In literature, heroes can be defined as the protagonist and someone who has gone through the worst of times but came out looking to the best. Simple heros found in today’s novels, short stories, and poems go through a series of tasks that help shape their heroism. Aristotle quoted “A man doesn’t become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall.” These wise words applies to all tragic and sympathy-inducing heroes in the world, such as Odysseus, the brave warrior king from “The Odyssey,” and John Proctor, the Puritan farmer from “The Crucible.”
John Proctor is a true, classic hero from a historical fiction novel based on the Salem Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts. While the Salem Witch Trials were a terrible and harsh time for nearly all of the population, John Proctor can be seen as the pinnacle of hope for all of the townspeople present in the book. He trudged through the trials with a fiery ball of passion to save his wife, Elizabeth, while also coming to truth with himself. John Proctor realizes what he had done wrong and spends the remainder of his life attempting to correct his mistakes, which is called hamartia and anagnorisis. Despite this, John Proctor is no pure man, committing to adultery and acting selfish when not thinking of his friends’ lives being wasted. Yet he had come to terms of forgiveness in himself and his wife in Act Four of “The Crucible.”
While each victim of the Salem Witch Trials suffered terribly throughout the book, the
A tragic hero is a very favored person that suffers from a downfall which leads to their death. John Proctor, like many others, is a tragic hero. The author, Arthur Miller, gives John Proctor the role of a tragic hero throughout the story of The Crucible. This protagonist, John Proctor, made judgement errors that inevitably led to his own destruction. John Proctor is an afflicted individual. He believes his affair with Abigail irreparably damaged him in the eyes of God, his wife Elizabeth, and himself. John Proctor succumbed to sin and committed the crime of adultery; however, he lacks the capacity to forgive himself. When referencing criticism, John Proctor and the Crucible of Individuation in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Michelle I Pearson, who also agrees John Proctor is a tragic hero, once said in her article that “While the people of Salem look at Proctor and see a strong, hard-working, no-nonsense man, Proctor himself knows that he is an adulterer, a lecher, and that he drives himself to try to be free of his guilt. Not until faced with a crisis, however, will he leave the persona behind and begin the process of individuation.” The criticism provided helps prove John Proctor fits the role of a tragic hero in The Crucible. In order to convey the message of iniquity in the Puritan society, Arthur Miller casts John Proctor in The Crucible because he is able to overcome his tragic flaw of hubris, but still the circumstances unfortunately led to his death. Proctor is a very respected man in Salem but he also has a few flaws that have proved him to be a tragic hero which are prideful, lustful, and well respected. Later in The Crucible, Proctor realizes his flaws and tries to fix them but it is too late. One of Proctor’s tragic flaws is that he is too prideful.
A Tragedy as a literary Work is described in which there is a hero that is basically moral individual destroyed by some character flaw and by force beyond his or her control. That hero is a tragic hero who experiences an inner struggle because of this flaw. Because of his charter flaw and his struggle to do what is right, John Proctor is a tragic hero.
A Tragic hero is a character who experiences a major downfall as the results of a personal mistake or the workings of fate. There are many tragic heroes in the play The Crucible, But the one that comes to mind is John Proctor for several reasons. It all starts out with the affair with Abigail, when that affair happens John Proctor breaks his wedding vows and violate the moral convictions of the community by engaging in an adultery affair with Abigail. John Proctor is a classic example of a tragic hero in the play, The Crucible for several reasons…
As human beings, we each display specific traits and qualities that define our character and shape our personalities. The way in which we carry ourselves establishes our reputations, as well as how others identify us. We are each prone to making mistakes, and unfortunately, the mistakes we make can affect the way people see us as well. The struggle to regain a good name can be difficult and uncertain once someone’s reputation is tarnished. In Arthur Miller’s timeless play, The Crucible, a well-respected man named John Proctor betrays his wife and struggles to gain her forgiveness and his good name in the village of Salem. Although John Proctor betrays his wife, he
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, various characters, whether it is from physical trials or unseen personal struggles, experience some kind of major conflict. There are those who spend every day in fear, wondering whether or not they will be falsely accused of witchcraft. There are others who struggle with more internal trials, such as forgiving those who have hurt them. The protagonist, John Proctor, was a man of strong moral constitution, and held himself to a high standard for the sake of his good name and family. As a result of this, he struggled with a major internal conflict throughout the play.
Purist Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 suffered from a rapidly increasing phenomenon: witchcraft accusations and trials. The Crucible is a play that recounts the times of this incident. For the most part, it follows a man known as John Proctor. He is a sensible, honest, and hardworking man who made the mistake of succumbing to lust which sets off a chain of events that leads to the witch trials, and to his own demise. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible’s protagonist John Proctor proves to be a flawed human being who struggles to make sense of his past relationship with Abigail, his love for his wife, and his pride.
