DANFORTH went to great effort to assert his authority. I
think his real life character had a little bit of a superiority complex. He longed for
power and this situation gave him great opportunity to exercise that control. Regularly
throughout Act III, he asserted that if people were indeed innocent then their
consciences would be clear. If their consciences were clear, there is no way that evil
would prevail. Because Danforth repeats this, I believe he believed it. I also think
Danforth had sincere Puritan conviction to rid the town of the corruption that had
descended upon it:
No uncorrupted man may fear this court! None!
To Giles: You are under arrest in contempt of this court. Now sit
you down and take counsel with yourself, or you will be set in the jail until you decide
to answer all
questions.
Giles refused to
share testimony on behalf of an anonymous informant. This demonstrates great respect for
the informant. Danforth sees is at obstruction of
justice.
ELIZABETH is motivated by the desire to seek
reparation in her marriage. Although John cheated on her, she realizes that she drove
him to do it by being so cold to him. By the end, we see this comes full circle for her.
Love means selfLESSness. For the first half of the play, we see Elizabeth sulking in her
own self-pity. But by the end, she wants for John what he wants for
himself:
He
have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from
him!
This portrays that even
in death, Elizabeth has a new-found respect for John's wishes and that is true
love.
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