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Essay on John Proctor from the Crucible
The Tragedy of John Proctor in The Crucible
Essay on John Proctor from the Crucible
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Tragedy is interpreted in various ways. For example the wise Greek philosopher Aristotle defines “tragedy” as a story that contains a character that commits a terrible mistake in his life that leads to his pitiful death. On the other hand, Arthur Miller defines “tragedy” as a characteristic common to all human beings who are willing to give up their lives for the necessary and righteous causes, and for their dignities. A composite definition of a tragedy is a character in a story that recognizes his awful error committed, and is willing to give his life for the necessary cause that would leads to his inevitable death. In The Crucible, John Proctor’s dilemma is to either confess about his affair with Abigail or remain silent about this secret to keep his reputation. John Proctor does have a tragic death and is thus a tragic hero, but he fails to be an admirable character in The Crucible for committing adultery.
As formerly indicated, tragedy occurs not only to selected people or noteworthy humans, but rather to the ordinary person. In The Crucible, John Proctor epitomizes “tragedy” for the common man in Salem. In the article Tragedy and the Common Man, Miller explains tragedy as “the consequence of a man's total compulsion to evaluate himself justly, his destruction in the attempt posits a wrong or an evil in his environment. And this is precisely the morality of tragedy and its lesson” (1). Miller expresses his view in the recognition of “tragedy”, which characterizes John Proctor an average man in Salem who challenges the accusations of Abigail and her friends and is willing to give up his life for a justified ruling.
John Proctor is categorized as a courageous hero in The Crucible. He stood up for the absurd accusations of w...
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...or refuses to post the testimony in the church doors because he will not allow the judge and ruin his name and instead would die if he cannot have the only thing left for him.
John Proctor depicts a courageous individual with an image of a sincere and an honorable man, not only in minds of the Salem community, but also in his own. His death implies more than a “tragedy”, but rather a strong action that inspires and encourages citizens in Salem to follow his footstep for change. Proctor is frustrated at how the court for believing Abigail and not the innocents. He says, “My wife is innocent, except she knew a whore when she saw one! You are pulling Heaven down and raising up a whore!” (Act III). He is infuriated that the officials in the court believe the ridiculous pretenses and acting of the Salem girls, that everyone’s the belief in god seems to be deteriorating.
Pride in itself, can be seen as a positive attribute, however, when it is expressed as arrogance it becomes a fatal flaw that leads to one’s downfall. In the play The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, John Proctor allows his excessive pride to get in the way of his decisions. John Proctor would rather die honest than live a lie. In order not to tarnish his good name, John makes the corrupt decision of being hanged. Although this act can be seen as noble, it is ultimately foolish because he allows his excessive pride to put him to death. John's corrupt decision to be hanged to save his family’s name and protect his wife was the result of excessive pride.
Miller presents the character of John Proctor in an important way to show two sides to his character. These qualities make him have the most important role in ‘The Crucible.’ The key events that show him in this way is when the audience find out about the affair, how he tries to defend his wife, his confession in court and his hanging for the sake of others. Through the events in The Crucible, Miller then portrays John Proctor’s character with tension and suspense. This then makes the audience question whether or not he is a good man.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is set in Salem in a Puritan community. John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale, Reverend Paris, and Abigail are the main characters. The book is about witchcraft or what the town thinks is witchcraft. John Proctor is the tragic hero because he is loving, loyal, authoritative, but his tragic flaw is his temper.
John Proctor plays the leading role in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. He was persistent, honest, and full of integrity. He was simply, a man with pride. A wise woman once said, "Do what you feel in your heart to be right--for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't." (Eleanor Roosevelt). Proctor was the protagonist of the dramatic piece of literature.
John Proctor has a great amount of inner turmoil throughout The Crucible. Most of his conflict within himself stems from his affair with Abbigail. Throughout the work by Arthur Miller, John tends to judge people and does not examine himself for mistakes and faults. All of his guilt builds up and overwhelms him when his wife is accused of witchcraft. This is the final straw that makes him renounce Abbigail’s claims to the court. John was in the right place at the right time in many situations, but his inner conflicts clouded his judgement.
