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How Does Elizabeth Proctor Change Throughout The Crucible

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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. In the beginning of the story Elizabeth Proctor is especially cold and always suspicious of her husband, John. Elizabeth gives John the cold shoulder due to his previous affair with their housekeeper, Abigail Williams. When John Proctor comes home in the first act, he and Elizabeth have a distant conversation about why he came home so late (Miller 1162). Even though Elizabeth never says it, Proctor knows that Elizabeth thinks he went to Salem to visit Abigail. During the story Elizabeth and John have a conversation about Abigail. Abigail finds herself in a predicament that may cause serious consequences for herself. Elizabeth suggests to John that he tell people that she is lying about what happened to her, but John refuses because he knows no one will believe him. In anger, Elizabeth told him that he should go and tell Abigail that she is a whore, and to her dismay he agrees to do that. Elizabeth’s frustration grows as she …show more content…

When John and Elizabeth talk privately about what he must do in order to avoid being hung Elizabeth tells John she can not judge him and that she takes the blame for being a cold wife (Miller 1227). While holding his face she tells him that she forgives him and that he needs to forgive himself. She lovingly tells him that he is a good man and she supports his decision to do what he feels is right. (Miller 1227). This shows that she has humbled herself and instead of placing all the blame on her husband, she begins to realize that she has made mistakes in the marriage as

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