At the end of the scene we see a very high tempered relationship between the two characters, Abigail is jealous of Elizabeth and John defends his wife. This can be seen when Abigail replies ‘’with a bit anger - I marvel how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife be’’. John defends his wife‘’angered - at himself as well -You’ll speak nothin’ of Elizabeth!’’ Abigail thinks John doesn’t want her anymore because he loves his wife, Elizabeth more, so she is jealous of Elizabeth. John seems to be caring for Elizabeth a lot, as he is not allowing Abigail to utter a single word against his wife. They are both ‘’angered’’ at the end of the scene. In this scene they start flirtations. It soon changes to an argument about their relationship, and eventually turns to a fight about Elizabeth. John might reject Abigail for several reasons. He wants his relationship with his wife rebuilt; he also doesn’t want to ruin his name. We know that he doesn’t want a further relationship with Abigail Williams, since he says ‘’I will cut off my hand before I'll ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of mind’’. This is clearly showing us evidence that John doesn’t want to carry on with Abigail.
The audience’s first impression of the two characters would be a sympathetic feeling. Since the audience knows what has happened to Abigail, they might feel a bit of sympathy for her, because she saw her parents getting killed, she is young; she is an orphan, her obsession with John might come from the lack of a father figure. She might thinks john can love her and protect her. They might also feel sympathy for John, they know he has realised his mistake and he wants to get over it. He also realises, he has broken the Christian marriage rules and one of the Ten Commandments God set to people, and he also upset his honest wife, Elizabeth.
I want the audience to feel sympathy for both Abigail, and John. John can’t continue with this relationship anymore, the village society doesn’t allow such a link between two people, so his name could be ruined, he also could be sentenced for adultery. Whereas Abigail is a very young girl who doesn’t know much about life, she is fallen in a blind love, where she can’t decide what to do; she could be offended more than John, since she is a girl, with almost no rights compared to men at that time.
In at two, the relationship between Elizabeth and John is very strained and distrustful from Elizabeth. The conversation is very awkward and lacklustre for both characters. It is general. There is nothing personal about it. Elizabeth’s greeting was ‘’what keeps you so late it is almost dark” This is a suspicious question from Elizabeth; she thinks John has been with Abigail and that shows the distrust of Elizabeth. I think John knows Elizabeth doesn’t trust him. John says, “I think you’re sad again. Are you?” John is asking Elizabeth if she is upset, to which Elizabeth replies, “You come so late I thought you’d gone to Salem this afternoon”. Here we can interpret that Elizabeth thinks John is still having a sexual relationship with Abigail. John can’t resist Elizabeth’s suspicion anymore, he thinks he had enough. Therefore he says “Woman I’ll not have your suspicion anymore.” Here John is calling his wife a ‘’woman’’, making her sound as she not his wife. That makes us feel that he has the upper hand in the relationship. Miller in that conversation shows the lack of trust between the two couples. Which makes their relationship looks really vulnerable to the audience, and that’s probably why their conversation very awkward.
Marry Warren, the present maid of the proctor family enters and breaks the tension between the two characters. She says ‘’pointing at Elizabeth - I saved her life today’’, soon after that Miller sets Elizabeth and John alone to discuss what has been said, and so they can talk about Abigail.
At the end of act two, the audience sees how cruel Abigail is. She tries to split Elizabeth and John physically, as she accuses Elizabeth of being a witch, and then getting arrested. Ironically she actually brought them together emotionally. John is now more caring for his wife, Elizabeth trusts her husband now, unlike at the start of the act. He says ‘’ I will bring you home. I will bring you soon’’. Elizabeth replies ‘’Oh, John, bring me soon’’. Here we can see, love is being restored in their relationship, an evidence that back my point up even further is when John say ‘’I will fall like an ocean on that court! Fear nothing, Elizabeth’’. This is said metaphorically to show how much John is willing to save his wife. I think the relationship has changed a lot through this act; the biggest change was that the trust between the two characters has been reestablished.
There was an extra scene which Miller took out of the published version. The audience would is led believe that Abigail is convinced by what she is saying about witchcraft. Everyone thinks John will deal with the situation and free Elizabeth, but by showing her as an insane person, this will reveal what will happen in the next act, and that just ruins the next act. I think Miller withdrew this scene because he doesn’t want to ruin the power of the play.
In act three John goes to the court to save his wife and testify Abigail is a liar by making Mary Warren confess she was acting with Abigail with the other girls. Danforth (The Deputy Governor of Salem) tells her to act in front of him to testify if she is lying or not. Mary cannot do it. Proctor now is left with the only way to prove Abigail is lying, which is to tell Danforth that he had an affair with Abigail. ‘’I have known her…’’ from this we can infer he hates Abigail now that he is ready to ruin his name, just to prove Abigail is a liar. So it is like a war between the two characters now. To examine what John said, Danforth asks Cheever to get Elizabeth, John prior to this said ‘’ in her life, sir, she have never lied’’, this reveals about how much he trusts his wife now.
Elizabeth to protect his name lies, so she replies ‘’No, sir’’ to Danforth when he asks ‘’ Is your husband a lecher!’’ So now John is proved a liar in front of the court.
Later on in the scene things get worse for John when he is accused of being ‘’the devil’s man’’ by Mary Warren under pressure of getting hanged.
Abigail later in the act turns against John (the person she loved) for rejecting her. When she hears John getting accused of being ‘’the devil’s man’’ she doesn’t say anything that shows she doesn’t like her anymore. She has the upper hand in this situation, she can save him but she doesn’t.
I think Miller wanted the audience to know the inside of John and Abigail. John ruins his name, tries to save his wife but fails. Abigail doesn’t try to save John when she knows she can do something to save him, she wants to get rid of John now. That shows there is no relationship between the two characters anymore. Each of them wants to destroy the other.
Abigail’s intentions are shown in act four; she doesn’t care about anyone but herself. She stole thirty one pounds off her uncle and ran away. This makes the audience feel very disgusted of Abigail; she destroyed Salem, ran away without any care for anyone.
By act four we see the reunited relationship between Elizabeth and her husband John. John wants to confess he has been with devil ‘’I have been thinking I would confess to them, Elizabeth’’. From that we can interpret that John wants his life and family for his name. Elizabeth doesn’t oppose his idea, and that shows she loves him and doesn’t want him to be dead. I think the biggest change in John and Elizabeth’s relationship was when Elizabeth got arrested, that was cause by Abigail. Miller used Abigail to strain Elizabeth and John’s relationship, but Miller also used Abigail to reunite the couples.
Later in the act he refuses to sign a testimony that says he has been with the devil. John says ‘’ I have three children - how may I teach them to walk like men in the world’’. He thinks if he signs it, his children will not be as others and they will not be able to live a normal life. This show how noble John is, he gave is giving his life to his children.
Abigail is without any doubt the villain of the play, and the hero is John. Abigail destroyed Salem, killed a lot of people for her selfishness, but John on the other hand got hanged for his children and his name. Elizabeth is a very pure woman that lied to save her husband’s name, which led to his death. As we see the courage of John Proctor, we feel there is encouraging audience sympathy for John Proctor. While we might feel there is discouraging audience sympathy for Abigail Williams.