The first sight of action started at the beginning of Act I at Rev. Parris’s house with his daughter Elizabeth and his niece Abigail (Parris on his knees, beside a bed. His daughter Betty, aged 10, is asleep in it Abigail Williams, 17,). Rev. Parris was startled one night while he was reading a book he hears yelling coming from his daughter’s bedroom and he rushed to their aid to see that Elizabeth was in the bed screaming like something was attacking her. So immediately he called someone who was an expert on witchcraft meanwhile he was still trying to squeeze the information out of Abigail since Elizabeth was not responding, but the girls would not spill the beans until they gave Rev. Parris realized they were the ones in the woods with Tituba …show more content…
The only thing I think he guilty of is leading Abigail on to believe that he loved her when he truly did, but that was her whole reason for saying his wife was a witch. (Mister Proctor, if I should tell you now that I will let her be kept another month; and if she begin to show her natural signs, you shall have her living yet another year until she is delivered—(Looks at Proctor.) what say you to that? (Proctor is struck silent.) Come now. You say your only purpose is to save your wife. Good then, she is saved at least this year, and a year is long. What say you, sir? (Claps' hands.) It is done now. Will you drop this charge? (Proctor thinks, looks at Corey.). She thought it would tear them apart and it kinda did by throwing his wife in jail but, Abigail knew that every person judge Danforth called to the stand would be thrown in jail or executed because he only believed her. The play came to a staggering end when John Proctor finally said enough is enough and he told Judge Danforth that the Salem Witch Trials were all his fault and because of that. Danforth wanted a signature of it but John refused, but then finally gave it to him, by this time Abigail and some other girls had already fled aboard a ship. (Woman, plead with him! (Drum roll. Elizabeth avoids his eyes.) It is pride, it is vanity. Be his helper! –what profit him to bleed? Shall the dust praise him? Shall the worms declare his truth? Go to him, take his shame away). This is why I say the person who is most guilty for the Salem Witch Trials is Abigail and the girls they lied about what they knew and about what people were doing to them all of this could have been resolved if they had just told the truth there would be no such thing as the Salem Witch
After Elizabeth, his wife, finds out about his affair with Abigail he tries his hardest to prevent anyone from finding out because he doesn’t want to go to prison and doesn’t want his good name ruined. Again, that isn’t the best thing to do but it proves that Proctor has immense pride in himself and what he has accomplished in his lifetime that he doesn’t want to be looked down on after years of being a role model to all the civilians of Salem. At the end of the play, the only way to save himself from hanging is by confessing to the act of witchcraft. He almost does it, but he says, “I am John Proctor! You will not use me! It is no part of salvation that you should use me!”(pg.538, lines 879-82) He doesn’t confess because can’t handle ruining his name anymore than it has been and because he is a man of truth.
Firstly, John Proctor is not seen to be a good man because in chapter one is affair with Abigail is exposed. “Give me a word, John. A soft word. (Her concentrated desire destroys his smile.) From this it can be seen that before they did have an affair but now it is over. The personal pronoun ‘me’ shows how she wants him all to herself and that the meeting is held in secret. The word ‘desire destroy’ in the stage directions is then used to contradict her feelings as Miller suggests how their affair is now over but Abigail doesn’t want it to be and that she still loves Proctor. From this quote it is then shown that John Proctor can’t be a good man if he committed adultery. However, John Proctor also speaks to Abigail to mention how their affair is mentioned and how their affair to him was at his moment of weakness when his wife, Elizabeth was ill. As it was a mistake Proctor mentions how Abigail should, “Wipe it out of mind.” This shows that he wants to forget it ever happened and that he also doesn’t want anybody to find out about this. From this it shows that John Proctor is not a good and as when his wife was ill and when he was at his weakest he committed a sin. If the people of Salem were to hear...
Proctor has many character traits that contribute to him being so difficult to figure out. His crime of lechery against his wife, and his willingness to save her, are both intermixed in a tangle of ethics. After committing adultery with Abigail, John clearly has a guilty conscious. When
Abigail and her friends start to accuse people in the town of witchcraft; by saying a person’s spirit attacked them. The people who were accused were usually the outcast of the town or someone Abigail and her friends
Judge Danforth stated in court, “Mr. Proctor, this morning your wife send me a claim in which she states that she is pregnant now.”(TC,3.1078). Proctor says, “But if she says she is pregnant, then she must be! That woman never lie, Mr. Danforth.”(TC,3.1078). These two statements show that John’s wife has a child coming and that being an honest woman that she is she wouldn’t lie about something so important. Proctor also says, “I have three children- how may I teach them to walk like men in world, and I sold my friends.” (TC,4.1110). This statement shows that he cares about his children and his friends since he is going to be hung for the wrongdoings that have happen. Also, we pity John Proctor for the way he feels that he should fix the problem of others being blamed for witchcraft by blaming himself for it instead. John said to Judge Danforth, “Then who will judge me? God in heaven, What is up, what is up? I think it is honest, I think so: I am no saint. Let Rebecca go like a saint; for me a fraud.”(TC,4.1107-1108). This represents that he takes the blame for the others to set them free because he believes he should be punished for his wrongdoing, not the good people of the village. His wrongdoing was having an affair with Abigail which made her want him so she started the witchcraft rumors to get him back by eliminating his wife, Elizabeth
Despite these good qualities, John Proctor had many flaws as well. Lust was a constant struggle for Proctor in many forms. For instance, when Abigail was working for him and his wife, he lusted after her and committed adultery by having an affair. Afterwards, Proctor was extremely repentant and stopped seeing her. “Abby, you’ll put it out of mind. I’ll not be comin’ for you more” (Miller 21). This essentially lead to his demise because of the affair, Abigail became infatuated over Proctor to the point where she went into the woods with her friends and Tituba and practiced “witchcraft” to kill Proctor’s wife. “You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife!” (Miller18). When the girls were caught and the whole “witch” hysteria broke out, people were getting accused and executed, including Proctor, who wouldn’t confess to witchcraft and died because of it. If Proctor never lusted after Abigail and had an affair with her in the first place, accusations of “witchcraft” would have never happened and his death. Throughout the book unlike many other characters, Proctor never accepted the girl's story about witchcraft to be true. He on the other hand knew
In Act II, Proctor's conflict with authority increases as the court comes to arrests his wife. He already does not like the court and for them to come to his own home and take his wife to jail is just out of the question! To help the reader understand the condition of Salem at the beginning of Act II, Kinsella explains that "Salem is in the grip of mounting hysteria" (1267). Kinsella is correct the town first starts out with Betty not waking up, then Abigail Williams acusing practically everyone in Salem about being witches and it moves up from there eventually leading to Proctors fait.
