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…
(Parris: And what shall I say to them That my daughter and my niece I discovered dancing like heathen in the forest?!) . The character most at fault for what happened in Salem is the Infamous Abigail she is the one who stirred up the village. From there we then moved on to Act II where we saw the true side of Abigail which surprised all of us this is where it all went downhill they took it a step further and brought the girls into court. This is when the girls started Falsely accusing suspects saying that they were being attacked by the person in the courtroom(To ceiling, in a genuine conversation with the “bird” as though trying to talk it out of attacking her.) My face? My face?! But God made my face; you cannot want to tear my face. Envy is a deadly sin, Mary). In the midst of it all the girls still thought it was a joke but they killed 20 people in the act and put more than 5 in jail because of their stupidity. This is where Elizabeth’s father Rev. Parris began to notice what was happening and realized that the girls were lying about everything, but he could not tell anyone because it would ruin his career. Therefore he just let it play out but judge Danforth believed everything the girls said. Then the girl's friend Mary Warren was brought to the stand. Abigail saw her earlier in the courtroom talking to John Proctor so she knew why Mary was in the front of the room then immediately. (ABIGAIL: (Pointing upward.) The wings! Her wings are spreading! Mary, please, don’t, don’t...! She’s going to come down! She’s walking the beam! Look out! She’s coming down! (All scream. Abigail dashes across the stage as though pursued, the other girls streak hysterically in and out between the men, all converging.—and as their screaming subsides only Mary Warren’s is left. All watch her, struck, even horrified by this evident fit.) I know personally that most of my classmates will pick John to be the guilty party but there is only so much he did to escalate the problem.
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
Trials.
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
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.
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
John Proctor a well-respected man in the city of Salem has a deep secret that plays a major role later on in the story. He had an intimate affair with a younger single girl named Abigail which he regrets greatly. Proctor shows his disgust when he argues with Abigail by insisting, “Abby I never give you hope to wait for me” (page168). Proctor exclaims that he surely regrets his sin and doesn’t want Abigail to think that he loves her and not his own wife. Although Proctor may still have feelings about Abigail he reassures her that he will never have emotional relationships with her ever again. He had the ultimate opportunity to get back at Abigail and stop the witch trials from happening when he meets Abigail alone in the woods; upon their encounter she confesses to John, “We were dancing in the woods last night and my uncle leaped in ...
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.
First off, as people may argue that he is guilty our first piece of evidence of his innocence is that he was an ethical man throughout the play. By no means is Proctor ever afraid to tell you what was on his mind. In the beginning of the play John Proctor tells Parris why he was not at church recently, He said,”I have trouble enough without I come five miles to hear him preach only hellfire and bloody damnation. Take it to heart, Mr. Parris. There are many others who stay away from church these days because you hardly ever mention God anymore.” (Miller need page number) For someone to be that brutally honest to the man that holds the highest position or calling in the Puritan church just goes to show that he is willing to admit anything and everything. Keep in mind that is also the highest status in the town itself. It is equivalent to being the mayor of the town. Another piece of evidence that we found is when John realizes that he has to confess his sin of adultery to the courts, only to stop the madness that is occurring in Salem. He still had courage to admit to his wrong to people that hold
John Proctor: “God in heaven, what is John Proctor, what is John Proctor”. John is a man of strong moral beliefs, concerned only for the safety of his family and personal welfare. He cares of nothing for the beliefs of any of the other people in the town and what his supervisor which is the Reverend, thinks either. After trying to avoid involvement in the witch trials he is later prosecuted for witchery and sentenced to hang. John trys to avoid any involvement in the Salem witch trials. His reason for doing so is to protect his image because he is afraid he will be committed of adultery with Abigail Williams. Following these events he trys to save everyone’s lives by admitting to this horrible offense adultery and ends up losing the trial along with his life. He did have a chance to live but instead of signing away his name and his soul to keep his life, he wanted to die honorably with his friends not without a name, a soul, and with guilt. “John Proctors decision to die is reasonable and believable”. Reverend Parris, the Salem minister and Proctors immediate supervisor, which says “ there is either obedience or the church will burn like hell is burning.” “The church in theocratic Salem is identical with the state and the community and will surely crumble if unquestioning obedience falters in the least.” Proctor, on the other hand, “has come to regard his self as a king of fraud,” as long as he remains obedient to an authority which he cannot respect.
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
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.
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:
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 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
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.