the Putnams are willing to do whatever it takes to make their pain go away, even if it means accusing upstanding citizens like the Nurses.

In this speech, Proctor comments on this wave of vengeance that has swept through Salem, because he knows that all of these disputes have been simmering under the surface for years, but have never found their outlet until now. He attempts to get his wife’s accusers to see the truth, to listen to reason, to realize that the accusers are only seeking vengeance, while the accused are only confessing because they’ll die if they don’t, but all of this is to no avail. The events set in motion the night the girls danced cannot yet be stopped. The irony here is that, in trying to get everyone else to see reason, Proctor is the only one who is truly acting like the Christian he claims to be—he’s sinned, but he’s asked forgiveness and made attempts to atone for his sin. Everyone else claims to be Christian, but they are only looking out for their own best interests—they are more interested in keeping up appearances than in truly living the faith they claim to possess.