Term 2 Week 4 Homework

Read Danforth's speech to Elizabeth at the top of page 116. It begins "Goody Proctor, you are not summoned here for disputation." Danforth has asked Elizabeth to speak to John to try to get him to admit his guilt. Elizabeth does speak to John but she does not reply to Danforth. Construct a response to Danforth. What do you think she might have wanted to say to him in response to his accusation that she is "stone"?


Let me ask you this. How can I be but stone when I know it is my words, my very own words that condemn my husband? That if not for the lie I let leak from my lips he would have awoken this morning with his life ahead of him. And yet as it is he wakes to face his death. It does no good to pity myself and my damned soul. It does no good to speak. To protest, when I know that it is my own neighbours who twist my words and lay false accusations. This hysteria has become like a plague in our village.