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.
In the beginning of The Crucible, Elizabeth Proctor was aloof toward her husband John.
While Goody Proctor was sick and bedridden, John had an intimate relationship with the housemaid Abigail. In Act III, Mr. Proctor states, "I have known her, sir. I have known her." Mr. Danforth asks John what place the intimate relationship takes place and in response, he replies with "In the proper place, where my beasts are bedded...A man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything." During Act II, in the beginning, John and Elizabeth are arguing about the witch trials that have started because of Abigail Williams and her friends. There is a lot of tension in the Proctor house. John makes a statement, "It's winter in here yet." He says this referring to the unfriendly relationship between them. This shows the Proctors obviously have a lot they need to work on to build up their relationship.
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Now the Proctors relationship is starting to grow a bit more.
The Proctors start sticking up for each other. Toward the middle of Act II, the Proctors get a visit from Hale who
warns them Elizabeth's name was mentioned in court. Hale then starts questioning the couple and asks John to recite the Ten Commandments. Proctor lists all but adultery. He says one of the commandments twice leaving Hale suspicious. Elizabeth helps him out and Proctor says "You see, sir, between the two of us we do know them all." As this is irony because John cheated, it could also be symbolism showing that John and Elizabeth complete each other. Mr. Cheever stops by the Proctors house while Reverend Hale is still there. Cheever charges Elizabeth of witchcraft for using a poppet to put a needle through Abby's stomach. John grabs the warrant out of his hands and rips it up. Proctor is very concerned for his wife and tries clearing her name by telling them that the poppet used to "hurt" Abigail was Mary Warren's. Cheever and Hale can't do anything to save Elizabeth, since it was an order from the court to arrest her on behalf of witchery. John tries to protect her even so by standing between her and the men. The Proctors are both starting to care more for each other. This shows John will do anything for Elizabeth's life, like defying the law. In Act III, John is accused by Mary of sending his spirit out to harm the girls in the courtroom. Mary lied about this to get Abby and the other girls back on her side. Proctor is then put in jail for wizardry and for also admitting his affair with Abby. Judge Hawthorne needed proof of the affair so he called Elizabeth to testify. She denied the affair to protect John. After some time, Mr. Hale realizes that all of the witch trials have been a lie. Seeing that it's false, Hale wants John Proctor to confess to wizardry to spare his life. In order to do this, he calls for Goody Proctor to talk her husband into confessing. When John and Elizabeth first see each other, Arthur Miller describes it as "though they stood in a spinning world." John reaches then pats Elizabeth's hand like he can't believe he is seeing his wife. Elizabeth got her husband to confess so they could have their baby and get more time together; however, at the last second Proctor rips the confession paper. He chooses to be hung and to not confess for something he never did. As John and Goody Nurse are getting escorted out the door to be hung, Hale begs Elizabeth to get John to confess again. She tells Hale "He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him!" Elizabeth is so weak from grief that she has to support herself by hanging on the iron bars of the window. Mrs. Proctor not confessing her husbands affair in open court and getting him to confess to spare his life shows just how much she really cares about her husband. She was brave enough to let him die the way he wanted: as a good man. This also shows how much John adores his wife when they first see each other in jail. He couldn't take his eyes off her and he was so excited to see her. As the story goes on showing the Proctors relationship, it shows how they started off in a very distant relationship, and then progressed to something much better in the end. The Proctors go from fighting with each other, to fighting for each other. Their last minutes together were very endearing and show how far they had gone with one another to fight for their love.
Miller presents the character of John Proctor in an important way to show two sides to his character. These qualities make him have the most important role in ‘The Crucible.’ The key events that show him in this way is when the audience find out about the affair, how he tries to defend his wife, his confession in court and his hanging for the sake of others. Through the events in The Crucible, Miller then portrays John Proctor’s character with tension and suspense. This then makes the audience question whether or not he is a good man.
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
In the play the Crucible, many of the characters learn things from themselves. Elizabeth Proctor is one of the main characters that develops over time. Elizabeth experiences many dramatic changes in her life, but her main defining moment illustrates the play’s theme of forgiveness and bitterness.
