Term 2 Week 4 Homework 2

Re-read the final scene between John and Elizabeth. Elizabeth refuses to advise her husband but she clearly has a point of view on his situation. In her heart, what does want him to do? What would she say to him if she could?


I believe that in her heart Elizabeth wants her husband to confess, for a number of reasons. The primary one being that she still loves him, and she needs him for he is the father of their children and the one they all depend on for an income. But in addition to this there is no doubt an underlying feeling of guilt, for she is all too aware that it was her lie, albeit her first and only lie in her life, that convicted her husband, and she knows that should he be killed for this she would and could never forgive herself. However she is also all to aware of what such a confession means - it is adding to the hysteria - and that John wouldn't make such a confession if it meant endangering other people's lives.


I think that if she could advise him she would encourage him to confess, even though it goes against both his and her morals. For she although she knows the guilt and regret, the self-loathing it will bring him, she also know's how much she needs him. She does after all have a child on the way, one who, without either parent will undoubtedly have a very difficult upbringing.