The Crucible pg. 8-30

"Betty: You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" (19).

So, we finally have the cause behind all of this foolishness. How ridiculous, thinking a charm could kill a woman! And, how more ridiculous, thinking that witchcraft is the reason of it all! Because of Abigail's silly crush on a married, thirty-year-old man, the entire town is in a fuss, screaming witchcraft. She shouldn't have gone so far, although she is an orphan, and saw her parents get killed (or so she later says), it's really no excuse for her to go so far for the sake of feeling loved. She must be lonely, though. It's hard not to feel sorry for her, but at the same time, it's hard to feel sorry for her.

"Rebecca, sitting: I think she'll wake in time. Pray calm yourselves. I have eleven children, and I am twenty-six times a grandma, and I have seen them all through their silly seasons, and when it come on them they will run the Devil bowlegged keeping up with their mischief. I think she will wake when she tires of it. A child's spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back" (27).

I'm very happy to see one sane person in this life of religious dimwits. Rebecca is saying that kids are just kids, and to just let her play, because she's fine, and she's only playing. She puts it in a very soft way, because she could have hit her and yelled at her to wake up, instead of warning the people that Betty was only being a kid. She doesn't believe in witches, and I think that she is very level-headed because of this. Unless, of course, she's saying this and ends up to be a witch. In that case, she's a very good actress, but I doubt that notion.