The marriage of John and Elizabeth Proctor is a real, layered, deep rooted love that must withstand the tribulations of marital infidelities while sticking together during the odd unfolding of the Salem witch trials. In act two, John and Elizabeth’s relationship is immediately inducted as uneasy and guilt ridden. You can hear the tension in Elizabeth’ Proctors voice as the scene opens in one of the very first lines of Act Two. “What keeps you so late? It’s almost dark.”(47) Elizabeth is still questioning John’s faith after he broke her trust with an intimate relationship with Abigail (the Proctors ex house servant). Although the Proctor’s marriage isn’t introduced prior to John’s affair with Abigail, you can sense that John and Elizabeth had a normal, truly loving, happy, and quiet relationship before the infidelity. As the scene opens the description of the Proctors home is very warm and typical. Their house is situated on fields and it’s warm with the blaze of the fireplace. Elizabeth is presented as a loving mother and house wife. Even though she is doubtful of John she still strives to please him. “She brings the plate to the table, and, indicating the food: It is a rabbit.” (47) “Blushing with pleasure: I took great care. She’s tender?” (48) Elizabeth Proctors love for John is challenged, but it still remains strong in light of John’s infidelity. “I do not judge you. The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you. I never thought you but a good man, John- with a smile-only somewhat bewildered.”(52) Elizabeth’s faith in her marriage and in John still remains despite the current commitment battle that is plaguing them.
John Proctor is tormented by his own internal feelings. He loves his wife Elizabeth, but ultimately knows...
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...ve for Elizabeth is highlighted here when he promises her freedom. “I will bring you home. I will bring you soon.” (73) “I will fall like an ocean on that court! Fear nothing, Elizabeth.” (73)
In the final analysis of John and Elizabeth Proctors relationship there is much more to be learned and yet there are preconceptions that the reader can already draw. Miller does an exceedingly outstanding job at discretely contrasting the small-scale domestic challenges with the larger, life or death accusations against the Proctors. As discussed above, this is displayed in the intimate infidelity problems versus the accusation of witchcraft. The proctors are distant in the beginning of act two when they are challenged with their domestic problems, but when being accused of witchcraft their bond together is so tightly knitted that their love for each other cannot be ignored.
Before the play takes place, Abigail Williams and John Proctor had an affair while Abigail was working as a servant in their home. Eventually, John confessed and apologized to Elizabeth, pledging his faithfulness to her. Nonetheless, at the time the play takes place, Elizabeth still hasn’t fully forgiven him, and gives him a hard time about it. Abigail confessed the pretense of her accusations to him when they were alone, and now he has no way to prove that she’s lying to the court. But because he was alone with her again, Elizabeth becomes angry with him. She still doubts her husband because she feels that if it were any other girl he had to go testify against, he would not hesitate. But, because it’s Abigail, John feels he has to think harder on making a decision. He doesn’t want his name spoiled by a counter-testimony. John feels he is now justified in becoming angry because for the seven months since his confession, he has done nothing but try to please his wife, and she still approaches him with suspicion and accusatio...
Elizabeth and John start to feel the tension when Elizabeth tries to convince John about going to court and persecuting Abigail but he refuses. When he disputes with his wife he argues, “you will judge me no more Elizabeth I have good reason to charge fraud on Abigail and I will think on it” (193). Proctor is not completely satisfied about throwing Abigail under the bus because he doesn’t want to initially hurt her and he would lose his respect in the town if he did. So he isn’t convinced about the fact that his wife is trying to get him to charge fraud at this point of the play. Soon afterward Mary the proctor’s servant comes home with news that Elizabeth has been convicted of witchcraft as well and was arrested by the sheriff in town to be brought to the trials.
Throughout Act I and II Elizabeth Proctor is a cold, yet moral character. Elizabeth had just recently found out that her husband had an affair with their housekeeper, Abigail. Elizabeth’s relationship with John is now cold as ice, which makes her suspicious. In Act II Elizabeth asks John, “You were alone with her?” John then replies, “Woman. I’ll not have your suspicion anymore.” (1237). When the couple discusses the affair, it starts to show us how skeptical she is of John and the whole relationship.
This creates tension in the home between John and Elizabeth Proctor. “You were alone with her?” Elizabeth says, John responds “for a moment alone aye” “why then it is not what you told me”.(222) This angers John because he is floating in his guilt for being unfaithful to his wife. Its builds a strain on their marriage and keep the couple in a cold house. Proctor has been faith full to his religion, only attending church only once a month. These actions put more reason for people to suspect that john is participating in witchcraft. “I am no good man. Nothing's spoiled by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before.”(239) John is selfish by going with the lie saying, he participated in witchcraft than to confess and say he didn’t to be with his wife and his unborn child. John lived in a lie and he Salem government took his life from
When the play sets in action, John has had a past affair with his servant, Abigail Williams. His wife, Elizabeth Proctor, is very forgiving of his sin, but John has his mind set that he will not confess to anyone else, in fear of ruining his good name and reputation. The affair between John and Abigail causes the start of chaotic witchery and accusation. After the affair, Abigail becomes horribly jealous of Elizabeth Proctor. Proctor realizes there is only one way to stop all the witch hysteria in Salem, and that would be to admit to adultery which is considered a sin. . Also in the beginning R...
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, various characters, whether it is from physical trials or unseen personal struggles, experience some kind of major conflict. There are those who spend every day in fear, wondering whether or not they will be falsely accused of witchcraft. There are others who struggle with more internal trials, such as forgiving those who have hurt them. The protagonist, John Proctor, was a man of strong moral constitution, and held himself to a high standard for the sake of his good name and family. As a result of this, he struggled with a major internal conflict throughout the play.