John Proctor, though, was accused of witchcraft as a result of all the mass hysteria that had taken place. He, in fact, did not commit the crime of witchcraft. John Proctor was urged to confess to doing the act of witchcraft and initially did. Reverend Hale had been asked to come to Salem to reconnoiter the area to see for sure if Lucifer was involved with the current events that had taken place. Reverend Hale soon realized all the lunacy that was taking place and began to suspect that the girls accusing everyone were pretending.
He was the only one who knew that everything Abigail was doing, was in fact to get him to lover her and nothing she said about the witches was true. Along side John Proctor was Mr. Hale who also knew the girls were lying and this led him to quit the court because he knew it was controlled by the Devil her self Abigail. In the end John Proctor gave his own life so the hundreds of other people sitting in jail would get another truthful chance and Proctor himself would have his goodness now.
Moreover, he struggles with his moral standing on this issue because he is partly responsible for Abigail's vendetta against his wife. This guilt is best demonstrated when Proctor says at the end of the second act:
Arthur Miller titled The Crucible that because it was a crucible basically. Everyone was adamant about ingratiating everyone else, they would realize that they'd be putting other people in the pot to melt away, or in other words get killed. It wasn't a predilection for them to inform, but that was there first instinct,the people are witch hunting and they want to find the witches before they get them. So people do have the effrontery to just say names without hesitation or without being asked. People don't care about to cleave others out because some are incredulous so they don't think twice. They just brang everyone down and sometimes even themselves too, so sometimes it'll be an purge of people dying off, and most are base people. It's
John Proctor faces many decisions in response to his moral dilemma to try to save his life. One of the difficult decisions John makes is to reveal that he had an affair with Abigail Williams and thereby has committed adultery. If the local court convicts him of this crime, he faces being jailed. Also by admitting this crime, John reveals a weakness in his character. This flaw in his personality will make it harder for him to stand up in the community as an honorable and believable person. In trying to convince others that witchcraft does not exist John’s dishonesty with his wife will make him less convincing to the community.
John Proctor committed lechery with Abigail Williams. Abigail Williams wants John Proctor to love her, but he is married to Elizabeth, and he doesn’t want to leave her for Abigail. Abigail knows that John doesn’t want to leave his wife, so she tries to get rid of her, first by drinking a charm to kill her, and she then accuses her of witchcraft. John knows that Abigail is trying to get rid of his wife so he knows that he has to tell the courts about what happened between the two of them so that they will realize why she is making the accusations on his wife. When he admits his fault to the court the girls turns around and accuse him of witchcraft in order to save themselves. John is put in jail for three months because of this accusation. After all of this time he nearly decides to admit to it, but he then realizes what it would do to himself and his name.
Lies. Death. Affairs. John Proctor had fornication with Abigail, who hates his wife and would do anything to make sure she was out of the picture. Abigail started the talk of witchcraft because her and the girls were caught dancing in the woods and she did not want to get into any trouble. John died because he was accused of witchcraft . Reverend Hale came into town and aided in pursuing the “witchcraft hunt”. In the book The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Hale is the most responsible for John Proctor’s death because when he arrived in town he started the gossip of witchcraft, he pressured and inquired the girls to give him a name, and he left the court when he could have tried to salvage the innocent people.
He was also viewed as a superior leader along with his goodness of moral character. These are two of the traits that represent Proctor as a tragic hero in The Crucible. In act two John Proctor shows his goodness of a character by protecting his wife and fighting against her accusation of witchcraft. He even goes as far as ruining his reputation and admitting to the court of his affair with Abigail Williams. By doing this Proctor is risking the possibility to hang. Throughout act one of the play the readers are given the initiative that John Proctor still has lust feelings towards Abigail Williams every time they encounter each other. He shows goodness and loyalty to his wife by confronting Abigail Williams and proclaims that he no longer feels the way he had for her. In act two John Proctor asks Abigail Williams to admit to the court that she and the other girls are faking. John is expressing his goodness to prevent his wife from hanging. John Proctor is a well respected farmer in Salem, and attends church almost regularly. He holds a superior name in Salem, and with if the affair with Abigail Williams were to be known he would lose his reputation and possibly his life. The town would have never have accused John or Goody Proctor of witchery. The Proctors were considered privileged in Salem, they owned and farmed many acres of land. Also the Proctor’s crops were well which gave him superiority