John Proctor's Shadow Essay

Furthermore, According to, John Proctor and the Crucible of Individuation in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Michelle I Pearson, states, “Proctor's hypocrisy surrounds his dealings with and about Abigail. In committing adultery with Abigail, Proctor has sinnednot only against the moral fashion of the time, but against his own vision of decent conduct" (18). He wishes, however, to deny this sin both to himself and to others.” This criticism helps

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.

The first step for Proctor to regain his self-respect is when he goes to the court armed with three main weapons in order to free his wife, Abigail’s admission to him that there was no witchcraft, Mary Warren’s testimony and finally, Proctor is prepared to admit that he and Abigail had an affair. This would blacken Abigail’s now saintly reputation and discredit her in the eyes of the court. Even though Proctor’s goal of freeing Elizabeth and putting an end to the hysteria is not achieved, he takes significant steps towards regaining his self-respect. The first step being that he does not stop fighting the false accusations even after he finds out that Elizabeth is pregnant and therefore safe for the time being. He feels he owes a greater duty to the community and proceeds. The second step is that he has now just openly admitted his adulterous lechery; he is no longer a hypocrite. He has publicly embraced his sin.

"No, no, Abby. That's done with." And then later, " …I will cut off my

Proctor 's decision to tell the court about his affair ironically demonstrates his goodness. He also spoke up for the innocent girls that had their names branded. He willingly sacrifices his good name in order to protect his wife and others who are wrongly accused. Only through his public acknowledgment of the affair does Proctor regain his wife 's trust. At the end of the play, Proctor refuses to slander himself by allowing the court to make him make a false confession. The court told him to lie, and that if he lies that he would not be sent to the gallows. He did the right decision by telling the truth about his affair with Abigail. He honestly told the truth about the affair, and that he was not part of the witchcraft. His response further exemplifies Proctor 's integrity. But John was not guilty. He had nothing to do with witchcraft, he admitted to his own mistakes. Proctor knows that if he confesses that he will be damned himself, yet again, if he agrees to confess, he will also be free from the torment from the demon inside him and set others free too. This realization, along with Elizabeth 's forgiveness, enables Proctor to forgive himself and finally regain his good name and self-respect. As the court

He overcomes these conflicts by deciding to testify against Abigail and confessing to the crime of lechery. It is at this moment that he realises that he must participate in the community and that his individual needs might have to be sacrificed for the good of all. Another motivation for Proctor could have been that he wanted to replace his wife's alleged guilt with his own and that he wanted to be redeemed of his sin.

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.

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.

Throughout the play, Proctor struggles with his honor as he changes from viewing it as his reputation to believing it is based on his own private moral of truth. The isolated Puritan community in which Proctor lives forces him to try and achieve a pious and perfect lifestyle, which ultimately pressures him into lying about his affair with Abigail in order to maintain a good reputation. This view changes in the courtroom, when Proctor becomes extremely frustrated with the lies and deceit that Abigail is telling the judges, Proctor screams in anger, “I beg you sir, I beg you - see her what she is… She thinks to dance with me on my wife’s grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me; I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a

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.

            By methods of denying hypocrites, redeeming his relationship with his wife, and surrendering his life to save others, Proctor has indeed proven himself to be an admirable character.  Despite the dirty deeds of his teenage mistress Abigail, Proctor was able to successfully overcome his biggest fears and stressors in order to put an end to the Salem Witch trials.  If Proctor’s legacy is remembered and followed, then similar experiences in history to come will surely have a much better than if people are to follow the simple minded lead of the citizens of Salem,

John Proctor is caught in an obvious dilemma between his own moral principles and extrinsic honor as soon as the curtain rises. A married farmer with three sons in his family, Proctor commits adultery by having a secret affair with his former servant, an unmarried girl named Abigail Williams. His sense of guilt drugs him down to an abyss where he locks his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, out of his adoration and of his faithfulness and of his honesty. But above all, John Proctor concerns more about his scandal being exposed in public. Proctor, an upright Christian man who believes in God and the authentic righteousness in his own way, will not expose himself to public shame. Miller manipulated John Proctor’s sin to be the foundation of subsequent events, because he was aware that readers might expect

Love is not just a word but an action. This statement is very self-explanatory in most cases. Like in The Crucible, John Proctor is the tragic hero of this play, in which his wife and many others fall victim to false allegations of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.

John Proctor was a “farmer in his middle thirties… strong, even-tempered, and not easily led” (20). Proctor’s reputation was good and he was a well respected man around Salem. The play shows that Proctor’s past involved him having an affair with Abigail. Now in the present, Proctor is conflicted with the fear of being labeled as an adulterer for his past. Proctor’s fear weakens his morality in the court when he has to explain the situation to Judge Danforth. Proctor tells Danforth that he “has known her” (110) and that Abigail wishes to “dance with me (Proctor) on my wife's grave” (110). Although the fear of being labeled as an adulterer and being charged of lechery, Proctor believes that telling the truth is the right thing to do. Proctor realizes that the Salem witch trials have gone to far and are merely just attempts from Abigail to get Proctor all to herself. Proctor’s fear initially holds him back from telling the court the reason why Abigail is accusing everyone and acting strange. Later on the unveiling of his affair with Abigail results in the trials being questioned but it also fuels the deadly fate of

To add on, at the beginning of the play Proctor keeps silence of his affair with Abigail. This event not only affects Elizabeth in some way but he does not put a stop to the many executions being committed. We see a change in his actions when he has the courage to stand up to the court and defend his wife. In Act II Cheever says, “Proctor you dare not touch the warrant ... Ripping the warrant Out with you”(Miller). This demonstrates how he is able to stand up to a higher authority to do what he believes is right . To add on, In Act IV, John Proctor says “for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but white enough to keep it from such dogs”(Miller). This shows us how Proctor shapes