Elizabeth Proctor Quotes

PROCTOR: You ought to bring some flowers in the house…It’s winter in here yet. On Sunday let you come with me, and we’ll walk the farm together; I never see such a load of flowers on the earth. Lilacs have a purple smell. Lilac is the smell of nightfall, I think. Massachusetts is a beauty in the spring!
ELIZABETH: Aye, it is.
There is a pause. She is watching him from the table as he stands there absorbing the night. It is as though she would speak but cannot. Instead, now, she takes up his plate and glass and fork and goes with them to the basin. Her back is turned to him. He turns to her and watches her. A sense of their separation, rises.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. John Proctor, speaking to his wife Elizabeth, uses a series of metaphors to compare the colorless, winter-like atmosphere in his home to the abundance of spring flowers outside. Winter here is a metaphor for the chill in the Proctors’ marriage. It is obvious something is separating them, emotionally and physically. The metaphors of lilac offering the calm of nightfall and Massachusetts in spring compared to a beautiful woman are expressions of hope and also that something is not right in the Proctors’ world. As indeed it isn’t. For as well as the coolness between them, we know that the Devil is said to be loose in Salem and a witch hunt has begun.

It is a mouse no more. I forbid her go, and she raises up her chin like the daughter of a prince and lays to me, "I must go to Salem, Goody Proctor; I am an official of the court!"

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. Elizabeth Proctor is talking about the transformation in her servant Mary Warren. Her husband John has questioned why a mouse like Mary would frighten his wife. Elizabeth uses a "mouse" metaphor and "like the daughter of a prince" simile to describe how the once submissive Mary has become more assertive after working with Abigail and the other girls in the witch trials. This speaks to the theme of power, something the teenage Mary has now acquired because of her new status in court.

The Deputy Governor promise hangin’ if they’ll not confess, John. The town’s gone wild, I think. She speak of Abigail, and I thought she were a saint, to hear her. Abigail brings the other girls into the court, and where she walks the crowd will part like the sea for Israel. And folks are brought before them, and if they scream and howl and fall to the floor – the person’s clapped in the jail for bewitchin’ them.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. Elizabeth quotes Mary Warren on how Abigail is seen as a prophet since she confessed. In a simile, Abby is compared to a saint. Using another simile "like the sea for Israel," Mary Warren describes how the crowds part for Abigail whenever she leads the other girls into court to give evidence. This is an allusion to a story from the Book of Exodus about Moses using his power to part the Red Sea for the Israelites to cross. The hysteria of the witchcraft trials is evident here in a town "gone wild" and where the accused are given the choice: confess or be hanged! Justic1e in the Salem trials means confessing or be put to death. Even if you’re innocent, you must confess to avoid being hanged

I think you must go to Salem, John. I think so. You must tell them it is a fraud.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. Elizabeth urges John to go to Salem and expose Abigail as a fraud. In the previous act Abby assured John that she and the girls were just dancing in the woods and Betty’s illness had nothing to do with witchcraft: "We were dancin’ in the woods last night, and my uncle leaped in on us. She took fright, is all." Elizabeth reminds John of the seriousness of the situation, with four judges being sent from Boston to try people for witchcraft and fourteen in jail who will be hanged unless they confess.

MARY WARREN: I made a gift for you today, Goody Proctor. I had to sit long hours in a chair, and passed the time with sewing.
ELIZABETH: Why, thank you, it’s a fair poppet.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. Mary Warren makes a gift of a what seems a harmless poppet or doll to her employer Elizabeth Proctor. The child’s toy, which Mary made while in the court that day, will assume a sinister role in the play. Abigail will claim that Elizabeth has been using it like a voodoo doll to injure her. It will form the basis of accusations of witchcraft by Abby against Elizabeth.

You have a faulty understanding of young girls. There is a promise made in any bed…Spoke or silent, a promise is surely made. And she may dote on it now – I am sure she does – and thinks to kill me, then to take my place.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. Elizabeth tells John that she believes their former servant Abigail has likely read more into her sexual affair with her husband that he did. John may see the affair as meaningless, but Elizabeth is acutely aware of Abigail’s jealousy and desire for vengeance because she fired Abigail over the affair. Abby plans to kill her and replace her, Elizabeth tells John. Abby’s plot and Elizabeth’s arrest for the hanging offense of witchcraft are foreshadowed here.

Then go and tell her she’s a whore. Whatever promise she may sense – break it, John, break it.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. John Proctor desperately wants his wife to trust him after having cheated on her with their servant Abigail Proctor. But seven months later their relationship is still strained and Elizabeth harbors doubts. So she demands that John correct Abby’s assumptions, because she believes Abby is plotting to take her place by making accusations of witchcraft against her.

You’ll tear it free – when you come to know that I will be your only wife, or no wife at all! She has an arrow in you yet, John Proctor, and you know it well!

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. Elizabeth Proctor uses allusion and metaphor when she tells her husband that Abigail still has a hold over his heart. The arrow is a reference to the Greek mythological love god Cupid’s arrow, shot at lovers to inspire love. Despite John’s infidelity Elizabeth still clearly loves him and gives him the choice of being with her or Abigail.

I cannot think the Devil may own a woman’s soul, Mr. Hale, when she keeps an upright way, as I have. I am a good woman, I know it; and if you believe I may do only good work in the world, and yet be secretly bound to Satan, then I must tell you, sir, I do not believe it.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. Elizabeth puts herself at risk when she gives this response to Hale after he asks her if she believes in witches. She tells him that she doesn’t believe in witches if he thinks she is one. While that kind of answer could condemn her in the rigid Puritan society of Salem, it shows her to be a strong character who is not afraid to tell the truth.

