CRUCIBLE QUESTIONS FOR ACT III(1) For all of ACT III, the rain is pouring down UNTIL the girls run outside as the invisible, yellow bird chases them. At that moment, the weather is sunny. When PRECISELY did it change? Why? What do the rain and sunshine symbolize?(2) Why do you think it's a "yellow" bird that Abigail claims to see in the courtroom?(3) Why isn't Mary Warren able to fake her fainting when Judge Hathorne and Rev. Parris ask her to?(4) Why does Elizabeth not tell the truth?(5) Why does Abigail persist in her lying? Is it because she doesn't want to get in trouble? Is it power? Or is it something else?(6) Consider the time period. How is Abigail able to scream at Judge Danforth (the Deputy Governor of the Colony of Massachusetts) without him roaring her down?(7) Does this play call to mind any recent political/legal events in the US? Which events and what might Arthur Miller say about them?

As an Educator, I'm only permitted to answer one question at a time, so let's deal with the fifth question you asked. Abigail Williams persists with her lies for a number of reasons. First and foremost, she wants to save her own skin. It was Abby, along with the other girls, who was getting up to all kinds of witchy mischief in the forest that night. Falsely accusing others of witchcraft is a useful way of taking the spotlight off her weird cavortings.
Abby also loves the immense power that the witch-craze gives her, something that she's never had before. An accusation of witchcraft from her, no matter how ridiculous, is tantamount to a death sentence, and Abby loves having the power of life and death over others, especially the people who've done her wrong.
And that leads us on to the third main reason for Abby's lying: she wants revenge on the Proctors. Abby and John had a brief, tempestuous affair. But after John's wife Elizabeth found out about it, John dumped Abby and she was forced to leave the Proctor household, where she'd been working as a maidservant. Ever since then, Abby has been boiling with rage, determined to get payback for what she sees as the Proctors' shabby treatment of her. And what better to do that than to make false accusations of witchcraft against them, safe in the knowledge that she'll almost certainly be believed.