Elizabeth: "John- grant me this. You have a faulty understanding of young girls. There is a promise made in any bed-" (61).
After seven months, Elizabeth still holds Proctor's mistake against him. Even though he admitted to adultery, she has a tough time forgiving him and simply forgetting about it. Elizabeth has reason to despise Abigail, but her emotions cannot interfere with reason. Proctor explains the difficulty of telling the court Abigail is a fraud, but Elizabeth is more concerned that he was alone with her when he found this out: "You were alone with [Abigail]?" (53). Proctor wants Elizabeth to appreciate his honesty and notice the effort he makes to compensate for his misbehavior: "I mean to please you" (50). Knowing a spouse has cheated on you is not easy to forget, but under the circumstances of their strict community and Christian relationship, she has no choice but to deal with it. The deed was committed; now, Elizabeth must move on.
Elizabeth: "[Abigail] thinks to kill me, then take my place" (61).
Unfortunately, Elizabeth is right when she believes Abigail wants to kill her: "[Abigail] drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! [Abigail] drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" (19). Since Abigail is obsessed with Proctor, she will do anything to get Elizabeth away from him. Abigail also has a strong influence in the court, so Elizabeth needs to be careful: "Where [Abigail] walks the crowd will part like the sea for Israel" (52-53). In other words, it is necessary for Abigail to be stopped before she causes anymore harm to innocent people like Elizabeth.
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