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.
In this play based on seventeenth century witchhunts, John Proctor is motivated by anger to
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He confesses to get his wife Elizabeth out of prison and uncover the reason for her being accused. He knows that Abigail is trying to get Elizabeth killed so that her desire to marry John can finally be met. John realized this and again spoke out against injustice. Proctor wanted to honor those who died faithfully and therefore admits to the sin he has been hiding. He feels he “cannot mount the gibbet like a saint”(136) and therefore first admits to lechery before he is executed.
John Proctor lived and died as an honorable man in Salem. He was not a perfect man and admittedly some of his decisions were not right. However he won the battle against his conscience and righted the wrong to the best of his ability, motivated by protecting his family’s name from shame. He paid for these convictions with his life. Throughout the play The Crucible, John is motivated to tell the truth even though it ruins reputation, and contributes to the theme of someones reputation. Although he lived and died in the seventeenth century his example is timeless as we are faced with situations similar to
The Salem witch trials was a story of envy, lies, and the danger of the people. Others wouldn’t defend those accused, and if they did, they themselves were eventually charged as witches. In many ways, defending others was condemning yourself. Such was the case for John Proctor in “The Crucible”. John Proctor was someone who had made mistakes, but through his own crucible made peace with himself and defended the honor of himself and the others that would not admit to witchcraft.
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
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.
Another inner quality that defines John Proctor is the value he holds to his good name. Proctor is a firm believer in the fact that one’s name is the only thing that remains after death, and what is done with it while living can affect one’s posterity for generations. This is the driving force behind his actions in the final act of the play. At first, he felt no shame in lying to the court about his accusation of witchcraft because he felt there was no more damage he could do to his reputation and that one more sin would not make any difference. His attitude changed when he realized his confession would mean blackening the name of those who already had died, and his sons would have to live with that mark on their names. He knew he could not teach his sons “. . . to walk like
In the novel The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor is a local farmer in the town of Salem, he is quite known due to his high reputation of being well respected and even slightly feared. John is a man of his integrity, he is considered to have an honorable name in his community, but John also has a great disdain for hypocrisy, yet has a secret of his own. In Act 1, John is described to be in his mid-30’s and as well as “a kind man, powerful of body, even tempered, and not easily led” (Miller 19). John Proctor is an independent man who has great strength in what he does and what he believes in. Throughout the play, John feels nothing but guilt about his little secret, cheating on his wife Elizabeth Proctor with Abigail. He has committed
In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the character John Proctor will not lie and confess to something he did not do. Thus, he is hanged for his principles. Proctor has two main principles he felt were more important to respect and uphold than his own life. The most obvious one was his reputation. In theocratic Salem, where private and public ethics are regarded equally, one’s reputation plays an important role. In such an environment where reputation is regarded so highly many are afraid of guilt by association. Various characters base their actions on the desire to protect their own reputations, in order to keep them in the best light possible. Towards the beginning of the play, John Proctor sought to keep his good name
“I have confessed myself! Is there no good penitence but it be public? God does not need my name nailed upon the church! God sees my name; God knows how black my sins are! It is enough!” (Miller 211) This shows that John Proctor chose to rip up the confession rather than let his name be known for anything other than good. The confession represents the lie and John Proctor chose to let the god know of his sins and his name remain good within Salem. In the end John Proctor realizes the mistakes the townspeople had made by hanging everyone accused, regardless of any real evidence
“The Crucible showed us that you should do the right thing ‘Go to him! He rushes out the door, as though to hold back his fate. Proctor! Proctor!’ the Author, Arthur Miller took the definition one step further: you shouldn’t care what others think and do the right thing”. John Proctor reputation with god shows how of a good man he is John Proctor is a sinner and a sinner are against their moral fashion and vision of decent, but the only thing that matters to a sinner is that they have understanding with god. When John Proctor toured up the confession to save his reputation with god and believes in himself to do the right thing and the reader learns that you shouldn’t care what others think about you and just do the right thing.
Proctor chooses to admit to his sin in order to prove to the court that all of her claims are false, and while people are still killed his actions still demonstrate how selfless he can be. He also demonstrates his selflessness when he chooses to die instead of falsely admitting to being a witch. His confession, while mostly for what he perceives to be the good of his family, is also done somewhat in spite, for the mass hysteria in the town of Salem is all the fault of one person, Abigail Williams. As said in Proctor’s confession to the affair, “But it is a whore’s vengeance, and you must see it” (110). John has decided that he is going to lie to the court in order to be with his family, but, as his trial comes closer he comes to a different conclusion. In a conversation with Elizabeth early on in Act IV he ponders his decision, does he want to live and disgrace his name? Or does he want to die and honor his name? He ultimately decides to die after his conversation with Elizabeth “Then who will judge me? God in heaven, what is John Proctor, what is John Proctor?” (138). He decides to die because dying for one's faith is the greatest honor they can bestow upon
In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, there is sequence of events involving witching in the city of Salem. Everyone in the town is being accused of being involved of doing witchcraft. The ones that are accused will be hung if they don’t confess. There are external and internal conflicts within each character. One main character that changes the most throughout the play is John Proctor. In the beginning of the play John Proctor shows that he is suspicious but throughout the play he confesses his wrongs and clears his act which makes him become a man of his word and a true puritan.
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, John Proctor is portrayed as a flawed character who despite his multiple faults is able to improve. His life in Massachusetts is plagued with various challenges and temptations, some of which Proctor proves to be vulnerable to. Despite these moments, Proctor is able to listen to his conscience and continue to obey his moral compass. This ability to return to his morals and accept his mistakes differentiates John Proctor from a sinner and enables him to be seen as a Christ-like figure. In the Crucible, John Proctor is a man of integrity, since he admits to his flaws, attempts to improve and protects the people around him, at his own expense.
One of the most prominent and influential characters who has represented these qualities is John Proctor. The reader sees how John conveys courage through defending his wife, admitting his crimes to the court, spending three months in a dungeon without faltering from his beliefs, and choosing to sacrifice himself for his family and justice. John exposes that he fell into his weakness when he became involved with Abigail. John admits this when he says, “Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time.” The reader also notices how weak John has become to the idea of lying in a confession, but each time John Proctor is introduced with weakness he defeats it with courage. John Proctor is adamant about truth. At the end of The Crucible John’s life is taken from him for truth. He will not waver from his morals and knows that the truth is that these people that have been convicted are innocent.
Throughout the play “The Crucible” John proctor, a man that has been accused of witchcraft, is given a choice of giving a false confession and in return he would be given his life. John a man with high morals decides that he would rather die to keep his name clean he made this decision knowing that he would be leaving his children and wife. A man willing to leave his entire family and die for the principle that kept his name clean is an increasingly challenging one. John felt as that keeping the truth was worth dying for and so he did
In Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, many characters value their reputation. A character who especially values his, more than anything else, is John proctor. He has strong feelings about how others view his overall quality or character. Unfortunately, other characters in the play must pay for their bad actions. John Proctor will do almost anything to keep his reputation, he will lie and do everything in his power to protect it. He shows how he really values his reputation especially in the act four. He was going to confess, and did, but when judge Danforth told him he was going to write his confession on a piece of paper and put it on the door of the church he would not stand for it. When Danforth asks him why he doesn't want to put it there
John Proctor, in The Crucible, showed great integrity. Although sometimes he might have made the wrong decision, he was always working on helping those close to him and keeping his name clean. During the time in Salem when this story was made, the idea of witchcraft