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The factors that contribute to conformity
Critique of the crucible
Character of john proctor in crucible
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Conformity and Fate in The Crucible We often hear about people of Middle Eastern descent being called terrorist at the airport and no one doing anything to stop that behavior – if you do anything people hate you. Or does one go with the crowd and bully someone or does one attempt to do the morally correct thing and stand up to the bullying but face social harassment of their own? The Crucible: a play by Arthur Miller takes place in the small town of Salem in the late 1600s amid the witch trials and an affair between John Proctor and Abigail Williams. Innocent people are accused of supporting witchcraft and Proctor ultimately dies to save these people and stop the conformity. In The Crucible, choosing conformity becomes a moral choice of right …show more content…
His refusal to go to church and avoid baptizing his kids is due impart to him thinking that Reverend Parris is a dishonest church leader. All these acts against conformity truly define who he is at the end of the play when he avoids succumbing to the conformity. Proctor was falsely accused of being a witch and was facing execution. He was desperate to give in to the conformity because he was facing death, but he stayed true to himself and did not give in to conformity. Proctor says, “And there’s your first marvel… for now I do think some shred of goodness in John Proctor”; this implies that he realizes he made the morally right choice (Miller 144). He just saved the life of many innocent people by giving his own life. For Proctor saving the people and giving up is life was the only option. “I am no Sarah Good or Tituba … it is no part of salvation that you use me… I have given you my soul; leave me my name”; as John Proctor says this it implies how morally strong he is because he thinks it is shameful to go along with the conformity (Miller 142 – 144). Most of the court was against Proctor and were pressuring him to surrender but he refused. He says, “for them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed… we will burn, we will burn together”; this emphasizes the fact that he truly understands that there is
...fess to them Elizabeth” (238). He’s thinking about giving in to the corrupt church to save his own life like everyone else. But when the Judge Danforth asks him to sign his name on a document confessing of witch craft he won’t do it because he explains, “It is my name I cannot have another in my life because I lie and sign myself to lies. Proctor finally stands up for what’s right and he shows that he won’t taint his name in order to save his own life. So they send him to be hung but he dies with his honor and his integrity.
John Proctor is a good man. He is a puritan, a husband, a citizen, and an all around valuable member of the community. All of this is represented by his name. The name of John Proctor could be considered his most prized possession. It is his most priceless asset. Proctor is very strong-willed and caring. He does not set out with any intentions of hurting anyone. He is a farmer and village commoner who is faced with incredible inner turmoil. He has committed adultery and had absolutely no intentions of joining in the witch trials. After his wife got involved and eventually was set free due to the fact that she was pregnant, he feels that he can't sit back and accept what is happening to the town. John Proctor is a good and noble man and because of this he believes that he can't be hanged and die a martyr when he has this sin blooming over him every waking moment.
Proctor’s prideful personality does not let him baptize his third son because he dislikes Reverend Parris (168, l. 516-520). Proctor withholds his affair with Abigail because of his pride, he was unable to confess it until his wife was accused. Before he confessed he stated that “a man will not cast away his good name,” this statement suggest that a man has a lot of pride in his name and therefore his confession must be true (189, l. 845-847). In addition, after confessing to witchcraft Proctor takes pride in his name and refuses to have his name nailed in the door of the church showing everyone that he confessed to witchcraft (207, l. 894-897). “You will not use me! I am no Sarah Good or Tituba, I am John Proctor! You will not use me!,” Proctor beliefs he is better than Sarah good and Tituba hence he would not sign his name (207, l. 899-701). Towards the end, Proctor thinks better of his action and rips the signed paper after declaring, “Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” (207, l. 725-730). Proctor compares himself with the brave people that are about to hang and takes pride in his name by refusing to keep on lying and ripping the paper with his signature; he bravely accepted death with the thought that his name is not tainted by
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
Hale responds to Proctor with, “And yet, Mister, a Christian on Sabbath Day must be in church…” (Miller 37. Act 1. Scene 2). Proctor is not a bad man; he identifies as a Christian and had most of his children Baptised, however, his pride and stubborn nature keep him from visiting Parris' church. While Proctor has good intentions when he isolates himself from Parris' influence, this casts suspicion on him and his family and eventually putting him and his wife in grave danger. Despite having this opportunity early on to throw this shadow of suspicion off of him, he is held back by his inability to swallow his pride. Later, after both Elizabeth and John Proctor have been jailed and face execution, they discuss what has happened for the past few months after they have been jailed. When asked why he has not confessed in exchange for his life, John replies, “Spite. Spite only keeps me silent. It is hard to give a lie to dogs!” (75.2.3). This is the most direct example of Proctor's pride harming him. This is his last
Arthur Miller’s 1953 play The Crucible and Alfonso Cuarón’s 2006 dystopian science-fiction film Children of Men both represent people and politics through an exploration of the concept of justice and conformity and non-conformity. Both texts represent people and politics in a unique and evocative way through their differing textual forms, contexts and techniques.