In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible it portrays the strengthening relationship between John and Elizabeth Proctor. Throughout the play, reader see how their relationship starts off as being very distant. As the witch trials start, John and his wife start to protect each other and keep the other out of harms way. In Act IV of the play, the Proctors become fully united and their relationship is much stronger than shown before.
The Crucible is one of the most bizarre accounts of a historical event to date. The naïveté of the townspeople leads them down a road of madness and confusion, led by a shameless Puritan girl. Abigail Williams was a ruthless girl who showed no mercy upon accusing her victims of witchcraft. Knowing the entire town of Salem would believe her and the other girls, she would not hesitate at charging anyone she wished with the crime of the Devil’s work. However, a challenge arose to Abigail when she decided to accuse Elizabeth Proctor, and eventually her husband John, of witchcraft. The Proctor marriage was not just any simple marriage; it had its times of cold shoulders, heartfelt truth, and undying love.
The foremost way Miller relays this message is through the unethical relationship of the married John Proctor and his young servant Abigail Williams. During their affair, Abigail came to love John, and in her eyes, he loved her as well. So when Elizabeth, John’s wife, found out what had been going on and the affair was brought to an abrupt halt, Abigail believed Elizabeth to be the only thing standing in the way of the two of them leading a happy life together. John was forced to stop seeing her; otherwise he faced losing his wife and kids. Upon being alone with him for the first time since she was dismissed from their household, she noticed a change in the way he acted towards her that she wasn’t partial to and stated “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!” in an attempt to bring him to coming to face with the fact that deep down, he still loved her as he once had (177). Abigail simply could not accept that he did not and possibly had never loved her in the way that she believed she loved him. Rather than accepting this and that she was in the wrong for being with a married man such as himself in the first place, Abigail choose instead to seek revenge on Elizabeth, the woman in the way of her love.
It is apparent that Miller focuses his play around the moral struggles of the protagonist, John Proctor. Throughout the play, Proctor has many struggles that he must deal with and look deep into his soul to find the resolution. He undergoes a major survey of his character and it is only this way that he can gain redemption for his sins. By abiding by his own moral code, John Proctor makes many hard decisions that will affect the outcome of the play. Proctor's struggles reflect upon the central message that Miller is communicating through the play.
John Proctor faces many decisions in response to his moral dilemma to try to save his life. One of the difficult decisions John makes is to reveal that he had an affair with Abigail Williams and thereby has committed adultery. If the local court convicts him of this crime, he faces being jailed. Also by admitting this crime, John reveals a weakness in his character. This flaw in his personality will make it harder for him to stand up in the community as an honorable and believable person. In trying to convince others that witchcraft does not exist John’s dishonesty with his wife will make him less convincing to the community.
Elizabeth Proctor was a stay at home wife and mother and was very loyal to her husband John Proctor. Although John had cheated on her in the past she didn’t let that interfere with the love she had for him. Elizabeth represents the frigid wife in “The Crucible”. Even though she loved her husband that didn’t keep her mind from wonders of evil thoughts. “Even seven months after Proctor’s confession of adultery, Elizabeth is unable to
Early on in the play, the reader comes to understand that John Proctor has had an affair with Abigail Williams while she was working in his home. Abigail believed that if she got rid of Elizabeth Proctor, then John Proctor would become her own. John Proctor had an affair with Abigail, but for him it was just lust, while Abigail believed it to be true love. She told John Proctor that she loved him, and once she destroys Elizabeth, they would be free to love one another. John is horrified at this, but can do nothing to convince Abigail that he is not in love with her. Because of Abigail's twisted plot to secure John for herself, Elizabeth is arrested. John Proctor has to wrestle with the decision of what to do. He knows that he has sinned; yet he does not want to hurt his beloved wife. This is partly why he is willing to die. He knows he has already sinned.
When we are first introduced to John Proctor, we learn of his affair with Abigail Williams, Abigail's involvement in the accusations of witchcraft, and of John's desire to do what is honorable. Because of John's desire to do what is honorable, he ends the affair with Abigail and begins to attempt to repair his broken marriage. Abigail's jealously of Elizabeth and desire to be John's wife leads to Elizabeth's name being mentioned in court. Abigail's mention of Elizabeth's name in court reveals her attempt to get rid of Elizabeth for she knows Elizabeth will claim innocence and be hung if she does. When word reaches the Proctors, about Abigail's mentioning of Elizabeth's name in court, John concludes that Abigail's motive is to kill Elizabeth. Knowing this information, John is faced with his first difficult decision, save his reputation, keep his affair a secret, and let the accusations continue, or ruin his reputation, tell of his affair, and end the girls' accusations. Not wanting to ruin his good name, John decides to hold his tongue and because of this the trials continue and more accusations are made, some of which lead to his wife's and his friends arrest for witchcraft and bewitchment.
John Proctor is both flawed and honorable. After having an affair with Abigail. His wife has been unable to forgive him for this, and their marriage is unhappy, John has the guilt from his past affair weighing down on his shoulders, he apologizes for the mistake but it is shown that the guilt is still there “I have not moved from there to there without I think to please you, and still an everlasting funeral marches round your heart. I cannot speak but I am doubted every moment judged for lies, as though I come into a court when I come into this house!” this shows that the guilt is crushing him that he has been trying to apologized for his wrong doings but hasn’t been forgiven he needs his wife to forget about the pass and move on he will do anything to show his wife he is devoted to her. John Proctor knows what he will do knowing that now his wife is charged with witchcraft he must go to the court and prove to them that this is all a hoax and this his wife is not involved in witchcraft and that Abigail is making this all up. John makes a ...