The Crucible Act IV

PROCTOR, his eyes full of tears: I can. And there’s your first marvel, that I can. You have made your magic now, for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but white enough to keep it from such dogs. Elizabeth, in a burst of terror, rushes to him and weeps against his hand. Give them no tear! Tears pleasure them! Show honor now, show a stony heart and sink them with it! He has lifted her, and kisses her now with great passion.
REBECCA: Let you fear nothing! Another judgment waits us all!
DANFORTH: Hang them high over the town! Who weeps for these, weeps for corruption! He sweeps out past them. Herrick starts to lead Rebecca, who almost collapses, but Proctor catches her, and she glances up at him apologetically.
REBECCA: I’ve had no breakfast.
HERRICK: Come, man.
Herrick escorts them out, Hathorne and Cheever behind them. Elizabeth stands staring at the empty doorway.

Here John is final in his decision, he cannot confess to being with the Devil knowing that it is a lie. Elizabeth reconciles with his decision because she too knows that he is doing the right thing. Rebecca, for a while now, had been firm in her decision to not confess, and now encourages John and reminds him that the judgement of God is the only one that matters. Danforth by this time is completely convinced that he was is and has been in the right, and pushes ahead with the hangings, and shows no sympathy or remorse whatsoever. At one time it seemed as though he was wavering, but now he has given himself over to the idea of witchcraft.

The Crucible Act IV

HALE, continuing to Elizabeth: Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my own. I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I brought, and what I touched with my bright confidence, it died; and where I turned the eye of my great faith, blood flowed up. Beware, Goody Proctor—cleave to no faith when faith brings blood. It is law that leads you to sacrifice. Life, woman, life is God’s most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it. I beg you, woman, prevail upon your husband to confess. Let him give his lie. Quail not before God’s judgment in this, for it may well be God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride. Will you plead with him? I cannot think he will listen to another.
ELIZABETH, quietly: I think that be the Devil’s argument.

I have to admire Elizabeth for this. She loves John, but she will not counsel him to do what is wrong, because she knows that it is wrong, John would know and he would not be able to live with himself if he did the wrong thing.  Hale is desperate for Elizabeth to convince John to confess and get his life back because the guilt of condemning innocent lives is hanging over his head. At this point he wants to do anything to save someone, Elizabeth also wants her husbands life to be spared, but also wants him to do the right thing. Both of them are conflicted but they are dealing with the conflict differently. Hale wants to convince John to confess, while Elizabeth will not tell John what to do because she knows that it must be his choice and his choice only.

The Crucible Act III

PROCTOR: Mary, tell the Governor what they—He has hardly got a word out, when, seeing him coming for her, she rushes out of his reach, screaming in horror.

MARY WARREN: Don’t touch me—don’t touch me! At which the girls halt at the door.

PROCTOR, astonished: Mary!

MARY WARREN, pointing at Proctor: You’re the Devil’s man!
He is stopped in his tracks.

At the beginning of Act III, Mary was testifying against Abigail and the other girls, and I was really rooting for her but then the pressure got to her and she reverted. If the "court" didn't take everything Abigail said as absolute truth, maybe Mary would have gone through with her testimony, and Elizabeth and John and others would have gone free.

The Crucible Act III

DANFORTH, reaches out and holds her face, then: Look at me! To your own knowledge, has John Proctor ever committed the crime of lechery? In a crisis of indecision she cannot speak. Answer my question! Is your husband a lecher!

ELIZABETH, faintly: No, sir.

DANFORTH: Remove her, Marshal.


Natural inclination in this situation is to save the reputation of your husband, no one would want to make it public that their husband cheated on them, especially when they love them. Elizabeth loved her husband and thought only to save him, it is a natural reaction and even before she gave her final answer, it was obvious that she was struggling. She wanted to tel the truth, but she didn't want to ruin his name, and then when John revealed that he had already told the truth, my heart broke for her because she had just condemned herself trying to save John.

The Crucible Act 2

"That bloody mongrel Walcott charge her. Y’see, he buy a pig of my wife four or five year ago, and the pig died soon after. So he come dancin’ in for his money back. So my Martha, she says to him, “Walcott, if you haven’t the wit to feed a pig properly, you’ll not live to own many,” she says. Now he goes to court and claims that from that day to this he cannot keep a pig alive for more than four weeks because my Martha bewitch them with her books!"
- Giles
This so called evidence is pure stupidity, all that Martha Corey said was that yes, it would make sense that his pig died seeing that he didn't feed it, and if he continued to not feed his pigs then they would continue to die. That is how the world works, it is no phenomenon, and every fool knows that. There is no way that any sane person would (or should) consider that valid evidence, but when fear controls the hearts of men, sanity and common sense are thrown out the window as seen by Walcott's testimony.

The Crucible Act 2

"If she [Elizabeth] is innocent! Why do you never wonder if Parris be innocent, or Abigail? Is the accuser always holy now? Were they born this morning as clean as God’s fingers? I’ll tell you what’s walking Salem—vengeance is walking Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law! This warrant’s vengeance! I’ll not give my wife to vengeance!" ~ John Proctor

John Proctor is one of the sane group of people left in Salem because Abigail told him the truth which is why he calls her out. He also calls out the fact that the trials are not fair, because the court is not taking into account the fact that the accusers could be lying, here his temper flares up and understandably so.

The Crucible

"It discomfits me! Last night - mark this - I tried and tried and could not say my prayers. And then she close her book and walks out of the house, and suddenly - mark this - I could pray again!" ~ Giles

This just goes to show how extreme their superstition was. There could be so many reasons as to why he couldn't say his prayers. If he was thinking of something else, or was distracted then it is quite easy to struggle with prayers. It just seems like any little thing could have been taken as witchcraft, it's almost as though the wanted it to be true for excitement.