Abigail and Mercy Lewis Running Away

[elsulmo38]

In Act 4, page 126, we learn that Abigail and Mercy Lewis have both disappeared. Parris says, "I think they be aboard a ship. My daughter tells me how she heard them speak of ships last week" (126). This means they must have been planning to runaway for a while. They have also robbed Parris and he is "penniless" now. At the end of Act 4, in the "Echoes Down the Corridor", it says that "The legend has it that Abigail turned up later as a prostitute in Boston". Why do you think they ran away? Is it because they felt guilty or thought people were going to discover that they were lying? Or another reason?

[baknapp35]

This is just speculation, but i think it is mostly the fact that Abigail and Mercy Lewis were probably scared they were going to get discovered that they were lying. In Act II Scene ii, Proctor warns Abigail that he has hard evidence in documentation involving Mary Warren against her. (151) Then Abigail asks if Proctor "will confess to fornication in the court" (152) and he says he will but she clearly doesn't believe him. Then in Act III, when Proctor confessed to the court that he had an affair with Abigail (110), I believe that this frightened her because she now had nothing to blackmail him with, she was powerless, and she knew that he would do anything to free his wife. Then when Mary Warren accused Proctor of witchcraft (118), I think some of her hope was restored, but while Proctor was in jail she knew Mary Warren wasn't reliable. Thus, I think the overall drive that lead to the fleeing of Abigail and Mercy was the overwhelming sense of fear of getting caught in their lies.