Throughout the story of The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Elizabeth Proctor has changed from a stern woman who wants to get her point across to a caring woman who realizes she was a cold wife and wants to keep her husband and her family away from danger. As the plot of the story becomes more intense, she has to adjust her character to not just save herself from execution, but also her husband.
In the first scene of the second act of the Crucible, Elizabeth is with John. John reveals that he was with Abigail and he admitted the betrayal. There are many different ways Arthur Miller enforced his claim. Through emotional appeal, figurative language, and tone, the author has successfully used literary elements to support John’s argument with Elizabeth.
People often get stumped on whether or not they truly love their significant other. They often wonder if they’re with the right person. Sometimes it’ll take some kind of a push to actually feel love between you and your significant other. In the play, different people have different opinions about Elizabeth and John’s love life. I believe that they genuinely did love each other. Even though Elizabeth mentioned that there wasn’t true happiness in the household, the audience could tell that they legitimately did care about each other. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, he utilizes pathos and logos to show how Elizabeth and John’s relationship progress throughout the play.
John Proctor: “God in heaven, what is John Proctor, what is John Proctor”. John is a man of strong moral beliefs, concerned only for the safety of his family and personal welfare. He cares of nothing for the beliefs of any of the other people in the town and what his supervisor which is the Reverend, thinks either. After trying to avoid involvement in the witch trials he is later prosecuted for witchery and sentenced to hang. John trys to avoid any involvement in the Salem witch trials. His reason for doing so is to protect his image because he is afraid he will be committed of adultery with Abigail Williams. Following these events he trys to save everyone’s lives by admitting to this horrible offense adultery and ends up losing the trial along with his life. He did have a chance to live but instead of signing away his name and his soul to keep his life, he wanted to die honorably with his friends not without a name, a soul, and with guilt. “John Proctors decision to die is reasonable and believable”. Reverend Parris, the Salem minister and Proctors immediate supervisor, which says “ there is either obedience or the church will burn like hell is burning.” “The church in theocratic Salem is identical with the state and the community and will surely crumble if unquestioning obedience falters in the least.” Proctor, on the other hand, “has come to regard his self as a king of fraud,” as long as he remains obedient to an authority which he cannot respect.
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
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.
When people are put in tense and difficult situations, they lose control. John and Elizabeth Proctor, and Mary warren, all exhibit this throughput the play. John exhibits courage, in the sense that he found the strength to keep his name and lose his life rather than keep sinning and lie. Mary Warren displays weakness when she falls to Abby once again, in the end, instead of sticking to her story and assisting John, in freeing Elizabeth. Elizabeth illustrated how difficult it was to tell the truth in life or death situations. All three of these characters, and their traits, represent what “The Crucible,” is about, courage, weakness, and
... integrity are among the most important things. He also uses Proctor to demonstrate what an unjust system can do to an individual with good intents. The play is a parallel to the anti-Communist McCarthy era. Through John Proctor we see the ludicrous nature of mass hysteria that exists when society has gone awry.
We first come to this thought in act 2 page 41, when john seasons the
Out of all the characters in the crucible was great, but in my opinion, Elizabeth is the best character in the cast in the Crucible. She was a faithful wife, a good mother, and strong in her faith/religion. Even though her husband cheated on her she still remained faithful to him. Elizabeth demonstrates a very truthful woman. She’s the wife of John Proctor. Nicknamed Goody Proctor, because she was a good christen woman. Everyone liked her, because she was a woman who never lied. Until, she lied in court one day to save her husband’s life. She acts very frigidly to others. The only person that didn’t like her was Abigail Williams. Abigail wants Elizabeth to die because Abigail wants John Proctor all to her self.
says to her that she has no right to speak of his wife in such a
In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the madness of the Salem witch trials is explored in great detail. Arthur Miller was an American playwright, who was born in 1915. He grew up in a Jewish family in New York City. While attending the University of Michigan in the mid 1930’s, he began to characterize himself as a distinguished writer. His first plays were Honors at Dawn and No Villain. The Death of a Salesman, which he wrote in 1949, won him the Pulitzer Prize for literature.