ELIZABETH: I never kept no poppets, not since I were a girl.
CHEEVER (embarrassed, glancing toward the mantel where sits Mary Warren’s poppet): I spy a poppet, Goody Proctor.
ELIZABETH: Oh! (Going for it): Why, this is Mary’s.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. The clerk of the court at the witch trials Ezekiel Cheever searches the Proctor home for poppets. He discovers one on Elizabeth Proctor’s mantel. He finds a long needle stuck in the doll, left there by Mary Warren who made the doll for Elizabeth earlier that day in court. Elizabeth is arrested for witchcraft because Abigail Williams has claimed that she was stabbed with a needle by Elizabeth’s spirit.

I will fear nothing. Tell the children I have gone to visit someone sick.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. Elizabeth shows her strength and courage when faced with trials and hardships as she says this to John. She has been arrested for alleged witchcraft and is about to be taken to jail. She thinks of her children first, not wishing want them to worry about her. The irony here is that she claims not to be afraid, but the stage directions state Elizabeth is in "great fear" while speaking this.

Your Honor, I – in that time I were sick. And I – My husband is a good and righteous man. He is never drunk as some are, nor wastin’ his time at the shovelboard, but always at his work. But in my sickness – you see, sir, I were a long time sick after my last baby, and I thought I saw my husband somewhat turning from me. And this girl – .

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 3. Elizabeth is asked by Danforth what caused her to dismiss Abigail from her service. She tries to evade Danforth’s question. Rather than admit to her husband’s infidelity with Abigail she covers up for John. In her desire to protect him, she takes the blame herself by speaking of how she was sick after having a baby and thought her husband was losing interest in her. But far from saving John, her lie ironically ends up hurting both herself and him more.

I came to think he fancied her. And so one night I lost my wits, I think, and put her out on the highroad.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 3. Elizabeth is questioned in court after John confesses to his affair with Abigail Williams. She is asked about Abigail Williams by Judge Danforth. Rather than disclose her husband’s infidelity, she tries to protect him by lying and portraying herself as the irrational wife who gave Abby her walking papers because of jealousy. There is tragic irony in Elizabeth’s action, as it ends up making the situation worse for herself and John.

DANFORTH: Look at me! To your own knowledge, has John Proctor ever committed the crime of lechery? Answer my question! Is your husband a lecher!
ELIZABETH: No, sir.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 3. When Danforth asks Elizabeth Proctor about her husband’s adultery, she lies to the court in order to protect John and his reputation. She denies that he is a lecher, not knowing that he has already confessed to being one. The audience is aware of John’s confession, making this an example of dramatic irony.

Great stones they lay upon his chest until he plead aye or nay. They say he give them but two words. "More weight," he says. And died…It were a fearsome man, Giles Corey.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 4. The particularly gruesome and brutal death of Giles Corey is described here by Elizabeth. He was crushed to death by the piling of heavy stones and rocks on top of his chest. Giles was a man of great courage and moral integrity. He had been ordered by Judge Danforth to reveal the name of a man who overheard Thomas Putnam admit to falsely accusing people of witchcraft to get their land. Giles refused in order to protect the man and was tortured to death by Salem’s rough justice.

PROCTOR: I would have your forgiveness, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH: It is not for me to give, John…it come to naught that I should forgive you, if you’ll not forgive yourself. It is not my soul, John, it is yours.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 4. Near the end of the play a guilt-ridden John Proctor asks for his wife’s forgiveness for his adultery with Abby. Elizabeth tells him that first he must forgive himself. Proctor is his own harshest critic and judge, his wife having told him in Act 2: "The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you." Elizabeth desperately wants her husband to forgive himself.

Whatever you will do, it is a good man does it. I have read my own heart this three month, John. I have sins of my own to count. It needs a cold wife to prompt lechery…I counted myself so plain, so poorly made, no honest love could come to me! Suspicion kissed you when I did; I never knew how I should say my love. It were a cold house I kept!

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 4. As John Proctor agonizes over whether to make falsely confess to witchcraft to save his life, Elizabeth makes her own confession. Describing him as a good man, she admits to being partly to blame for his affair with Abigail by being a cold wife who didn’t know how to love. She uses personification when she describes how "suspicion kissed" her husband when she did. By accepting her owns faults and his goodness, she is finally forgiving John for his infidelity. Elizabeth also uses a metaphor when she decribes how she "read my own heart" like you read a book.

Do what you will. But let none be your judge. There be no higher judge under Heaven than Proctor is! Forgive me, forgive me, John – I never knew such goodness in the world!

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 4. Elizabeth Proctor tells John that she will not judge him if he confesses to witchcraft to escape a death sentence. She also forgives her husband for his infidelity, and begs forgiveness for the part she played by being a cold wife. Despite his faults, he believes that he is a man full of "goodness."

He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 4. Elizabeth speaks the play’s last lines about John as he is taken to be hanged, along with Rebecca Nurse and the other innocent Salem accused. She refuses Reverend Hale’s request to plead with her husband to lie and confess to witchcraft in order to be spared hanging. She recognizes that the innocent John prefers to die maintaining his integrity and honesty and she respects that. This quote tells us that she has forgiven John of any sin he has committed and loves him absolutely. Also, he has forgiven himself.
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