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Summary
Early the next morning, Eben is in the kitchen with bags packed beside him. Cabot is asleep, and Abbie is bending over the cradle. She begins to cry, shrinks from the cradle in horror, and goes down to the kitchen. She embraces Eben and tells him she’s done it to prove she loves him. Eben is unemotional and says he’s leaving soon and won’t tell his father anything. He also says he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to the baby. Abbie doesn’t listen and pleads for him not to leave. She finally says she’s killed “him.” Eben thinks she’s talking about Cabot and begins planning how to cover it up, but she clarifies that she’s killed the baby. Eben is horrified and cries out to God and his mother. Abbie is remorseful and says she didn’t want to but did it because of what Eben said about the baby coming between them. Eben yells at her for lying and comes toward her; Abbie kneels and grasps his legs as he rages in anger. He accuses her of wanting to steal everything from him. He rushes to the door, declaring he’s going to the sheriff. He runs outside and down the road. Abbie calls after him that she loves him.
In the following scene, an hour later, Abbie sits limply in the kitchen. Cabot wakes suddenly and dresses quickly. He looks tenderly at the baby, whom he thinks is sleeping, and then goes down to the kitchen. He asks Abbie about breakfast and whether she's feeling well. Abbie doesn't move and answers shortly, then tells him the baby is dead. Cabot is in disbelief. Abbie starts speaking wildly that she killed him and to go check. Cabot runs upstairs and sees that the baby is not breathing. He goes back to the kitchen and confronts Abbie, grabbing her and asking why. She pushes him and yells in rage that it was never his, that she hates him and loves Eben, and that it was Eben's son. Cabot is dazed and emotional as Abbie begins to cry. Cabot realizes that he suspected something unnatural and then says he'll go to the sheriff, but Abbie tells him Eben's already gone. Cabot is resigned and goes out to work, telling Abbie on his way out that he would not have informed on her if she'd loved him.
Outside, Eben comes running through the gate. Cabot grabs him and asks if he's told the sheriff; Eben confirms he has, and Cabot laughs and shoves him to the ground. He walks toward the barn and then tells Eben to get off the farm, or he'll kill him. Eben ignores him and goes into the kitchen. He kneels beside Abbie and asks her forgiveness, saying that he loves her. Abbie kisses him happily. Eben explains he did tell the sheriff but then regretted it. He suggests they both run away, but Abbie insists she must accept her punishment. They argue about whether Eben will take it too. Cabot comes in; he spouts insults at them, looking crazed. He says excitedly that he's leaving the farm and going to California, that he has the money to get there. He starts pulling up the floorboards but then sees there's nothing hidden there. He accuses Eben of stealing it. Eben explains he gave it to Simeon and Peter. The sheriff and two men arrive. Eben tells the sheriff that he lied and that he helped Abbie do it; Abbie sobs. Cabot says to take them both, then he goes outside to work, saying goodbye to Eben and Abbie. Abbie and Eben profess their love to each other and go out hand in hand as the sheriff and men follow. They all admire the beauty of the sunrise and the farm.
Analysis
The opening of Scene Three is similar to others in that each character is isolated from the others, in separate rooms or doing different things. From the previous scene, the audience/reader can deduce that Abbie has killed the baby. She is hysterical when she confronts Eben in the kitchen; both of them are too absorbed in their own thoughts and emotions to pay attention to what the other person is saying. Their miscommunication is indicative of the star-crossed nature of their relationship, since though both of them seem to truly love the other, there is once again “somethin’” that is going to keep them apart.
The misunderstanding of whom Abbie killed when she announces she’s killed “him” shows that Eben had no idea of her thoughts to kill the baby. He immediately assumes and is excited by the idea that she has killed Cabot, as that would serve as an imperfect solution to some of their problems. Abbie responds dully as it becomes clear what she’s done, in a kind of shock. The audience doesn't know if the shock is because she has killed her baby or because she realizes she should have killed Cabot or both. Eben comments that she "looks mad," and it's clear that she has been driven to, or driven herself, to a kind of madness.
Eben repeats that the baby looks like him and that he’s “mine” multiple times in this scene, suggesting that he feels possessive over the baby in the way he used to feel about the farm. The baby had taken the place of the farm for him, but he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, make that clear to Abbie. Abbie also uses the phrase “dead spit ‘n’ image o’ yew” about the baby, a phrase frequently used before by different characters about Eben’s resemblance to Cabot. The baby has created a new conflict for the characters. For Abbie, her obsession remained with Eben, and she only loved the baby in its connection with Eben, while Eben apparently genuinely loved the baby, although he was conflicted about not being able to say it was his. His love for Abbie is put in doubt, and he's resolved to leave, but after learning what Abbie has done to the baby, he is filled with the rage that would previously overtake him when arguing with her about the farm. He rages again about Abbie playing a game and accuses her of planning to blame the murder on him. He then goes on about her wanting to steal from him, another parallel to her stealing the farm. He rushes out to take revenge on Abbie by telling the sheriff.
