Something has gone horribly wrong in the
marriage of John and Elizabeth Proctor. We learn of their past closeness that has been fractured by John’s betrayal of his wife through his brief but passionate
encounter with Abigail. It is interesting that the audience first meet the Proctors in their house, a deliberately chosen domestic setting where John is returning from work and Elizabeth has prepared his meal. In this very ordinary meeting, we learn of desire in John that was out of control and of repression of desire in Elizabeth that she sees as leading to John’s infidelity. They are both
trying to put their marriage back together. The characters of John and Elizabeth Proctor are complex; the
essence of John Proctor's character is that he is a hardworking and honest man. He is faced with a huge
moral dilemma at the end of the play, which is whether to tell the truth and take the consequences or to lie and save himself;
he uses reason to help him decide what to do.
Elizabeth Proctor's character is hard to crack because as a woman at the end of the 17th century, she can’t express her emotions directly, so it takes work to find
the essence of her character and to portray that to the audience. Director Jonathan Church says that actor Patricia Kerrigan, who plays Elizabeth Proctor, brought out the
passion between her and John. The two kisses between the Proctors in the play, at their first encounter and at their last, are indicative of how their relationship changes through the play. For Elizabeth, the terrible events surrounding their mutual condemnation to death by hanging serve to resurrect the dignity and strength in the John Proctor she married, the John Proctor before his Fall.
