The Crucible By John Proctor

Arthur Millers The Crucible possesses many examples of interesting character development. A character who one initially finds to be worthy of mercy or pity can easily become the last person deserving of sympathy. This relationship is not only formed between the reader and the characters, but between the characters and the scenario of the story itself. The victim may become the accuser, or the scholar may become the humanitarian. This manner of characterization is best shown in the relationship between Reverend John Hale and Deputy Governor Danforth. Each is objectified to the events in Salem as they come into the situation with no attachments to any of the other characters and are unfamiliar with any of their mannerisms or personalities.

The Crucible, a novel/play by Arthur Miller displays the chaos of the witch trials within the small town of Salem, Mass. Of the many characters of the novel, John Proctor and Mary Warren are both characters that serve an importance to the novel. The two characters both interact in the stories in different ways. Even though both characters can be seen as minor characters because of their inferior power in the novel, Proctor and Mary Warren serve as important characters to the story line. One reason being the fact that they both bring about problems with and/or against antagonist Abigail Williams such as Mary Warren, who likes the feeling of have authority but gets into unwanted conflict often, and Proctor, who is an very aggressive person

Teenagers are often treated like children. Adults don’t respect their opinions because they are too young to understand or are too immature. The time period between childhood and adulthood are teenage years. So why do we treat teenagers like children when the teenage years are supposed to prep them for adulthood? However, there are situations were teenagers hold more power than we think. Although these are two completely different genres, The Crucible and the movie, Mean Girls, show how much destruction a group of teenage girls can do. So how could a group of teenage girls, younger than 18, possibly cause so much chaos?

Arthur Miller has created John Proctor the protagonist of The Crucible to be a 30 year old farmer in Salem, Massachusetts, powerful of body, even-tempered and not easily led. John speaks his mind when he recognizes injustice. He is highly respected, even feared, by some in Salem. His name is synonymous with honour and integrity. He takes pleasure in exposing hypocrisy and is respected for it. However John is a sinner, a sinner not only against the moral fashion of the time but against his own vision of decent conduct, he has come to regard himself as a kind of fraud. After admitting to lechery, John is accused of witchcraft, on this charge he is condemned.

In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, one of the many themes that stands out to most people is the importance of a having a good name and reputation. Miller uses certain characters outcomes in the play to prove that reputation was actually not the biggest concern. He consistently shows that reputation means nothing when it came to being accused during the Salem Witch Trials because many innocent people were killed. People began to use these accusations for their own benefit and that’s when it became chaotic. These random accusations of witchcraft could immediately cause someone’s admirable reputation to disappear. He provides evidence in the play through most characters that we would consider to have a good reputation such as: Rebecca Nurse, Elizabeth Proctor, and John Proctor.

An array of Aristotelian tragic heroes can be found throughout American literature. One of which includes John Proctor, main character farmer in mid-30s, from Arthur Miller 's play, The Crucible. Yet, in order for him to obtain such a title he must possess specific characteristics. Five of which include possession of hubris, a flaw or decision leading to desire for revenge, a reversal of good fortune brought forth by the error of judgement, acceptance of poor fortune brought forth by their actions, and lastly the fate dealt to these characters must be greater than deserved. Aristotle once said that “ A man doesn 't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall.” Before the play even begins John Proctor has already conducted adultery, a fatal flaw in judgement, with Abigail Williams, a sneaky seventeen year old. This crucial crescendo leads to the development of the Salem Witch trials and the downward spiral of John`s comfortable lifestyle.

John Proctor, a prominent individual in both the Salem Witch Trials and The Crucible, was tried and executed for witchcraft in 1692. "When the witchcraft hysteria first began in Salem village in the winter of 1692, Proctor became an outspoken opponent of the trials and stated to many that the afflicted girls, who had been accusing many of the villagers of witchcraft, were frauds and liars" (Brooks). There were many parallels between John Proctor and his character in The Crucible, including his vocal opposition towards the trials and his strong Puritan values that influenced his actions. As an involved member of the Salem community, Proctor was incredibly concerned with his reputation. Proctor 's young slave Mary Warren began experiencing fits after the scandal broke out. "She [Warren] testified that Proctor 's spirit beat her and forced her to touch the Devil 's book" (Brooks). His involvement was interpreted by the community, as him performing witchcraft in attempts to possess the girls.

