Gabriel does not accept blame or take responsibility for his actions. He blames Ester for their affair, asserting that she tempted him. Ester believes that it was he who instigated the relationship. She later tells him, "That weren't no reverend looking at me them mornings in the yard." Remember that Gabriel reached out to Ester first that night in the kitchen and that Ester protested that they not have sex on the kitchen floor of their employer's home. Even after Ester tells him of her pregnancy, Gabriel denies the possibility that the child can be his. When Ester finally convinces him that the child is indeed his and asks what they should do, Gabriel councils her to "get one of these boys you been running around with to marry you. Because I can't go off with you nowhere." Only after she threatens to expose their affair to the townspeople does Gabriel agree to help her. He steals money from his wife, not to help his mistress, but to save his own reputation.
After the death of Ester and her son, Gabriel blames both tragedies on Deborah, implying that both could have been prevented if it were not for their marriage and his obligation to her. Even his refusal to claim his own motherless child he blames on Deborah, claiming that she never gave him an opportunity to tell the truth, a claim that is blatantly untrue. Deborah gave Gabriel the chance when she speculated about the father's identity and commented how much Royal reminded her of Gabriel at the same age. Deborah knew the truth, but she was waiting to hear it from Gabriel.
Here Gabriel distorts history to suit his own needs. He never intended to run off with Ester. Even had he not been married at the time of the affair, he still would not have made Ester his wife. Nor would he have accepted Royal as his son. Had he taken on the responsibility of raising his son, people would then have known that he, their reverend, had sinned, and he was unwilling to lose the esteem of his flock. Implying that he would have married the girl if not for his marriage to Deborah or that he would have claimed his son if he had only been given the opportunity are his ways of shifting responsibility away from himself and on to the shoulders of someone else, in this case to Deborah.