Despite his being an insignificant and non-status-holding member of society, John Proctor is a much-respected man in Salem. However, in determining his fate, he continues to make several critical and irreversible mistakes that harm his reputation. For fear of being exiled in a town where reputation plays such a large role in their daily lives, Proctor initially tries to hide his crime of adultery, but his affair with Abigail triggers a major series of events in Salem, where simple, unproven accusations escalate to a far larger issue: “Abby—you mean to cry out still others?” “If I live, if I am not murdered, I surely will, until the last hypocrite is dead” (Miller 150). In the end, Proctor decides that for the sake of his desperate circumstances, it would be better to admit to his affair, but by the time he decides to reveal his crime, it is too late to reverse all past actions. He is convicted of witchcraft and doomed to be hanged, later, when given a chance to live, he caves in and confesses to seeing the Devil, only to go back even on this last lie, because he does not have the heart to be freed and saved by a lie.
A tragic hero, according to Aristotle, is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his or her own destruction. The Crucible is a play by Arthur Miller. The Crucible is a play about the Salem Witch Trials. In Salem there is a huge dispute over who has came in contact with the devil, beginning with a couple of girls who were caught in the forest dancing by Reverend Parris. People began to name names of who they saw with the devil in fear of getting accused, and the town enters a chaotic state. This causes the Salem witch trials, where if someone is accused they must confess to coming in contact with the devil to the court, even if they did not, or they will be hanged. In The Crucible, John Proctor is the
In the book, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor is a farmer and a prominent member of society. However, he had an affair with a girl in town, Abigail Williams which leads to his wife being convicted of witchcraft and himself convicted of dealing with the devil. John Proctor is a strong and effective speaker and proves his point with the three rhetorical appeals and devices such as personification, similes, metaphors and tone.
Honorable...Ashamed...Respected...All of these words can be used to describe John Proctor. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible John Proctor, one of the main characters, is faced with a variety of challenges. The most extreme test that he must face is to admit to a crime that ultimately leads to his death. At one time he was looked up to in the town of Salem, however when a situation arises, John Proctor must fight his conscience. He is motivated and tested to tell the truth even though it ruined his good reputation and contributed largely to the theme of an individuals reputation throughout the play. This man truly created a model for us to follow.
“I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with but enough to keep it from such dogs”- John Proctor, The Crucible. This quote is from the play, The Crucible, and John Proctor is referring to all the people trying to get him to confess that he has compacted with the devil in this quote. However, John Proctor is accepting that he is dying an honest but sinful man in the eyes of God, which is a trait of a tragic hero. In the Crucible, John Proctor can be considered a tragic hero in that he meets all of Aristotle's tragic hero traits. We can see this area of analysis in
John Proctor lived in Salem, Massachusetts. Salem had been struck with witchcraft rumors that were started by a manipulative teenage girl named Abigail. He knows that the girls were sporting, and blaming innocent people of supernatural crimes that cannot occur. John Proctor’s wife Elizabeth had been accused of witchery, as a form of revenge from Abigail. Abigail had strong feelings for John Proctor, and wanted to get rid of Elizabeth. In the end John Proctor tried to do the right thing by saving his wife from his own sins. Therefore his sins put the love of his life in a great risk of dying. Throughout The Crucible John Proctor was seen as a smart, argumental and brave man. However, the town did not see him as a puritan or a good
Aristotle's definition of a classic tragic hero is a literary character who is a “great man”and eventual committed an error leading to the character's own destruction. Furthermore, the character’s excessive pride causes a barricade to the character’s reality,which also leads to a path of a potential fatal outcome.John Proctor is a prime example of Aristotle's definition of a tragic hero through his position as a successful farmer;his authoritative demeanor with other members of the community causes a road to his fatal death.“Since we built the church there were pewter candlesticks upon the altar; Francis Nurse made them, y’know, and a sweeter hand never touched the metal. But Parris came, and for twenty week he preach nothin’ but golden candlesticks until he had them. I labor the earth from dawn of day to blink of night, and I tell you true, when I look to heaven and see my money glaring at his elbows— it hurt my prayer, sir, it hurt my prayer….”(Miller 65). In other words, John Proctor describes Reverend Parris as a greedy man, infusing rich and fortune in to the town’s church. Proctor is upset with the newly ornaments added to the building of the church, which Proctor has built himself. Proctor contrasting the attitudes between Paris and himself (Proctor being the innocent) shows Proctor’s excessive pride. Proctor uses idioms such as “from dawn of day” and “to blink of night”, in order to amplify his message and to show his knowledge of the english language. Moving on, Proctor uses the metaphor,”when I look to
According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is a literary character of magnitude that “makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his or her destruction”. Unlike the Greek philosopher’s description, Arthur Miller, the author of the essay “Tragedy and the Common Man”, considers a tragic hero to be a character of ordinary status that “is ready to lay down their life to secure his or her personal dignity”. Miller illustrates this belief in his Puritanical play The Crucible, featuring the honest and wholesome protagonist, John Proctor as the tragic hero. Proctor, a farmer who despises hypocrites, finds himself in a string of conflict when he commits adultery with his former house servant and becomes what he hates most, resulting in his death. Proctor’s role as a true classical tragic hero is demonstrated by his relentless fight to expose Abigail and the “witch trials” as lies, and save his wife and secure “good name”.
A tragic hero is a character that has a tragic flaw that leads to there distruction. The tragic hero has the fallowing characteristics: honor,respect,curage and ambition. John Proctor is a Tragic hero becaus he show heroic qualitys.