In the play, “The Crucible”, characters are put in tough situations where they feel uncomfortable and they need for something to change in order to solve the problem. As the action heats up, some of the characters in The Crucible stay the same, but a few of them change. The first person is John Proctor, who changed somewhat through the play. The second is Abigail Williams, who attempts to change the people around her. And the third is Reverend John Hale, who changes dramatically throughout the play. All of these characters recognize that change is needed, but approach the problem from different perspectives. John Proctor is the first person to change in the play. In the beginning of the play, Proctor is a very selfish who would do anything to protect his affair with Abigail Williams. Meanwhile, Proctor tries to completely rid Abigail’s mind of the affair by telling her “they never touched.” At this point, Proctor will do anything to keep his affair undercover. As time passes, Proctor realizes that the only way to stop Abigail’s riot is to admit that he has had the affair. This is when Proctor realizes that his confession is too late. When they bring Elizabeth, Proctor's wife, in to testify against him, she unknowingly tells the court that her husband is innocent. Proctor has already undergone a change during the play, as he becomes willing to confess his secret affair. After John is sentenced to death, no one is left with hope for him. However, the court offers John a
The play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, takes place in the town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. This time in Salem, witchcraft was suspected of almost everyone in the town. Preserving one’s reputation becomes recurring concept throughout the play. The witchcraft accusations are usually made by people that have a biased view against others, which is why everyone tries to make sure their reputation looks well with the rest of the town. This concept is proven through the characters of John Proctor, Reverend Parris and Reverend Hale. These three characters go to great lengths to protect what the town of Salem thinks of them.
To conclude, in Miller’s The Crucible, each character goes through a change or transformation that leads to the insight that leads them to learn more about themselves and the people around them. The character that goes through the most significant change in the play was John Procter. His insight leads him to realize his mistake of trying to hide his adultery from society in order to save his public face. By trying to hide it, however, he puts the life of his wife, and many other people at risk. By finally
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor, the protagonist, is a farmer in his middle thirties. The author gives little to no detailed physical description of him, but from Proctor’s speech, we can still picture him as a strong and powerful man who is able to keep every situation under the control, the kind of personality which earns him deep respect and even fear from the people in town. On the other hand, Abigail Williams, the antagonist, plays an inferior role as an orphan who has no social status in a place like Salem. Over the course of the play, John Proctor is absolutely awakened and transformed by Abigail Williams. In the end, he overcomes the crucible by releasing himself from his guilt of
John Proctor is, arguably, the main character of the play. The Proctor that is presented to the readers at the beginning is not the same Proctor that is seen when the curtains drop for the last time. For example, Proctor states, "My honesty is broke, Elizabeth; I am no good man. Nothing spoiled by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before."(Miller 535). Proctor sees himself as evil, so what can one worse thing possibly do to him? This is the mindset that Proctor takes on for most the play, for so long that the reader begins to believe that he will never change. But something happens that does change Proctor; here he states, "You have made your magic now, for now I do see the goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but white enough to keep it from such dogs."(Miller 539). Proctor changed significantly, he recognizes the good in himself and becomes at peace. Proctor's whole mindset is switched around in only a few pages. Circumstances and traumatic
John Proctor is a dynamic character who is stern, authoritative, angry and unfaithful. Proctor develops a reputation in the beginning of the play based off of his past choices. Proctor is talked about within the community as an unfaithful man who needs to go to church. Proctor is unfaithful because he cheated on his wife Elizabeth with Abigail. Proctor and Abigail have a relationship for a while until Proctor calls it off. In act one Abigail says “I know you clutched my back...and sweated like a stallion when I come near”(Miller 14-15). This is an example of John Proctor being unfaithful towards his wife Elizabeth. Proctor tells Abigail “I may have looked up,” Proctor says this because Abigail says Proctor has previously looked up at her window when passing by. Abigail has a sense for heat towards Proctor. He
The witch trials in this play were based on actual events that happened in Salem in 1692. Arthur Miller’s 1953 The Crucible is a dramatization of the Salem Witch Trials. His reasoning for writing it was because everyone was hysteric about the Soviet Union and communism trying to make its way over to the United States. It was like a modern day witch hunt. In the play, Abigail Williams and a group of girls get caught in the woods. They were dancing and doing other things that puritan’s looked down upon. The girls were caught by Reverend Parris, and soon after his daughter became ‘ill’. The girls then started saying that witches came to them and told them to do bad things. They sent innocent people to hang. After studying Arthur Miller’s
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, it takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during colonial America. Throughout the story a group of girls makes accusations a mass of people of practicing witchcraft, one of the worst crimes to commit during that period, and people are being sentenced to hang for denying witchery. In the Crucible there are many lessons that Arthur Miller wants to teach you. To me a lot of the lessons that were taught in this story are important but I feel like one of them is the most important. Arthur Miller demonstrates that one of the lessons implied in the story is people’s character and how it affects those people and others. Examples of character are Giles Corey, John Proctor, Abigail Williams.
