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How Did John Proctor Impact The Crucible

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The Impact of John Proctor’s Confessions
Vanity is a human instinct, we want to be seen as great people. This is the reason admitting your wrongdoings is difficult because it may change your appearance in the community. In the famous tragedy, The Crucible, by playwright Arthur Miller, there are many unfair trials, thus, false confessions play a large role. The Crucible is a play based on the Salem witch trials, where individuals are falsely accused of witchcraft and are brought in front of strict judges for corrupt trials. The result: innocent people being hanged to death, unless they confessed. The protagonist, John Proctor, decided not to confess, so he was hanged. However, John Proctor made three confessions with good intent, which were …show more content…

He is attempting to demonstrate that he committed an error and it was just a discussion. However, Elizabeth is irate. She is astounded that she did not know about Proctor being with Abigail up until this point and is hurt since Proctor did such to her in the first place. Adultery is an extremely profound wrongdoing, and it impacts the court heavily as a piece of Proctor’s case. Before John confessed about having an affair with Abigail, he was respected heavily in Salem. Now, Elizabeth is scrutinizing Proctor's morality in light of the lies that he has advised her. In this manner, Elizabeth after seeing Proctor, says to him “John, you are not open with me. You saw her with a crowd, you said.”(Miller 55). This quote demonstrates that John, throughout the play, has been changing the stories he has been telling Elizabeth. Elizabeth and the girls decide not to deem John’s stories accurate, as they believe he is a dishonest man that does not stick to his words. Elizabeth also feels as if John may be keeping information confidential from her and is not giving her enough attention as his wife, even though John was confessing to let Elizabeth know of his secret affair with …show more content…

Abigail wants to keep the adultery private, but John is trying to confess. While in court, Proctor cunningly admits to adultery to make Abigail resemble a whore. Danforth questions Proctor’s reasoning to call her a whore, but Proctor exclaims “I have known her sir, I have known her”(Miller 110). Proctor puts forth this statement to reassure Danforth about Abigail being a whore. He insists that he is telling the truth because he knows Abigail extremely well and imagines that it would be typical for her to commit adultery. Proctor also was attempting to prove that Abigail is not a good individual. However, this ends up backfiring on him as Abigail proves that John Proctor is lying. This is the principle confession that destroys Proctor's life, as it empowers Abigail to have additional sentencing power, which permits her to blame Proctor later on for witchcraft, and that paves the way to his demise. After Proctor makes the confession, many people in the court are startled because adultery is a severe crime. Danforth, being the judge, is the most appalled that Proctor perpetrated such a wrongdoing. He then tries clarifying Proctor’s confession of participating in an iniquity by asking once again, “You - you are a lecher?”(Miller 110). This question by Danforth demonstrates that Proctor is, truth be told, conflicting with the standards of Theocracy by

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