The Crucible Character Analysis

In Salem, Massachusetts, John Proctor’s wife Elizabeth has just been accused of witchcraft and taken to jail. John knows this to be false along with all accusations of witchcraft in the town. He suspects his own wife has been accused because of an act of adultery with Abigail Williams, the girl at the head of the witchcraft conspiracy.

John is standing by the fire in his living room, Mary Warren can be heard sobbing and his sons are asleep in their room.

John: Mary must compose herself! It won’t do for her to be lyin’ about cryin’ when in the morning we be marching to town to clear Elizabeth’s name and blacken Abigail’s.

John strides to stand near his chair in the centre of the room as he moves the worn wooden boards of the house quiver in response to his anger.

John (furiously): Salem’s gone mad! Those girls be cryin’ witchcraft and court arrests good women. Aye, it be an injustice no one recognises that the only Devil in town be that whore Abigail. Jealously and spite flow through her veins and I can sense it encroaching on me- she wishes to take Elizabeth’s place.

How dare he chain Elizabeth at the word of that lying harlot! It should be me they shacklin’ and thowin’ in jail to be left at the mercy of a pack of convincing girls, not my dear Elizabeth. Her good name oughtn’t be tarnished by my misgivings, not when her sole failure be in her decision to marry a heathen. Despite my consistent absence from church on the Lord’s Day I still be aware of the commandments: thou shalt not commit adultery, so it is I alone who should pay penance for my lechery. (He places his head in his hands) Elizabeth shouldn’t suffer for my sins, she mustn’t. One of my last strands of hope lie in Reverend Hale’s promise to sort this mess. He be an educated man so surely the courts will favour him over a liar (he looks at the fire in front of