Elizabeth Proctor Forgiveness Analysis

Forgiveness Between Elizabeth and John

Forgiveness. A word like forgiveness can solve any problem and give people a second chance. In the play The Crucible, farmer’s wife Elizabeth Proctor, is torn whether to forgive her husband, John Proctor or not. Set back in Salem, Massachusetts during the Puritan times, the play begins with teens girls conjuring spirits and dancing in the woods. When Reverend Parris watched this madness, a whirl of lies and unnecessary blame surrounds the girls. Elizabeth Proctor gets caught up in her husband’s mess when he commits adultery with the ring leader of the girls, Abigail Williams. Arthur Miller's play The Crucible shows that forgiving yourself and others is key in relationships.

In the beginning, Elizabeth Proctor’s relationship with her husband John is very awkward. Going against the Ten Commandments back in Puritan times was considered one of the worst things you could do and would have deadly consequences. When John goes to see Abigail to talk, Elizabeth responds with: “ You were alone with her?” (Miller 53). Elizabeth is still very superstitious and is not sure if she has her husband’s full trust. Therefore, the unstable condition of their marriage continues.

Later in the play, Elizabeth Proctor is put on trial for witchcraft by the despicable Abigail Williams. Obviously the audience knows

But it’s one thing for someone you wronged to forgive you. It was another to forgive yourself.” This quote by Kristen Ashley really interprets the relationship between Elizabeth and John. In the beginning of the play, the couple were awkward and untrustworthy with each other. Throughout Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, John and Elizabeth’s absolution for each other and themselves binds their relationship back together. Though the play ends in tragedy, Elizabeth and her husband give and gain each other a very important aspect of life: