Elizabeth Proctor's Use Of Dramatic Irony In The Crucible

As Elia Kazan, described by the New York Times as one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history once stated, “Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it”(Elia Kazan). Mystery, suspicion and secrecy were all part in the madness that engulfed Salem during the witch trials; the town ignored the facts and were quick to draw ridiculous conclusions. Throughout The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses rhetorical devices such as irony and metaphors to accentuate his belief that the salem witch trials was outrageous in the way that people were swept up in hysteria.

The crucible is a story about witchcraft, it takes place in the 1600’s in a British Colony of Massachusetts. During this time witch hunts swept through Europe, resulting in many people being killed.

In 1692, many people in Salem, Massachusetts confessed to witchcraft, which resulted in several conflicts. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, uses real events to develop a fictional play. One of the characters in the play is Elizabeth Proctor. She is a static character because she undergoes very little changes throughout the play. The author illustrates the theme of reputation through Elizabeth. Her character shows traits of strength, honesty, and loyalty to protect her good reputation.

“Whatever you do, it is a good man who does it.” This quote was said by Elizabeth Proctor, a character in The Crucible. Here Elizabeth is saying that her husband is a good man which shows that she has finally forgiven him for the affair he had earlier in the play. Elizabeth Proctor is a good Christian woman who is very honest. She is married to John Proctor but keeps a cold house ever since John had the affair with Abigail Williams. Elizabeth is accused of witchcraft when Abigail is stabbed in the stomach and they then find a poppet with a needle in it belonging to Elizabeth. I consider myself to have similar characteristics with Elizabeth Proctor because we are both caring, forgiving, and honest.

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible presents Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams who serve important roles through their unique characteristics and thinking. John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth, has two defining characteristics that show throughout this play: she not only lives to please everyone around her and behaves passively, but she lacks the assertiveness to confront what lies directly under her nose. However, Abigail, the girl John Proctor commits the crime of adultery with, manipulates those around her. She is keen to act upon an opportunity when one arises and feels a determination to get her way. While Elizabeth and Abigail are similar in their love for John Proctor, Elizabeth differs from Abigail through her tendency to try to please everyone and keep her own emotions bottled up, while Abigail believes the world revolves around her and works to make things go her own way.

The play The Crucible by Arthur Miller has one character that is true to himself and stands out above all the rest. Throughout the play, John Proctor shows some ideal qualities that are not found in the other characters. Proctor is a man of integrity because he shows honesty, he stands by his beliefs, and he makes sacrifices.

Elizabeth Proctor is the wife of the main character John Proctor who was trying to save their marriage, but John’s affair with Abigail put Elizabeth in danger. Elizabeth’s goal is to save Proctor’s and her marriage by telling the truth to each other. But the truth may have later come back to “haunt” her and she came to a point where she didn't tell the truth about John in the court. Elizabeth feels pressured because of Abby and she want’s the truth about her to be out in the village so they do not have to suffer because of her. Proctor says, “I am only wondering how I may

The Crucible was a play written by Arthur Miller during the era of McCarthyism. This time period and person experiences helped influence the outcomes and aspects of the play written to mimic the Salem Witch Trials. Many characters were accused and even tried for witchcraft, while the audience is clear of whom the guilty party is the entire play. Elizabeth Proctor, the wife to John Proctor the wrongly one wrongly accused and executed, had many conflicts in this play as many others did. Elizabeth Proctor was met with conflicts of wrong accusations, adultery, death threats, and eventually, losing her husband. Elizabeth Proctor endured an incredible amount of pain and conflict throughout the play, The Crucible. She was met with many conflicts that involved many the people she loved, or once trusted. Elizabeth Proctor ended one of the only characters that would feel the pain of the trials forever.

In The Crucible, John Proctor is put into several sticky situations as he is determined to clear his wife’s name and dispel this corruption and nonsense of the court. Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth, is put into jail and is to be tried on the accusations by Abigail Williams that

A tragic hero is a noble man who commits a fatal flaw. The hero’s downfall is a result of their choices which leads to a punishment that exceeds the crime. “The difference between Proctor and Willy Loman is enormous; the former is the rather typical tragic hero who is defiant to the end, the latter is trapped in submission and is living a lie” (McGill 4). John Proctor is one of the main characters in The Crucible. he is married to Elizabeth Proctor and they live in Salem. In Arthur Miller’s famous play, The Crucible, John Proctor represents a classic tragic hero because he is a well respected man of noble stature, he is conflicted because of his fatal flaw, and his downfall is a result

Elizabeth Proctor learned that in order to change, you need to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new. In the story, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Elizabeth Proctor has one of the most significant changes in the story. Elizabeth Proctor, wife of John Proctor, goes through an emotional change of heart throughout the story.

[The common room of the proctors home on a dark night. The curtain rises. On the right of the stage appears the kitchen. On the left, a door opening leading to the fields outside. In the middle a burning fireplace, two pieces of wood inside burning, next to it five wood logs. Abigail prepares dinner for the Proctors. Elizabeth enters from the stairs leading to the bedroom with a sense of frigidness that can be seen in her body language, however, keeping her posture elegant and simple. She is not quite pleased, she reaches to the cupboard, takes a pinch of salt, and drops it into the pot.]

Elizabeth Proctor is an honest and virtuous christian woman from Salem. Abigail being the pretentious girl from the village accuses her of witchcraft causing, Elizabeth to be in prison. While Elizabeth is in prison her husband, John Proctor admits to lechery with Abigail. Elizabeth shows her loyalty towards John by lying in court to protect him (Miller 46). Although the affair hurt Elizabeth, there is still a devotion towards her husband.

She even said, “it needs a cold wife to prompt lechery”, (Miller 137). around the end of the play. One reason she distrusts John, is that he has claimed he was not alone with her. He later says that he was, in fact, alone with her for a short while. It takes a person of strength to be able to take that lie he gave and still control herself in the manner a wife should do. It was her inner strength that showed her that “it were a cold house she kept”(Miller 136). and needed to fix that problem.

all faith in him, she feels that he does not want to prove Abigail is