John Proctor As A Hero In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, it is evident that John Proctor is the tragic hero. Concluding through evidence in the play, it is fairly simple to connect him with separate parts of the definition. He makes his share of mistakes, just as many human beings do. John Proctor is fundamentally a good man, with respectable

John Proctor became a tragic hero in “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller has brought a big problem to the Village of Salem, after Procto had an affair with Abigail Williams, she began to look for revenge and she started accusing people of witchcraft. John Proctor; a well-respected man in Salem, who is a hard worker always working for his family, love his children and his wife, is founded in a critical situation after committing adultery with a girl in the village. John Proctor, the protagonist of the play “The Crucible”, a well-respected man, a noble man who has done a lot for his family, possesses a major flaw he has had an affair with Abigail Williams, and eventually he realizes what he has done in Salem and to

He demonstrates all of a hero’s characteristics in some way or another. Although not upper class, he is still an upstanding member of the community. He is well respected and looked up to by those around him. As Miller describes him, “Proctor, respected and even feared in Salem, has come to regard himself as a kind of fraud.” (1098) He believes himself to be a fraud because of his tragic flaw: the affair with Abigail Williams. That affair is Proctor’s one weakness, and no one knows about it besides John, his wife, Elizabeth, and Abby. Another characteristic of a tragic hero is that he must be involved in some kind of struggle. Proctor is involved in two different struggles. One is the personal struggle between him and his wife. Elizabeth knows of his lechery and has a hard time forgiving him. Proctor tries to convince her of his love and faithfulness, but it is almost impossible. The other struggle Proctor faces is the social struggle that is going on throughout the whole town. The witchcraft hysteria has overtaken Salem, and Proctor struggles to stand out as an honest opposer of the hangings even though it may lead to his own downfall.

In the play by Arthur Miller The Crucible, the town of Salem is in pandemonium under the non-existent threat of witchcraft. Every character is either lying to save their lives or to end others, or dying for not admitting to a lie. One character who stands out among the chaotic conflagration is the tragic hero John Proctor. In Greek drama, a tragic hero is defined as “a great or virtuous character in a dramatic tragedy that is destined for downfall, suffering, or defeat.” No character in The Crucible fits this description better than John Proctor. John Proctor is the tragic hero in The Crucible because of his strengths and notable traits,

The confession was too late. Proctor ended up being accused of witchcraft himself after his wife lied to the court to save his name from lechery.

Throughout the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the main protagonist, John Proctor, changed from a normal citizen and sinner to a tragic hero, then a person with a high sense of mortality. The play takes place during the salem Witch Trials in 1692, where spectral evidence was evident in the courts. John Proctor stopped attending church on Sundays, due to his belief that it was becoming less and less about God, along with his present feeling of guilt and his sinful actions. Rumors and accusations run ramped in Salem threatening to taint the good reputations of the townspeople. Proctor’s own morals, honesty, and religious beliefs were challenged on behalf of spectral evidence in the court and his sinful actions. Proctor harboured guilt for

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.

“That John Proctor the sinner might overturn his paralyzing personal guilt and become the most forthright voice against the madness around him was a reassurance to me, and, I suppose, an inspiration: it demonstrated that a clear moral outcry could still spring even from an ambiguously unblemished soul,” Miller says this about Proctor. Procter the “sinner” was unfaithful to his wife Elizabeth; during the beginning of the play we see Proctor as a cheater and hot-headed adulterer. Throughout the play he truly tried to seek redemption for his wrongdoing towards Elizabeth. He later on changes from this cheater, hot-headed adulterer to a saint who tries to save the lives of the falsely accused by admitting to his sins and fighting for the truth until his very last breath.

should be happy. He also hides the fact that he was alone in the room

"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

Proctor has many character traits that contribute to him being so difficult to figure out. His crime of lechery against his wife and his willingness to save her both are intermixed in a tangle of

Proctor is a man who feels guilty for the wrongs he has done to others. Humans aren’t infallible, and all can attest to this. Proctor is no exception to this simple fact of life. Even his wife, who has been claimed many times over

As a good Puritan one must always follow the Ten Commandments. John Proctor had failed to do so. While his ill wife was in bed, John had an affair with the naïve Abigail Williams. The shame of his affair led him to concede his actions, like a good Christian. The guilt of his actions had made him frail. He wanted to regain Elizabeth’s trust. He regretted having hurt his wife. Although his wife had somewhat started to regain trust in him. He continued to have the guilt. He made himself paranoid over his actions. “I do not judge you. The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you. I never thought you but a good man, John” (Miller 55). Later, by having confessed his acts of lechery to the court, he would save the life of his beloved wife.

In the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, John Proctor fits the classic Greek definition of a tragic hero.  Aristotle, one of the great Greek philosophers, teachers and writers, stated that one of the most important aspects of a tragedy was the tragic hero.  He defined a tragic hero as a noble person that goes from a state of fortune and happiness to a state of utter misery.  The character’s tragic flaw causes this change.  Aristotle stated that witnessing the downfall of the character triggered an emotional release, which left the audience feeling relieved because they have empathized with the character, but not upset because the downfall was the character’s

He is faced with extreme conflict due to the fact that he committed one of the biggest sins there is: adultery. Proctor then has to decide whether he wants to confess his sin in order to save his wife or to be selfish and live a slandered reputation. Just as John Proctor makes the decision to save his wife’s life and his family's reputation, so too will any person that believes it is more important to put their family above