How Does Proctor Show Sacrifice In The Crucible

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.

Throughout The Crucible we learn many things about John Proctor. Despite learning about the sins he has committed with Abigail the reader’s tend to agree with his character and support him. John Proctor has committed very intense sins and is clearly not free of guilt which is why his decision to hang instead of falsely confess was noble.

As the witch trials were put into effect, Proctor was rather distant, due to the fact that he did not believe they were a true worry. Throughout this time, his motivations were keeping his sin enclosed, obtaining a clean reputation, and gaining his wife's certitude. Proctor would rather conceal his sin, instead of addressing it. While in the process of keeping his sin a secret, Proctor chooses to no longer associate himself with Abigail, proceeding to tell her that he will “cut of [his] hand before [he] ever reach for you again”(23), the suffrage his marriage endured as a result of the affair, was so great that Proctor would rather cut of his hands than have sexual relations with Abigail again. In addition, in Act II Proctor pursues gaining

Within Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the protagonist John Proctor is accused of doing the Devil’s work by his former servant Mary Warren. This results in Proctor being put on trial and giving him the option of life or death. If Proctor admits to these false allegations, he will have the ability to live, or if he refuses to confess, then he will be hanged. Ultimately, Proctor chooses to end his life rather than live a lie. Proctor’s choice to choose death was an act of excessive pride and perhaps can be seen as noble due to the sacrifices he made in return.

In these turbulent times, trust is forgone, temptations are overpowering, and sacrifice is needed. John Proctor’s death was a necessary evil needed to sway the people and forgo the court's power over life and death.

This passage was very shocking and also meaningful to me. I have the utmost respect for Hester Prynne for being able to realize that she can not run away from her sin and for choosing to accept her sin and wear it proudly. I think this passage was so puzzling to me and many other students because truthfully most people would have left and stayed away from Boston. Majority of people would wish to get away from their troubles and start over but not Hester Prynne. This passage reminded me a lot of John Proctor in The Crucible.

In The Crucible, John Proctor is put into several sticky situations as he is determined to clear his wife’s name and dispel this corruption and nonsense of the court. Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth, is put into jail and is to be tried on the accusations by Abigail Williams that

Proctor's desire to preserve his good name earlier keeps him from testifying against Abigail, leading to disastrous consequences. Now,

Parris, who was in charge of the prayers on Sundays. As an end result John refused to go to church. Instead of going to church regularly; John Proctor had worked long hours on his farm to provide for his family. “In the book of record that Mr. Parris keeps, I note that you are rarely in the church on Sabbath day.” (Miller 64). John Proctor not going to church on Sundays, made him look terrible in court. This allowed people to accuse him of being a wizard. His youngest son not been baptized made it even more suspicious about his faith in God. These opinions were reinforced when John Proctor could not name the Ten Commandments.

In The Crucible, Arthur Miller depicts John Proctor’s confession as a turning point in his life by showing how he finally accepts the consequences of his sins. Miller uses Proctor’s climax to argue that confessing one’s sins is honorable and shows strength of character. Through his honest confession, John Proctor experiences a change in his perspective toward his own reputation. He accepts that the shame of allowing his wife to suffer for his mistakes is far greater than the shame of bedding Abigail: “A man will not cast away his good name” (Miller 110). He implies that a man would not implicate himself of adultery, losing his “good name”, without a just reason-

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.

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.

One of my most frustrating times was when a girl was spreading an obvious false lie around and people believed it. This time happened at my track meet this past summer. I was at a meet that was pretty far away from where I lived, so there was not that many local competitors that I knew at that meet. However, there was one girl there that I knew, and have competed against before. Before our race we gathered up under the tent prior to our race. I got to the canvas a little later and when I got there the other girls were already in depth into a conversation. The only girl that I knew had the other competitors circled around her and I overheard her and she was telling them ridiculous false times she has ran. The girl who was lying was saying that she was way better then what she was. All the other girls believed her and that angered me because she was not telling the truth and I knew it. To sum it up this is about the time I heard an athlete lie to everyone she was running against to make her look intimidated and infuriated me .

The Crucible is crazy and shocking. John Proctor stood up to the court for many different reasons. He protected his friends and most importantly his wife. He also admitted him having a affair with Abigail Williams and this is a great sin in their eyes but he didn’t care because it was to save his wife’s (Elizabeth Proctor) good name. Elizabeth Proctor is also very courageous. She tried lying to the court about John's affair to let him keep his good name and she has never lied about anything in her life. John Proctor is the most courageous person in The Crucible.

The air is warm, sweat dripping down his face. He longingly looks towards his wife with tears in his eyes; knowing the end is nigh. And then, with a bang, a crack, a whimper; his soul left, hoping to be in a better place. This was one man of many who was hung for witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. They all were admirable and died for a cause. One of them was an influential man by the name of John Proctor. John Proctor is an admirable man in the play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller because he is respectable, has a need to protect others in his life, and has integrity/honor.