The Crucible is set in the seventeenth- century Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem witch trial. It starts of with Reverend Parris, a man very concerned about his reputation, accusing his orphaned niece Abigail Williams of taking part in witchcraft after his daughter is unconscious after dancing in the woods. A technique used by Parris is characterization, which utilizes the thoughts, actions and dialogues in the construction of characters. Arthur Miller uses characterization to build the character of Reverend Samuel Parris as arrogant , selfish, and deceptive.
In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller was based on the Salem, witch trials when the people of the town where accusing each other of witchcraft and those held for questioning would stand trial had a choice to be valor. In Miller’s portrayal of the ghastly, sickening inquiry of witchcraft many people in the 1690’s were people of the township were maintaining guard for their beliefs; while others of the community of Salem were cowards who took the easy out of the accusations they were on trial. The townspeople of Salem are going through a day people are courageous even in a way others could not be or were never suppose to be. Those characters display their courage in the town at the time of need, John Proctor is a selfless man when only stating
Change in inevitable in life. You can’t go your whole life without change, and this extends even into the realm of fiction. The play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, is about mob hysteria in the Salem Witch Trials.In this play each of the characters of Proctor, Abigail, and Parris change from the beginning to the end of the play. Proctor becomes more open with himself; Abigail realizes the weight of her lies; and Parris realizes how bad he really is. Throughout the play, each of these characters has their highs and their lows, but none escape unchanged.
First in Act One, John Proctor changes in the story through the guilt of having relations with Abigail. When Abigail was working for the Proctor family, John’s wife, Elizabeth, was sick and left his desirable needs for a female in a drought. This led to him having an affair with young Abigail, but he now realizes that he was wrong for how he treated his wife during a time she needed him the most. “Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I'll ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of mind. We never touched, Abby.” (146). This quote explains that John is telling Abigail whatever relationship that she thinks she has with him is
Throughout the course of the play, John Proctor becomes more honest with himself, his wife, and his community. In the beginning of the play,
Proctor felt guilty, conflicted, untrue to himself, and, since he prided himself on exposing hypocrites, hypocritical. He felt angry, as well, because Elizabeth began to be suspicious of John after she found out after his affair with Abigail. “I cannot speak but I am doubted, every moment judged for lies, as though I come into a court when I come into this house!” Soon, Elizabeth is arrested after Abigail accuses her of attempted murder. With a war waging inside of him, John Proctor was willing to go far in order to forgive himself and avenge his
Proctor, who doesn't get involved in the town's issues, has begun to intervene every single issue of the witchcraft because innocent people are beginning hang for false accusations due to Abigail's love for proctor and is trying to be with him by killing off anyone that intervenes with her plans.”Abigail Williams told you it had naught to do with witchcraft,” says Hale, a character in “The Crucible”, author Arthur Miller. Proctor told Hale that Abigail had been lying to be with him and killing people off for him. As Proctor found out about that Abigail had accused Elizabeth, Proctor's wife, that's when he started to do everything in his power to help save her from death even it means to ruin his name buy telling the court that he committed the lecture with Abigail williams. Proctor went from a Jerk, sinner, and a hypocrite to a caring and noble man buy trying to save the rest of the accused lives including his wife and the baby that she is carrying in her womb. When Proctor wanted to confess the judge told him to write down his confession so the people can see, but Proctor will not let the judge do that to him and then later tears up the confession to die an honest man than to to believing a lie of something that he didn't do. He later is
John Proctor is one of the most essential characters in this play. He is a good, honest farmer that lives on the outside of Salem. He had an affair with Abigail Williams, which caused tension on his marriage, and tension on his relationship with Abigail. He told her that he will “cut [his] hand” before he reached for her again (894; Act I). He is penitent about his