The blandness of Elizabeth is shown by many ways throughout this act. The earliest illustration of this is again in the brief paragraph at the beginning of the scene. In the time the play is set it was common for a women’s domain to be in the home, so the fact that Elizabeth’s home is so dull is reflective of her personality, ‘It is the low, dark, and rather long living room of the time’. The appearance of their home is brought up later in the act, when Proctor suggests the idea of Elizabeth bringing some flowers into the house. Elizabeth responds, ‘Oh! I forgot! I will tomorrow’. From this it is shown that Elizabeth did not even consider putting flowers in the house, which would make it less dull and more cheerful. Elizabeth does not seem to have any time for excitement, on the other hand though excitement is exactly what Proctor wants. Miller illustrates how Proctor and Elizabeth do not seem to be a compatible couple.
The pace of their speech is used cleverly to illustrate the pace of their relationship. A slow pace between the characters is created by the use of pauses, ‘Aye it is. There is a pause’. These pauses and short dialogue length are quite unnatural; they could possibly be giving the characters time to think of their next sentence and whether or not it will anger the other. The short dialogue length also shows how neither of the characters wants to say too much, as they do not feel comfortable speaking to each other. The discomfort the characters are experiencing is reflected onto the reader allowing them to understand the characters’ relationship more.
Staging and the use of movement and space helps to form an obvious distance in the two characters’ relationship. They are always described doing two separate actions at the same time, for example Proctor is at the table while Elizabeth is washing up. They act as of they can’t bear to be to close to each other, yet the more movement and space created between them the more tension that is created. Elizabeth regularly shows her coldness through Miller’s stage directions. There are times when Elizabeth is moving away from Proctor and where her back is turned towards Proctor, ‘Her back is turned to him. He turns to her and watches her.’ Miller is showing the barrier that there is between the characters, which they can’t break. Proctor tries profusely to break the barrier, but Elizabeth does not seem open to breaking it down.
The idea of Proctor trying to break down a barrier is also shown through good use of language. At the beginning of Act 2 Proctor is almost having a one-sided conversation. He says some quite long speeches with up to three or four sentences and Elizabeth responds with a few words. He inquires mainly about Elizabeth; ‘Are you well today?’ this shows his interest and care for her. Elizabeth responds with short, snappy, monosyllabic answers, ‘I am.’ It seems that Proctor cares about Elizabeth deeply, but Elizabeth does not quite feel the same way. Every word Proctor says to Elizabeth has feeling and emotion whereas her replies are so short and lack emotion; this refers again to her coldness.
Although much strain is shown in Proctor and Elizabeth’s relationship, towards the end of Act 2 love and hope is shown in their relationship. Proctor becomes very angry at the prospect of Elizabeth being taken away, ‘You will not go!’. The exclamation marks show how he is shouting as he does not want to see Elizabeth leave. These strong and defiant actions do show how much Proctor does truly love Elizabeth, as to not follow the church orders was quite a dangerous act in that period of time. The church was very powerful and dominated everyone’s life.
In Act 4 Miller presents Proctor and Elizabeth’s relationship to the audience again. The fragile and reserved relationship they once had has since developed from Act 2. Miller shows this development before the characters even utter a word, ‘The emotion flowing between them prevents anyone from speaking for an instant’. Just the stage directions alone create a tense atmosphere between Proctor and Elizabeth, which shows how great the emotion is between them. This emotion flows through the whole of Act 4; it is created less by actual speech and more by stage directions. Elizabeth’s cold exterior is broken down and the audience witness her almost crying, ‘she is on the verge of tears’. Miller shows how Proctor and Elizabeth’s relationship has developed from that scripted and carefully thought out speech, after being separated for such a long time their love has been rekindled and they feel comfortable enough around each other to speak without thinking and show their true emotions.
The roles in Proctor and Elizabeth’s relationship seemed to have reversed, by doing this Miller has created a contrast to what the characters’ relationship was perceived to be like in Act 2 and in Act 4. In Act 2 Elizabeth was portrayed to be quite a cold and bland character whilst Proctor was portrayed to like flavour and excitement. In Act 4 it seems that Elizabeth has warmed up and is more responsive to Proctor. Proctor on the other hand is just firing questions at Elizabeth and is almost interrogating her, ‘Proctor: Who are they? Elizabeth: There be a hundred or more, they say. Goody Ballard is one; Isaiah Goodkind is one. There be many’. Elizabeth is responding to Proctor’s snappy questions with long speeches, and is elaborating on her answers. This role reversal is another technique Miller has used to portray the character’s development and how they now respond to one another.
Miller uses many subtle techniques to present Proctor and Elizabeth’s relationship to the audience, for example: contrasts in characters; format of speech and tense atmospheres. Miller does use more obvious and blatant techniques to present their relationship to the audience as well. Elizabeth’s drastic change in beliefs shows how rather than magnifying Proctor’s faults, she realises her own and is happy to accept them, ‘Suspicion kissed you when I did…It were a cold house I kept!’. Elizabeth has forgiven Proctor for his lechery, which was one of the worse acts a Puritan could commit, showing how much she prepared to do to save their relationship. During the three months that Proctor and Elizabeth have been apart, Miller repeatedly tries to show how much the characters’ relationship has flourished just from being apart. Elizabeth has realised how cold she previously was and so has tried to improve herself by becoming more warm and responsive.
Miller presents Proctor and Elizabeth’s relationship excellently by use of dramatic techniques, but also by making the characters very human. The audience can relate to the couple’s troubles and problems, which allows Miller to bring across the message of the play effectively. The way in which Miller used different speech format, long and short sentences, and pauses to communicate the characters’ feelings subtly was one of the most effective techniques used. Miller’s fictional characters were brought to life through language and real-life situations.
