Elizabeth Proctor Character Analysis Essay

In the beginning, John Proctor is described as a decent man, but throughout the story it is revealed that he has many layers of secrets that he must wrestle with internally before deciding to tell people in order to save his wife and friends from death. His crucible is the decision to tell the court that he slept with Abigail in order to save his wife, but in the process it will destroy his reputation and taint his name. His passion to keep his wife alive is shown when he says "My wife will never die for me?" (Miller, 76), but his passion to stay alive and to maintain a good reputation is shown when he says "It is not a child," (Miller, 96) in reference to Abigail Williams. He says this to give the perception that she is not a child, and what he did was not wrong. His anger with the inner conflict builds up and up until it is released when he says "I say God is dead!" (Miller, 111). This shows that this conflict within has made him lose faith, and brought him to the point of not caring what people think of him. So in the end he decides to release his secret.

Elizabeth Proctor has an internal conflict within herself of deciding on weather to accept John's affair with Abigail or to ignore it and not think about it. This conflict is shown throughout the book, and even in the end when she decides not to tell the

court about John's affair even after he has already told them (Miller, 105). Throughout the story we get a sense that Elizabeth knows of John's affair with Abigail Williams, but we don't know for sure that she knows, but when she reveals to the court that he hasn't had an affair and John confirms to her that he already confessed, our suspicions are confirmed that Elizabeth does in fact know of the affair. This decision to ignore it says a lot about Elizabeth, and her character. It shows that she would choose to ignore it because she wants to have a normal life with no problems.
Mary Warren's crucible is the decision to go along with the other girls and pretend to be a witch, or to try and save John Proctor, and not tell the court that she is a witch. The decision to try and save John Proctor has many consequences that she knows she will have to face. The biggest being the accusations and bullying from Abigail Williams, and the other girls. One example of this is when Abigail accuses her of using a doll to hurt Elizabeth Proctor (Miller, 70) Another instance is in the courtroom when Abigail and the girls accuse her of summoning an invisible bird to attack them (Miller, 101). We see Mary Warren have trouble trying to save John Proctor when she says "I cannot, they'll turn on me," (Miller, 76) This shows that she knows what will happen if she chooses to save John Proctor instead of go along with the girls, and shows how hard the decision will be to make.
Deputy Governor Danforth has an internal conflict that he has to fight throughout the trial. That is if he should believe John Proctor, or believe Abigail Williams. During the trail we get a sense that he wants to believe John like many others, but he has to believe Abigail because public opinion believed that Abigail was a witch. As Abigail starts sending people to their deaths, and Danforth approves it he can no longer turn back, but when it is shown that John Proctor was in fact telling the truth, his conflict once again returns but in a new form. He must now decide on weather to save John, but risk damaging his reputation because of all of those false accusations that he believed, or he must continue with the charade and have John sentenced to death.
Reverend Hale's internal conflict resides within himself and pours out into John Proctor, and Danforth.

It's the same conflict that both John and Danforth have to fight, and that’s how they can prove that John is innocent. Danforth decides to go along with Abigail, but Reverend Hale continues to fight for John, despite public opinion. Reverend Hale's conflict is solved through good and good will towards other men. We can see throughout the story that Reverend Hale knows the right thing to do is to save John, but there is nothing he can do to convince the people of the court, and of the town, to believe that John is innocent, and Abigail Williams is a

lair.