Analysis Of John Proctor In The Crucible '

People’s true character is revealed through their actions. Their morals and ethics can be told from how they choose to act in a situation. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible; the character of John Proctor is an honorable man despite having committed wrongful acts. He was able to redeem himself through acts that is considered courageous, such as when he refuses to contribute to the lie of witchcraft in Salem, when he fights for the people who were convicted of witchcraft and when he regrets being a dishonest man.

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible John Proctor is a good and honest man inside but everyone has some darkness in him or her, just like John Proctor. He committed adultery which he truly regretted, he died because of this sin, and he tries to ratify his sin as best as he can. He sacrificed his life to save his name and to keep his honor. John Proctor also sacrifices his life so that his children can look up to him as an example which is why he is a tragic hero. To be a Tragic Hero, a person has to make a judgmental error which is why John Proctor is a tragic hero.

Many actions dignify the traits of a tragic hero, but only few stand out. In the tragedy The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a tragic hero dies a good man when brought to trial over nothing more than child’s play and dishonesty. John Proctor is an honest, upright, and blunt-spoken man because he fought for what is right and found forgiveness in his fatal flaw. Although he exhibits these traits throughout the story, John dies a dynamic character.

"A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles." There are many forms of heroes, some are big and obvious, others are small and unidentifiable, but either way, they make a difference in the world. In fact, there are several different kinds of heroes represented in The Crucible. In Arthur Miller's novel, the Crucible, the story takes place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 during the Salem witch trials. During this time, several people, men and women alike, are falsely accused of being witches. John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth are both falsely accused of being witches, so both husband and wife need to fight for their lives. In the Crucible, John Proctor goes to great

“Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again,” happens to be a quote from John Proctor whilst he was speaking to Abigail Williams in Act One of The Crucible. John Proctor happens to be a hard-working farmer from Salem with strong Puritan beliefs. Although John is a religious Puritan man he has some downfalls within the play The Crucible. His first downfall would be him committing adultery with a seventeen year old named Abigail Williams, who was his servant at the time. After committing said adultery with the teenage girl, he keeps it a secret from his wife until she fires Abigail and kicks her out of their house. After that his wife is accused of being a witch by Abigail because of him not wanting to be with Abigail anymore. He finally tells the truth about the affair while in court and is accused of being a witch after screaming “God is dead,” he then was hung three months later. So, if there is one character I can most closely relate myself to it would be John Proctor. Three character traits that I share with John Proctor is that we are both honest, hard-working, and caring.

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible it is clear that the development of the play is about John Proctor’s tragic condition. Miller uses this aspect to compel the audience to see why Proctor did what he did and to develop a sense of empathy for him. John Proctor overall is both flawed and honorable. He has a complete reversal of fate brought upon by his own flaw. John Proctor is a tragic hero because he contains all of the characteristics of a tragic hero, such as catharsis and hamartia, despite not being born into nobility, he has many noble characteristics.

In comparison to modern day terms john proctor was the “cool guy” of the town. He had

“As a general rule . . . the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing-his sense of personal dignity” (“Tragedy”). Miller, the author of the Crucible and the Tragedy and the Common Man, said these words to prove that a tragic play is not meant to be pessimistic, but more optimistic. In The Crucible, John Proctor, a farmer that proves to be the protagonist, goes through a dramatic change throughout the play; learning to forgive himself for his flaws, and in the end to have pride and stand up for what is right.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller, is a play written to mirror the anti-communist hysteria and how Joseph McCarthy went on “witch hunts”, which was basically finding an innocent person who was accused of being a witch and punishing them. Throughout The Crucible you will see very similar actions that mirror the McCarthy era; like how Abigail gets mad John Proctor does not want to be with her and spreads a rumor that his wife is a witch. “A tragic hero is the main character in a tragedy,” directly describes John Proctor. John Proctor is the husband of Elizabeth Proctor and one of the most well known and respected men in the village. They both have trust issues after John has an affair with an old “maid”, Abigail. She was fired or ‘let go’

The word “crucible” is also used to describe a severe test or a hard trial. In the town of Salem, Massachusetts chaos erupted with witchcraft. Many were accused, hanged, and jailed by this phenomenon. Unfortunately, various people faced difficult trials throughout this episode, one of them being John Proctor. John, a married Salem-born Puritan who owned his own piece of land, encountered many tragic events during the witch trials. He faced the internal conflict of remorse due to his dishonorable crime. Not only did he face an internal conflict in the play The Crucible, he faced a variety of external conflicts, such as the continuous reminder of his sin directed by his wife; also, John experienced the religious disagreement with the minister of Salem.

In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” Parris carries a very important position as revered of the muddled village, Salem. For years, Parris struggles to earn a good position in the town, especially from the more respected people such as John Proctor and the Putnams. However, due to Parris’ lack of tending to his responsibilities in attempt to win a good reputation, a string of consequences for Salem followed for all. He recurrently swayed between the ‘winning’ side of the drama so he was always in favor. Parris rebuked to be taken accountable for the fact his very own niece was found conjuring spirits in the woods, he was fast to blame people for acts that had little to no evidence, and in the court, he would often give the judges a prejudiced story behind each and every person so they would hypothetically be dead before even getting the chance to protest.

Abigail Williams has the blood of 20 wrongly accused people on her hands because she puts her lust for John Proctor ahead of honesty, uses other characters as scapegoats for witchcraft, and she flees her own mess instead of fixing it. The reader may see all of thee throughout the text showing abigail doing things that give her more blood on her hands.

The consequences of shirking accountability for ones actions are depicted through the tribulations John Proctor faced, in Arthur Miller's, The Crucible. Although John reluctantly became involved in the Salem witch trials, his initial silence proved to be the downfall of not only himself, but of his fellow townspeople as well. John Proctor remained silent for one reason, and that was to protect himself. As a result of his self-serving desires to avoid the consequences of his actions, innocent citizens were put to death.

In The Crucible the characters all show different kind of growth throughout the story. The story is based of a town called Salem and when the Devil hit Salem all the people started to turn on each other. What started of as a little joke between girls turned into a whole game for them to play. The girls accused anyone they saw or anyone that did them wrong and each and every time those same people were hanged. Although, this play is mostly about the witchcraft the people also changed as time went by and they started to understand what was happening and why it was wrong.

John will not accuse others because he wants to protect his good name. John has been an honest man all of his life. If he turns in the others, the village will loathe him and his good name will be ruined. John states “Damn the village! I confess to God, and God has seen my name on this!