As a director, explain how you would want the character of Elizabeth Proctor played. Explain her story throughout the play and how this would be shown.

At the beginning of the
play, Elizabeth and John Proctor's relationship seems somewhat chilly. He cheated on her with
their former employee, Abigail Williams, and Elizabeth found out and fired Abigail seven months
ago. It seems that the trust has not yet been rebuilt. For example, John keeps saying how he
"means to please" Elizabeth, though when he rises to kiss her, she merely
"receives" the kiss; she does not return it. When she learns that
he was alone with Abigail in the village a week prior, her continued suspicion of him is
revealed by her anger. There is a deep chasm between them.

However, by Act 4,
Elizabeth has had time to reflect on her own shortcomings in their relationship. She says that
she has "sins of [her] own to count. It needs a cold wife to prompt lechery." She
confesses that she never truly believed that he could love her because she was "so plain,
so poorly made" and so she was always suspicious of him. He, feeling this, clearly sought
emotional warmth and trust elsewhere.

In order to represent this, I think it
would be important for Elizabeth's posture to be quite erect in Act 2; she ought not physically
touch John if she can help it, in order to symbolize the distance she feels from him. When they
speak, the actors should be far apart for the same reason. In Act 4, then, she ought to be less
rigid and, instead, lean toward him and maintain physical contact with him. She should grasp his
arms and hands with her own to show how that distance has disappeared as a result of her
self-reflection. Her voice, early on, ought to be restrained and modulated; later, she should
speak much more passionately and emotionally.