John Proctor's Conflicts In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

The Crucible Final Essay As Arthur Miller once wrote in The Crucible, “A man will not cast out his good name. You surely know that” (Miller 102). In this play, these words rang true and pure with one particular character, John Proctor. John Proctor was a good man who was revered by all, but had a dark secret: he had had an affair with his family’s maid, Abigail, even though he was married. These revelations about Proctor helped set the stage for the Salem Witch Trials that plague the townspeople where the play sets up. The Crucible becomes a play with motifs centralized around pride and internal conflicts bubbling over to affect the external environment. Throughout the play, John Proctor is a character whose good name and pride is threatened

In Act One, Abigail tells Proctor that the accusations made by herself and the rest of the girls are false and that they only said them because they were afraid of what punishments they will receive for dancing in the woods. “I am only wondering how I may prove what she told me, Elizabeth. If the girl’s a saint now, I think it is not easy to prove she’s a fraud, and the gone so silly. She told it to me in a room alone- I have no proof of it.” (1237) In this example, John has told his wife what Abigail told him, and is struggling with the decision of telling the court about the falsehood of the trials. Because of his conflicts, John, throughout the play, becomes bitter and resentful of himself for his weakness towards Abigail. His resentfulness also leads him to question whether he should live a lie or die with pride. “It is a pretense, Elizabeth...I cannot mount the gibbet like a saint. It is a fraud. I am not that man. My honesty is broke, Elizabeth; I am no good man. Nothing’s spoiled by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before.” (1269) This decision weighs heavily on Proctor and leads him to his resolve: he wants to die with honor and pride. John Proctor, up till his weakness with Abigail, has been a good and righteous man. He wants to die with as much integrity as he can, and his wife and their children understand his choice. John Proctor is hung with Rebecca Nurse and

Throughout the play, John was conflicted by his fear of exposure for his affair, and his struggle with lying to save his life. His conflicts allowed the plot to continue evolving, as well as help reader stay engaged in the plot as they can relate to his indecisiveness. Proctor’s conflicts also affect the other characters in the play, specifically Hale and Elizabeth. Hale has a crisis of fate as he realizes that he is helping send innocent people to their death. Elizabeth, thanks to Proctor’s refusal to lie, is now forced to raise their three children alone. Proctor’s refusal to confess, as well as his decision to invalidate Abigail and the girls by confessing his lechery, allows him to die with honor and pride, as well as allow his children to live with the knowledge that he didn’t confess to witchcraft. John Proctor’s conflicts and his value of honesty leads to his decision to die for his pride, which allows his memory to live on through his actions and his children, and through those who read The