The Crucible John Proctor Diary Entry

John Proctor is a very friendly man. Everyone likes being his friend. He is open, kind, helpful, upright, blunt-spoken, and just a good, hard-working man. John has lots of faith in God but little in humans. He knows that mankind is good but he also knows that they are weak and imperfect. “Proctor: I’ve heard you to be a sensible man, Mr. Hale. I hope you’ll leave some of it in Salem”.

A Tragic hero is a character who experiences a major downfall as the results of a personal mistake or the workings of fate. There are many tragic heroes in the play The Crucible, But the one that comes to mind is John Proctor for several reasons. It all starts out with the affair with Abigail, when that affair happens John Proctor breaks his wedding vows and violate the moral convictions of the community by engaging in an adultery affair with Abigail. John Proctor is a classic example of a tragic hero in the play, The Crucible for several reasons…

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.

In the book The Crucible there is a struggle within to have one have a sense of belonging to society. They want to be loved by that society no matter how much they may seem that they don’t belong. But they do want to show that to everyone, everyone that may not think that.

The primary dramatic focus in the play The Crucible is the moral struggle of its protagonist, John Proctor. Certain characteristics of John Proctor's character and also the environment of the Puritanical Salem alleviated this problem for him. The main issues running through out the play are a series of dilemmas that John Proctor faces. The first and foremost of these is his guilt over his adulterous affair with Abigail Williams, the second his hesitation to testify against Abigail to bring out the truth and the third, his final decision to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Purist Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 suffered from a rapidly increasing phenomenon: witchcraft accusations and trials. The Crucible is a play that recounts the times of this incident. For the most part, it follows a man known as John Proctor. He is a sensible, honest, and hardworking man who made the mistake of succumbing to lust which sets off a chain of events that leads to the witch trials, and to his own demise. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible’s protagonist John Proctor proves to be a flawed human being who struggles to make sense of his past relationship with Abigail, his love for his wife, and his pride.

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 1692, witchcraft was known as an evil sin to be commited on Earth, if accused of witchcraft, trial and execution was likely to happen and proceeded to happen to many innocent people. One well-known accussal was that of John Proctor. Proctor had committed adultery with Abigail Williams, a previous maid of the Proctor house, and once coming clean for his sin, in turn of events backfires and is accused of witchcraft. John Proctor is seen as a protagonist of the story full of courage and boldness when fighting for his life and good name in court. At the time, all possible outcomes were not at the top of his head but then he had to go through twists and turns to save his wife, Elizabeth, as well as himself. In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, John Proctor's character traits is shown to be a cheater, fearless, and courageous. Therefore, John Proctor's character can be portrayed through the song "Womanizer" by

John Proctor tried his hardest and went through hell and gave his life to try to save the people of his town in Salem. “ I am only wondering how i may prove what she told me Elizabeth. If the girl's a saint now; I think it not easy to prove she's a fraud the town gone silly., she told me in a room alone, I have no proof for it” (2.127-131). My explanation is by him saying that he means its going to be hard to prove Elizabeth Proctor is guilty and they are going to find out it's a lie. I connected to this because John and his wife are innocent and she never tells a lie, also they can't even prove that they are lying even if they were. Joth talked to Hale about the situation when Hale came to John's home in the middle of the night to ask questions.

“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,” happens to be a quote from John Proctor whilst he was speaking to Abigail Williams in Act One of The Crucible. John Proctor happens to be a hard-working farmer from Salem with strong Puritan beliefs. Although John is a religious Puritan man he has some downfalls within the play The Crucible. His first downfall would be him committing adultery with a seventeen year old named Abigail Williams, who was his servant at the time. After committing said adultery with the teenage girl, he keeps it a secret from his wife until she fires Abigail and kicks her out of their house. After that his wife is accused of being a witch by Abigail because of him not wanting to be with Abigail anymore. He finally tells the truth about the affair while in court and is accused of being a witch after screaming “God is dead,” he then was hung three months later. So, if there is one character I can most closely relate myself to it would be John Proctor. Three character traits that I share with John Proctor is that we are both honest, hard-working, and caring.

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.

Arthur Miller introduces a dynamic character, John Proctor, in his play The Crucible. John, known for his loyalty and detest of hypocrisy, is involved in the adulterous action of cheating on his wife Elizabeth with their housekeeper, Abigail. The question of if John Proctor is a tragic hero surfaces as his downfall is followed by the very truth of his hidden affair. In Miller’s essay, Tragedy and the Common Man, he challenges the basic definition of a tragic hero and explains how the common man could be in the category of a hero. Based on Miller’s arguments, it is apparent that John Proctor encounters the situations that makes someone a tragic hero, and therefore can be considered one.

“As a general rule . . . the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing-his sense of personal dignity” (“Tragedy”). Miller, the author of the Crucible and the Tragedy and the Common Man, said these words to prove that a tragic play is not meant to be pessimistic, but more optimistic. In The Crucible, John Proctor, a farmer that proves to be the protagonist, goes through a dramatic change throughout the play; learning to forgive himself for his flaws, and in the end to have pride and stand up for what is right.

Despite outspoken personality and qualities as a critical thinker, John Proctor is far from being a perfect human being. In his notes, Arthur Miller describes him as a sinner, "a sinner not only against the moral fashion of the time, but against his own vision of decent conduct." (P.20) Similar to Jesus who was tempted in the desert and taunted by the pharisees, Proctor's journey is riddled with hardships. He strives to overcome them and to follow his moral compass over the course of the novel. When Abigail Morris seeks him out after being fired, he has the courage to overcome his lust and to end their relationship. He boldly claims: "I will cut off my hand before I'll ever reach for you again" (P.22) Moreover, he spends months trying to regain

The consequences of shirking accountability for ones actions are depicted through the tribulations John Proctor faced, in Arthur Miller's, The Crucible. Although John reluctantly became involved in the Salem witch trials, his initial silence proved to be the downfall of not only himself, but of his fellow townspeople as well. John Proctor remained silent for one reason, and that was to protect himself. As a result of his self-serving desires to avoid the consequences of his actions, innocent citizens were put to death.