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Before the play takes place, Abigail Williams and John Proctor had an affair while Abigail was working as a servant in their home. Eventually, John confessed and apologized to Elizabeth, pledging his faithfulness to her. Nonetheless, at the time the play takes place, Elizabeth still hasn't fully forgiven him, and gives him a hard time about it. Abigail confessed the pretense of her accusations to him when they were alone, and now he has no way to prove that she's lying to the court. But because he was alone with her again, Elizabeth becomes angry with him. She still doubts her husband because she feels that if it were any other girl he had to go testify against, he would not hesitate.
But, because it's Abigail, John feels he has to think harder on making a decision. He doesn't want his name spoiled by a counter-testimony. John feels he is now justified in becoming angry because for the seven months since his confession, he has done nothing but try to please his wife, and she still approaches him with suspicion and accusations. Proctor feels that she will "forget nothin' and forgive nothin'. " Elizabeth argues back that he then shouldn't do anything to make her suspicious.
This is a trial on their true love, and at that time, things aren't going well. It will take love, trust and forgiveness for the marriage to survive. The major test for Elizabeth Proctor surfaces during when John appears in court to try to uncover Abigail's falseness. None of his tactics were working to convince the judges; they didn't believe him or Mary Warren, so he turns to his last resort.
Proctor reveals his infidelity to everyone, and therefore, exposes Abigail as a harlot. This meant that if in fact Abigail is found to be guilty of this accusation, she will lose her validity as a true witness of witchcraft, and thus end the lies and revenge infecting Salem. The court decides to question Elizabeth to confirm John allegations, at which John feels she will because she's an "honest woman" and never lies. If she testifies truthfully by admitting exactly what John has, then she will be saved from the witchery allegations against her.
If she doesn't, and lies, she will be found guilty and hung like the others. She has always been virtuous and always wants to follow God and do what is right. However, she struggles, because if she confesses and declares her husband a lecher, then it will ruin his reputation as well as possibly cause greater problems. It is this conflict, love versus honesty, which will ultimately decide the fate of herself, her husband, and their friends who have been falsely accused.
In the end, Elizabeth chooses to try to defend her husband and hide the truth from the judges, which causes her husband to be put in jail. The love that Elizabeth has for John, which causes her to lie, is ultimately what signals his end. However, in the last act, the prevalent issue is her everlasting love for John, despite all the events in Salem. John asks his wife, while sitting in jail, if he should confess to witchcraft before they end his life that morning. However impartial Elizabeth might want to be, she admits to her husband that she would prefer to see him alive. Nonetheless, he feels it wouldn't be right for him to confess to a crime he didn't commit nor go into darkness like a saint, because he's already committed a sin.
He begs for her forgiveness if he should confess, and she in turn begs for his. Elizabeth realizes that if she had not been so cold to him in the past, he wouldn't have been infidel. Proctor resolves to confess, but ends up tearing up the paper because he refused to be publicly denounced for a crime he knows he did not perpetrate. Elizabeth rushes to him in tears, but he tells her not to cry, for he has found at last 'some shred of goodness' in himself.
Elizabeth shows her strength of character in this last act. Though she loves her husband and wants him to live, she realizes he can only do so if he compromises himself. She refuses to ask him to confess and, once he recants his confession, refuses to ask him to reconsider, saying that she would not deny him his sense of goodness even to save his life. I think Elizabeth emerges as the strongest character in the end of the story.
Although one can say the she failed the test of honesty and virtue, she most undoubtedly passed the challenge of love and loyalty to her husband. Even after all the trials and challenges poised to destroy their marriage, she has managed to forgive and overcome them to show her devotion for John. In the end, she refuses to deny him his one shred or virtue, regardless of the consequences. She saw, as everyone should, that nothing, no matter how wrong, should come between the love of a marriage
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Research essay sample on Elizabeth Proctor Love Versus Honesty