In The Crucible, Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Elizabeth Proctor are arguably the most important characters. The affair between Abigail and John drives the plot of the play. Abigail begins accusing societal outcasts as witches and gradually works her way up the social ladder until she is able to accuse an upstanding citizen like Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch and having people believe the accusation. She accused Elizabeth of being a witch so that Elizabeth would be hanged. Then, Abigail would have John Proctor all to herself. Abigail, while certainly diabolical and ruthless, is rather misrepresented. Abigail has received nothing but tragedy in her life; short, though it is at this point. Her parents are killed in front of her at a very young age and while there is not anyway you can take that in a sympathetic aspect, seeing as she uses it to convince the girls to do her bidding, it is very clear that this image has stuck with her. The Crucible paints John in the position of a tragic hero and then ineluctably places Abigail in the light of an antagonist with no hope of retribution. Once you commend John for his actions, you must implicate Abigail for hers. Simply stated, Abigail should not just be incriminated based on what information we are provided. Abigail, while still very much faulty in her actions, deserves to be examined at a deeper level to provide you with the full understanding of just why this woman’s scorning was her breaking point.

Arthur Miller’s 1953 allegorical tale, The Crucible draws attention to the social disharmony in Salem’s strict and defective Puritan theocracy. Through his portrayal of key characters, Miller constructs how compromising integrity can destory relationships through John Proctor and Elizabeth.

In order to understand the events within “The Crucible”, these motivations must be followed. Each character may have a different

I am going to write a essay on The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Throughout the play, John Proctor makes three important confessions. First one being when he told his wife he cheated on her with Abigail, second one is when he confesses he committed lechery in court, and the last one being that he confessed that he was a witch. The first confession was made to get back together with his wife. The second was to expose Abigail Williams for what she has done. And the last one was to save his life but he took that confession back. So all of his confessions have different reasons. But none succeeds in improving his situation.

What is your motivation? Wealth? Power? Good reputation? How about the truth? In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, all of these desires are common. Two Puritan ministers, Reverend Parris and Reverend Hale, have one similar motivation, the people of Salem, but they also have very different motivations, like reputation and truth, which are exposed as the play unfolds.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an interpretation of the Salem witch trials of 1692 in Puritan Massachusetts in which religion, self- preservation and self-dignity play a vital role. The three factors I listed played a huge role in John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, Reverend Hale, Danforth and many other lives. Many other characters such as, Abigail Williams and her friends can be characterized by being greedy, bitter, and selfish. In the play, Miller reveals how people can go against their own morals, therefore they can protect themselves. In Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, he reveals to readers how fear escalated in Salem because of people's desire for personal gain.

During the time The Crucible was set, the community of Salem was awry. It did not have the solid characteristics of what a healthy town should look like. Instead there was no trust between people, everyone was watching out for only themselves, and most of the townspeople were turning their backs on the disastrous deeds of the court. The people of Salem feel like they have no one to turn to, so fear crept into their minds and hearts. They developed hysteria which caused the town to slowly disintegrate. This panic allows other people in their community to take advantage of them and manipulate them for their own purposes. In his play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller shows how vengeance and greed destroy the community through the characters of Abigail Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Putnam, and Reverend Parris.

Throughout this past semester, we have covered a lot of plays and their films that correspond within those plays. While I have learned a lot along the way I have found that there are certain plays that stuck out. Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, and The Importance of Being Earnest were among some of these plays from this semester. However, one of my personal favorites is The Crucible. I was able to uncover many themes from this play such as secret sin, lies and deceit, and religion.