Miller uses the conventions of self-recognition and the common man to complete his tragedy in The Crucible. Miller defines recognition to be the “need of man to wholly realize himself is only fixed star” (Tragedy and the Common Man), clearly, miller believes a self-recognition to be the most important convention of a tragedy. The protagonist, John Proctor portrays a tragic hero in The Crucible, where his recognition is the discovery that he still contains goodness in him. Elizabeth, John’s wife, describes how John “[has] his goodness now”(Miller 145). When John believed that he is a man of no value, he quickly chose to live his life by confessing to witchery in Salem Village since this made up lie connected to his worthless personality. But through his wife’s support, John Proctor finally sees the goodness he holds and truly live in the name of by choosing to die an honorable death by following the steps of Giles Corey and not giving the court his name to use on the church door as one of the people who falsely “confessed” to witchery in Salem Village . Through Johns death, he realizes that this would bring him Elizabeth’s mercy and forgiveness for the adultery that he committed with Abigail. Furthermore Miller also connects John’s recognition to the convention of the common man since it is only possible to have a Millerian Tragedy if the tragic hero is a common man. Miller implies that the common man is much more suitable...
Greetings to all. I am Dillon Marshall, I’m here today presenting to you why John Proctor was an unfavorable and bad character in The Crucible. The story takes place in Salem Massachusetts in 1692. John Proctor a farmer who lived in Salem. Elizabeth Proctor’s husband. A hard, bitter tongued man, John a man who also hates hypocrisy. John Proctor also putting his marriage to the test having relations with Abigail Williams along with his wife creating a scandal. John Proctor wasn’t the man he proclaims to be.
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, various characters, whether it is from physical trials or unseen personal struggles, experience some kind of major conflict. There are those who spend every day in fear, wondering whether or not they will be falsely accused of witchcraft. There are others who struggle with more internal trials, such as forgiving those who have hurt them. The protagonist, John Proctor, was a man of strong moral constitution, and held himself to a high standard for the sake of his good name and family. As a result of this, he struggled with a major internal conflict throughout the play.
According to many experts of both history and literature, Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero is used to describe many protagonists in both American and world literature. There are many aspects to Aristotle’s definition, and each idea helps to explain the structure, purpose, and intended effect of tragedy. Many of Aristotle’s ideas can apply to multiple characters in The Crucible. Although Proctor unarguably represents the tragic hero of this novel, Reverend Hale’s story fits surprisingly well with the criteria that Aristotle believes to define a tragic hero. Hale is a character of noble stature, suffers with his tragic flaw of arrogance, yet has a reversal of fortune that is not fully deserved and not fully
Life in Salem, Massachusetts back in 1692 could prove very difficult for its residents. John Proctor, a married man living in this setting has to combat his society for what he believes is just and right, and in doing so sacrifices his life for it. In the play The Crucible, Arthur Miller illuminates the conflict between the individual and society by using John Proctor as his protagonist. Despite the fact that Proctor does die in the end, Arthur Miller believes that the individual does triumph over society in the end.
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.
In the tragic play The Crucible, the reader learns a lot about what Puritan life was like during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. John Proctor was a man in his mid-thirties who was married to Elizabeth or Goody Proctor and had three boys. He was a middle class farmer, who was very well educated and was not a man to blow things out of disproportion. Although very few people knew he was a sinner and was not immaculate, he was a well-respected and feared man in Salem. His character could be described to have effrontery. John Proctor had a good reputation in the Salem community, but by the end of the play John has learned to have integrity. He was a bold man who spoke his mind, this feared many due to the talk of witches taking over the minds and thoughts of people.
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.
In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, John Proctor, a proud and frustrated farmer of Salem, chooses to die rather than to give a false confession to witchcraft. Many might view this act as that of a selfless martyr; on the other hand, it can more readily be seen as the height of human stupidity in the face of vanity and pride.
A tragic hero is a literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on a tragedy. In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrays John Proctor, the protagonist, as a tragic hero who has a major flaw—lust for Abigail, his teenage house servant. For fear of being exiled in a town where reputation is highly upheld, Proctor initially tries to hide his crime of adultery, but this affair triggers a major series of events in Salem, where unproven accusations lead to internal struggle and eventually to catastrophe.