John Proctor is portrayed throughout the play to be a man who has high moral values that he must abide by. He can spot hypocrisy in others easily and judges himself no less harshly. Elizabeth Proctor says to him in the second act:
... be feeling in case he lied. The fact that his friends would be hanged contributed even more to his decision, as when he saw Rebecca and Martha he felt like he was being dishonorable and he realized that he was going to a worst place in his afterlife in case he lied. As said, every aspect of conscious on that play revolved around christian beliefs. Proctor can certainly be compared to Jesus, for he served as an example to people and died for them in a way that they will now realize that they can change. Since Proctor was a important person in the town, people will now look with different eyes towards the Minister’s judgement. Proctor’s struggle with his consciousness was a lifelearn lesson that he could take forever with him, had he not died. Proctor, with his principles, decided that the best thing to do was die proudly and that is certainly and admirable attitude.
Though he does make some mistakes, John Proctor is essentially a good man. In act one, Proctor exchanges angry words with Reverend Parris and says, "I may speak my heart, I think!" (30). Parris is more concerned with money than God, and John honestly speaks of how wrong that is even though it would get him into trouble. When Reverend Hale asks him why his third son is not baptized, John tells him, "I like it not that Mr.
The Crucible: Hysteria and Injustice Thesis Statement: The purpose is to educate and display to the reader the hysteria and injustice that can come from a group of people that thinks it's doing the "right" thing for society in relation to The Crucible by Arthur Miller. I. Introduction: The play is based on the real life witch hunts that occurred in the late 1600's in Salem, Massachusetts. It shows the people's fear of what they felt was the Devil's work and shows how a small group of powerful people wrongly accused and killed many people out of this fear and ignorance.
In terms of rebelling against Reverend Parris he doesn’t ‘…see no light of God in that man…’ it clearly tells us that Proctor has no trust in Parris at all and even not trusting a Reverend shows a sign of rebellion against the authority. As Parris is a Reverend it means he is a member of the Church and so has some authority over some people, however with Proctor he does not comply with what Parris tells him causing him to essentially rebel against the authority (the Church) by not baptising his third child because of Reverend Parris. But as well as that another reason why Proctor does not want Reverend Parris to baptise his third child is because of how selfish and prideful he is. ‘…I have fought here three long years to bend these stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you comprise my very character…’ this quote shows the type of character that Reverend Parris is, only caring about his reputation and his authority instead of looking after his family. He is more concerned about what happens to him and his position instead of his family, so we understand why John Proctor does not want his third child baptised by him as there is ‘…no light of God in that
Both the struggles of young women to conform to standards set by their societies and the struggles of all people to uphold their reputations—in the Puritan culture and today’s world—are prominent issues displayed in The Crucible and Conversion. These societal standards put unjust pressure on women to appear “perfect.” Whether it is as an ideal Puritan, a loyal friend, or a prepared college girl, everyone wants to have a pristine reputation. Conformity is often seen as a way to be perfect and obtain a perfect reputation, when in reality, it is not. Seen mostly in young women in The Crucible, conformity plays a role in causing the problems which eventually result in multiple deaths. In the Puritan society, everyone knew everything about the
In the beginning, John Proctor is described as a decent man, but throughout the story it is revealed that he has many layers of secrets that he must wrestle with internally before deciding to tell people in order to save his wife and friends from death. His crucible is the decision to tell the court that he slept with Abigail in order to save his wife, but in the process it will destroy his reputation and taint his name. His passion to keep his wife alive is shown when he says "My wife will never die for me?" (Miller, 76), but his passion to stay alive and to maintain a good reputation is shown when he says "It is not a child," (Miller, 96) in reference to Abigail Williams. He says this to give the perception that she is not a child, and what he did was not wrong. His anger with the inner conflict builds up and up until it is released when he says "I say God is dead!" (Miller, 111). This shows that this conflict within has made him lose faith, and brought him to the point of not caring what people think of him. So in the end he decides to release his secret.
Throughout the play John Proctor was an honest man, as was his wife, Elizabeth until she was asked to testify against her husband about his affair. One thing that never changed about Proctor throughout the whole play was his willingness to stand for his beliefs. Time after time, he was bombarded with questions about why he didn't regularly attend church or why he didn't have one of his sons baptized. He answered these questions with integrity and questioned the ministry of Parris. No one in the town of Salem had done that before.
John Proctor believed that he wasn’t a truthful person to begin with, so giving in to a lie would not automatically make him a sinner in God’s eyes. When speaking with Elizabeth, he says, “Nothing’s spoiled by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before.” Proctor doesn’t believe he should have a heroic death due to his past sins such as his affair with Abigail. His implication was that he has lied before and therefore it would be no different if he lied again. He later decides to tear up his confession because he realizes the only way to save his soul isn’t by continuing to fall from evil, but rather get up from it and die as much as an honest man that he