Important Quotations Explained
1. I
look for John Proctor that 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! And 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!
2. I
want to open myself! . . . I want the light of God, I want the sweet
love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him, I wrote in his
book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with
the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop
with the Devil!
3. You
must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or
he must be counted against it, there be no road between. This is
a sharp time, now, a precise time—we live no longer in the dusky
afternoon when evil mixed itself with good and befuddled the world.
Now, by God's grace, the shining sun is up, and them that fear not
light will surely praise it.
4. A
man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now.
I beg you, sir, I beg you—see her what she is . . . She thinks to
dance with me on my wife's grave! And well she might, for I thought
of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in
such sweat. But it is a whore's vengeance . . .
5. Because
it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because
I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on
the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have
given you my soul; leave me my name!
