When we first meet Elizabeth, she and John are eating. There is a lot of tension in the room. The actors speak short sentences, which are about nothing in particular. It seams that they are talking because they have to not because they want to. Further to this, when John entered the house, he tasted the soup and looked displeased so added some salt. The audience knew this but Elizabeth did not which shows the distant relationship. He does try to please Elizabeth, "If the crop is good I'll buy you George Jacob's heifer. How would that please you?" He asks first to see if he would be doing the right thing. After he says this he gets up and kisses Elizabeth but she would probably show no real reaction so he sits back down disappointed. Elizabeth then starts to tell John to go to Salem but Arthur Miller suggests she is scared about angering John.
After this happens Marry Warren, John and Elizabeth's maid, comes back from Salem after being forbidden to go there. John is very angry at this point and although no violence had taken place he is very close to going over the edge. An actor would show this by shouting and lots of quick elaborate movements. Also he grabs Mary. Mary then hands Elizabeth a rag doll as if to apologise for doing wrong.
Mary then tells John and Elizabeth that Abigail has been accusing people of witchcraft and what was 14 is now 39 people arrested. She then goes to say how Elizabeth had been accused but she had been cleared by her saying," I never see no sign you ever sent your spirit out to hurt no one." Arthur Miller phrased this quote like this because it only says she didn’t send out her spirit to hurt any one not she didn’t send out her spirit at all which dose not put her completely in the clear. Elizabeth asked who accused her but Mary tells her that she is bound by law and cannot say. Secretly Elizabeth knows that Abigail is her accuser, which could show that she might still suspect that something is still going on between her and John. Elizabeth is now afraid, "Oh the noose, the noose is up." She thinks that she is going to die which is why she used the word 'noose'. John reassures her, "They dismissed. You heard her say-"
As John and Elizabeth are discussing what to do, there is a knock at the door and Mr Hale enters. He starts questioning why they have only been to church 26 times in 17 months and asks john to say his commandments. John does as he is asked but forgets one. Adultery. John tries to shrug this off. Cheever and Herick then come in asking for poppets. They spot the poppet that Mary gave to Elizabeth and find a needle in the stomach of it. "What signifies a needle?" asks Elizabeth. Cheever tells Elizabeth how Abigail was found with one in her stomach and Elizabeth's spirit put it there. At this point Elizabeth is very angry-"the girl is murder she must be ripped out of the world." Arthur miller uses the word 'murder' because Abigail has caused a lot of people to die. Cheever takes this phrase down as more evidence that Elizabeth is in touch with the devil and they then take her away. John then kicks up a fuss, as he will not give his wife to vengeance. He goes upstairs to get Mary, "You will tell the court how this poppet came here and who stuck the needle in." John orders Mary to do this.
In act 3 John goes to court to try and free Elizabeth and the others. Mary tells the court that all the girls are pretending. Cheever will not have it and tells Danforth how John ripped up the warrant. Now John is asked if he has ever seen the devil. This is when Procter finds out that his has kept something from him. She is pregnant. By Elizabeth keeping this from him it shows the distant relationship.
Elizabeth is called to court. Danforth asks her if John had ever had an affair. The audience already know that John has confessed. Trying to save Johns name, she says no, which could show that she still love John. Elizabeth is then taken out of court but John tells her that he had already confessed. She replies, "Oh God." Elizabeth owns that by lying to the court John is even more trouble. After this Mary starts getting scared saying that John comes into her at night. When John hears this there must be something inside him that just clicks because he says something that he really shouldn't. "I say God is dead!" Just by saying these five words is as good as confessing to being in contact with the devil. John is then arrested.
In act 4, just before John is about to hang, he and Elizabeth speak alone. There are a lot of short sentences and then John asks about his baby. Hathorn interrupts asking weather John wants to confess to witchcraft and stay alive or weather he wants to hang with the others. John decides to confess. Elizabeth is happy with whatever decision John decides to make as long as he lives-"I want you living John, that’s for sure."
As John has to 'sign away his name' and leave it above the church door, he gets annoyed and rips up the confession. They take John away to hang but before they go John speaks to Elizabeth, "Give them no tears! Tears pleasure them." It's as if he was telling her that everything would be o.k.
