Throughout the book, the bond between Elizabeth and John Proctor starts out at a weak state, but increases in strength as the two explore the limit to their love and face their problems together instead of alone. The tumultuous relationship between Elizabeth and John Proctor progresses in 4 stages, one in each act of the book: uncontrollable lust, separation/distrust, loyalty, and intense mutual affection.
Back in the 1600s, women did not have medications to aid in the recovery of giving birth. After giving birth to her third child, Elizabeth remains ill for a very long time. In that time Proctor grows anxious and develops a lust for Abigail, a teenager who once did household tasks for the Proctor family. The scandalous relationship between John Proctor and his previous servant, Abigail Williams first started seven months prior to the beginning of the play. Susan Abbotson describes the relationship and says, "Proctor and Elizabeth love each other, but seven months before the play began, Proctor had an affair with their serving girl, Abigail, while his wife was sick. We do not know how long this would have continued had not Elizabeth …show more content…
In Act 2 Elizabeth confronts rumors and suspicion that Abigail wants to kill her and aims to replace her place as John Proctor's wife. The Author of this article, David Palmer also sees this and further analyses their discussion, "The first detailed discussion of the adultery and its effect on Proctor's sense of self is at the beginning of act 2, and the problem here is Proctor's confusion concerning differences between regret, guilt, and shame. At first, Proctor seems to have wanted to view his act as a merely regrettable event…That seems to be what he means when he means when he says to Elizabeth that he made no promise in his sexual engagement with Abigail...he was overcome by lust; that happens to people occasionally; it is unimportant"(Palmer 32-33). Palmer does a good job interpreting what John means when he disagrees with Elizabeth's suggestion when she implies that he made a non-verbal promise in bed with Abigail, thus the reason why Abigail strives to kill her. John disagrees with this, and Elizabeth continues to doubt him and questions him about what actually happened when John talked to Abigail earlier that day. At this point in the book, John simply considers the sin as a regrettable mistake and believes that they, as a couple, should forget. When Elizabeth accosts John about a promise made in bed with Abigail, John strongly