Towards the beginning of act two, Elizabeth tells John that there is a mighty court in town and four judges from Boston have arrived to conduct the witch trials. She goes on to tell John that the court officials view Abigail Williams as a saint and fourteen people have already been arrested and accused of witchcraft. Elizabeth's news regarding the witch trials astonishes John, who initially doubts that anyone will be hanged. After he refers to the proceedings as "black mischief," Elizabeth encourages her husband to travel to Salem and testify that Abigail is a fraud. Elizabeth insists that John expose Abigail and the girls as frauds because she understands the dangers attached to the witch trials. She fears that innocent citizens will hang and wishes for John to put a stop to the trials by exposing the truth. She believes that if her husband does not act, innocent people will eventually lose their lives. Elizabeth also despises Abigail and has absolutely no misgivings about exposing her as a malevolent liar.

At the beginning of Act II, Elizabeth Proctor wants her husband, John, to go to Salem to tell the courts what Abigail Williams, his former lover and the chief accuser in these trials, told him.  When they were alone momentarily during Act I, in Reverend Parris's house, Abigail told John that Betty was not bewitched, that the girls were just dancing in the forest and Betty got scared when her father jumped out of the trees.  Now, in Act II, people are being legally charged with the crime of witchcraft, while the girls make more accusations, and some of the accused are actually confessing in order to keep their necks from the noose.  Elizabeth wants John to tell the court what Abigail told him because it might help to prove that Abigail and the other girls are lying now, and then the accusations and trials could stop.