PROCTOR: I would have your forgiveness, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH: It is not for me to give, John…it come to naught that I should forgive you, if you’ll not forgive yourself. It is not my soul, John, it is yours.
– Arthur Miller
The Crucible, Act 4. Near the end of the play a guilt-ridden John Proctor asks for his wife’s forgiveness for his adultery with Abby. Elizabeth tells him that first he must forgive himself. Proctor is his own harshest critic and judge, his wife having told him in Act 2: "The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you." Elizabeth desperately wants her husband to forgive himself.