John Proctor The Crucible Hero

The Crucible illustrates many things about people in any society built on fear and hysteria. Through our characters we experience what it is like to live in Salem, Massachusetts 1692. Paranoid townsfolk reside amongst each other ,and fight for their lives. There is little love or compassion in the beginning, but it grows as the hearts of loved ones fade. Each character is perfectly matched to destroy another. In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller the author creates characters such as John, Abigail, and Elizabeth to illustrate the eternal struggle between good and evil.

    John Proctor is portrayed as the protagonist or “hero” character. Although he was responsible for many of the wrongdoings in Salem, he ultimately saves the day. At the

beginning of this story he is showing no signs of a tainted conscience. As it was stated in  John Proctor’s Playing in the Crucible “He lies by implication, as he does in the much more serious matter of representing himself as a proper citizen of Salem when he is in reality guilty of lechery”
  (Liston,1). He was thinking as long as nobody knew, he could live his life just like all of the other townsfolk. He later realizes since everyone knows he is a lecher ,he did not have anymore angles to play an innocent farmer anymore. His love is put to the test when Abigail decides she does not want Elizabeth with John anymore. When Abigail gets Elizabeth put on trial, John is forced to make many decisions that could have become selfish or selfless. He starts to drift from Abigail as the future seems dire for his wife and family. His internal struggles force him to put himself on the line. Not only for his family ,but for his integrity.
John was not completely selfless. Even after the fact of putting himself on the line for his wife. While he was protecting his family, he did not have many other options. If he fought against being a lecher and stuck to his old ways, eventually the truth would come out. He would be sentenced to death for lechery. By taking the so called high road he was able to live longer ,and maintain a positive relationship with the few people he had left.It can be shown in this quote that he was still showing faith in Elizabeth “In her life ,sir, she had never lied.” There are them that cannot sing ,and them that cannot weep-my wife cannot lie. I have paid much to learn it ,sir.”(Miller, 1245) It can be stated that the letters he writes in the end save many other innocent people from being hung in later trials. John appears to be the glue that ties most of the people in the story together. That being said he is also the reason for many deaths throughout the story. If he had not had his relationship with Abigail, many accusals would not have been made. Though the trials entirely are not his fault. Overall, though he has some selfish and evil traits, John can be considered one of the “good” characters.
Abigail is without question, an evil character.

She manipulates people’s feelings ,and lies for her own well being. She did not once sacrifice anyone or thing in her life for someone else in the story. Though she is evil she is also just scared and naive at the same time. She is traumatically scared by the brutal murder of her parents as a young child. Her parents were taken by Native Americans ,and killed in front of her. She then was to be raised by a greedy man in a town full of envy, her uncle Parris. Not to mention her failed and illegal relationship with John Proctor. She never had any good or positive influences in her life ,or at least not for a long period of time. All she knew was lying,deceit, and making it on her own.  She had never put others before herself because she was never taught to. This character is evil because it is just simply in her nature to be

so.
Abigail’s relationship with John Proctor shows that she is still looking for love. The people she loved ,her family, were taken from her when she was just a little girl. She is lonely ,and just wants a companion. All of her friends and family are either scared of her or resent her ,because of her deceitful ways. While the rest of the town still has a positive view of her because she is just the simple niece of the town preacher. She grows fond of John because he strung her along. She thought that she would have a future with this man. He eventually ends up deserting her and treating her as a child instead of a lover. She should have only been a child to him for the whole of their relationship. Not only is John married ,but there is a dramatic age difference between two of them. This makes her turn on him and want to take away his lover ,and show him what she felt when he called her a child.John is just trying to get her to leave him alone so he can continue to have a normal relationship with his wife and children. Abigail just wants to feel protected in some way, she sees John as some kind of security blanket. This is true for the beginning, but once he turns from her, she will not have him. Her plan ends up working out for most of the way. Eventually she took it way out of hand ,and she became too hard to believe. She lies intently during the witch trials, she says “Why do you come, yellow bird?” (Miller, 1209) She was trying to make the jury believe that Mary Warren had cast her spirit as a bird on her. The accused surely did not believe her. The only believers at this point were the unaccused and the judges. Her ways caused her to get caught for lying about all of the trials ,and she has to run away to different city ,and sell herself to others for a living to be able to live a normal life. She never returns to her family ,and never has a family of her own.
Elizabeth is the innocent wife of John Proctor.

She is betrayed by her husband ,in that she will go through thick and thin for him, knowing he is lecher. Elizabeth and her husband had problems before he committed lechery. When he did she was blown away. She did not want to destroy their family ,and she wanted to give John a second chance. She always looked for the good and positivity in people. It is not secret that Elizabeth was more committed to her relationship than John was. It can be seen in the following quote “John Proctor, the fated hero, has been guilty of adultery but is too proud to confess or entirely to repent.”(Levin,

1)
She was going to protect him by lying in court. She had never lied in her life ,but broke her character to do what she thought would save the life of her husband. When she was accused she was a few months pregnant and the mother of boys. She was given until labor to be seen for the bewitchings. That gives her time for John and her to rebuild their relationship. After a lot of thinking she recognizes John’s faults ,and forgives him for them. She just wants a father for her children ,and for her to still be there as a mother for them as well. She still cares about John to the end of his life as shown by “As you will, I would have it. I want you living John. That’s sure.”(Miller, 1224) Although she is wronged by most in the beginning with accusations and sin ,she ultimately is one of the few which can recover back into a normal life after all of the trials have ended.
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible the author really expresses through the characters that the fight between good and evil is not always won. It is sometimes just ended ,without a word. The good were to  make their peace after death or to live on ,and the bad will meet their inevitable fate with karma.  In the end everything will fade away. It is only a matter of time until the problems at hand ,are nobody’s problems anymore. The author has stayed true to the legend ,and portrayed the characters perfectly.