Although Abbie shows sadness and some regret, she seems resigned about what she’s done, only upset that it’s made Eben angry instead of convincing him to stay. She’s left barely able to stand, a mirroring physically her emotional weakness and resignation. She appears defeated and in despair at the end of the scene after the extreme actions she's taken to prevent Eben from leaving have made things worse.
In the final scene, Cabot is distracted by sleeping late but in a good mood after the celebrations and admiring the baby, whom he thinks is sleeping soundly. Abbie is without emotion at their first interaction but then exhibits a kind of pride and defiance when she tells him what she's done. Her hatred of him comes out, and she acts triumphant toward her actions, finally able to tell Cabot the truth about the baby and Eben. Cabot is stunned and silent for a moment, then emotional, thinking of the baby. He wipes away a tear, and this makes Abbie begin to sob hysterically. Once Abbie is crying, Cabot stiffens and controls himself, declaring to himself that he must be a "rock o' jedgemnt.” He cannot let himself show weakness in front of others, even now. He has pushed everyone away, leaving him to stand on his own. His attitude seems to be one of unshakeable self-possession and righteousness, even as he has driven a wedge between himself and humanity, slow even now to show Abbie forgiveness and compassion.
As Cabot leaves the house, he allows himself some measure of softness but is unwavering in his isolation. Even as he expresses some measure of grief about losing whatever tenuous connection he has to his family, he seems blind to his own hand in the circumstances. When he returns, Eben reflects on Abbie's appearance. He is run down, exhausted, and defeated by the entire enterprise. When Cabot insults him and his mother and then threatens to kill him if he doesn’t leave the farm, Eben pays no attention. He is only thinking of Abbie as he runs inside to ask her forgiveness. Eben seems determined to salvage some connection with Abbie, even at the risk of his own freedom.
In their moments alone together, they declare their love again, and Abbie is happy rather than resigned. Eben regrets telling the sheriff, understanding the enormity of his decision and the trade-off he’s made in anger and sadness. In their argument, they both talk about their sins—Abbie that she must pay for her sin, Eben that the baby was “the child o’ our sin” and that he has to pay for his part of the sin. Sin has never been part of the conversation surrounding their relationship, suggesting that they are retroactively trying to assign some outside morality more in keeping with Cabot’s than their own. The idea of a sin harkens back to the first Act when Eben speaks of Minnie's sins and being at peace with any sin he may commit with her. In this last scene, Eben speaks of their sin as if ashamed but also fully responsible. The larger sin of killing the baby is something he insists on taking credit for. But he explains that his motives are largely to share the burden with Abbie so he won't be alone or alive without her. When they hear Cabot, Abbie tells Eben not to confront or fight with him, showing a decisiveness about not fighting with Cabot any longer, of keeping to themselves and not interacting with him. They stick to this idea, listening to Cabot as he talks wildly, Eben only briefly and calmly telling him what happened to the money.
Cabot goes through a gamut of emotions in these final moments—he is disgusted yet hard with Abbie and Eben, then excited as he describes his plans. The idea of leaving and going west like his older sons reflects back to his explanation of his history when he left the farm briefly. His escape was short-lived then and is short-lived now—his excitement and hope turning to pain and hardness when he understands the money is gone. This last speech shows he has little love for the farm, apart from the animals, unlike Eben, who seemed to genuinely want to live on and care for the farm. Cabot’s possessiveness of the farm was just that, with no real connection to it. He returns to talk of God after recovering from finding the money gone and becomes hard and resigned once again from his duty before a hard God. As Eben quickly tells the sheriff that he helped Abbie commit the crime, Cabot considers him in a way he had not allowed Eben to see before. He seems to finally consider Eben worthy of respect through his willingness to accept punishment. If Eben doesn't receive the punishment Cabot believes he should receive from God, Cabot will accept a punishment meted out by humanity. Cabot leaves without emotion and walks stoically to the barn, to his life and work, now utterly alone.
The final moment of the play repeats the refrain of characters commenting on the beauty of the sky as the sun rises. Abbie and Eben stare at the sky in a way described as "devout," connecting the idea of religion and God that Cabot so staunchly believes in with the beauty of nature that Eben has always admired. The last line given to the sheriff about the farm illustrates the objective beauty of the farm, a quality agreed upon by every character, to whatever capacity they allowed themselves to see it.
