John Proctor began as a stubborn, rude, liar. It was said that “In Proctor’s presence a fool felt his foolishness instantly” He had committed adultery with Abigail Williams then lied about it later, which was what started the drama. Abigail wants to split up John and Elizabeth, and she attempts to do so by setting up a string of trials that ruins the town and the Proctors’ lives. When John’s pregnant wife becomes part of the trials by being accused of witchcraft, John begins to change. He knows it is his fault that all of this is happening, and he gets them to keep her from being hanged by telling them about her pregnancy, and they tell her that they will give 6 months. He changes into a very truthful person and learns to keep his temper under
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
In John Proctor’s sudden confession of committing adultery, Miller used strong ethos and pathos to help further his agenda. He used disinterest, a rhetorical ethos device, to show that he reluctantly confessed for the greater good. By casting away his reputation, he made a personal sacrifice to show that his revelation helped the people of Salem more than it helped him. Throughout the play, Proctor concealed his disloyalty to his wife from the public; however, he finally came to terms with his sin to save Elizabeth and other innocent people from the trials. John used a rhetorical tool called the reluctant conclusion during his confession, which is blatant by the uneasiness/hesitancy he displayed. John Proctor lost his credibility and appeared
In life everything is about choices whether it is a serious choice such as moving place to place because of your parents career or it being like wanting to eat a muffin or apple for breakfast. In the Crucible written about the Salem 1692 witch trials, John Proctor is one of the main characters in the play. John is 35 years of age and is Married to Elizabeth Proctor. A concept we have to understand is in this era Witch accusations were always coming from different people to random innocent women and men. These accusations are obviously false, but due to what they believed in, and how strong they were in religion, witch trials became of it. All the choices people made during the Salem witch trials, were always looked upon corresponding to John and the choices he made.
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: “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.
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.
John Proctor is an honest, though harsh, man who is clearly the protagonist of The Crucible. Before the beginning of the play, John had an affair with Abigail Williams, a girl who worked in his household, which was abruptly ended when Elizabeth Proctor, John's wife, fired her. This event causes Abigail to desire revenge against Elizabeth while she still pines for John. Once the trials are well underway, Abigail accuses Elizabeth of being a witch, which leads to her arrest. John goes to the court in defense of his wife, where he reveals that he did indeed committed adultery with Abigail in an attempt to expose her as a fraud and a liar. Unfortunately, John's appeal falls on deaf ears and he is arrested as well. While his wife manages to get a temporary stay of execution, due to the fact that she is pregnant at the time of the trials, which in the end saves her by insuring her life until the chaos, hysteria, and persecution comes to an end, John is sentenced to death. The play ends with his hanging, but his death puts an end to the trials.
When we are first introduced to John Proctor, we learn of his affair with Abigail Williams, Abigail's involvement in the accusations of witchcraft, and of John's desire to do what is honorable. Because of John's desire to do what is honorable, he ends the affair with Abigail and begins to attempt to repair his broken marriage. Abigail's jealously of Elizabeth and desire to be John's wife leads to Elizabeth's name being mentioned in court. Abigail's mention of Elizabeth's name in court reveals her attempt to get rid of Elizabeth for she knows Elizabeth will claim innocence and be hung if she does. When word reaches the Proctors, about Abigail's mentioning of Elizabeth's name in court, John concludes that Abigail's motive is to kill Elizabeth. Knowing this information, John is faced with his first difficult decision, save his reputation, keep his affair a secret, and let the accusations continue, or ruin his reputation, tell of his affair, and end the girls' accusations. Not wanting to ruin his good name, John decides to hold his tongue and because of this the trials continue and more accusations are made, some of which lead to his wife's and his friends arrest for witchcraft and bewitchment.
The Crucible was based on the Salem Witchcraft Trials, but the author Arthur Miller made changes to either make the story better or if he didn’t like some part of the story. The author used the names of the actual people in the witch trials. He changed little things about a couple of characters. This was to make his vision of how he wanted the story so that it would be more entertaining. If he would have wrote it as it was in the real Salem Witch Trials then he would have lost some entertainment for the reader.
John Proctor, the main protagonist of The Crucible, is a man of great pride and honor, who does his best to uphold all the values of the church. Unfortunately for John Proctor, his upright nature causes one mistake to haunt him throughout the story, his lust for Abigail. Though even his wife was able to forgive him for his lapse in judgement, his pride never let him forgive himself (II, 177-180). In fact, Proctor’s guilt kept him from leaving his home for seven months after the incident since he feared that seeing Abigail might cause him to commit further wrongdoings. It especially didn’t help that he felt he had no way to repent for his actions, because the Puritan faith had no system that forgave sins. Instead, the best he can do, is use willpower to keep himself from making any further mistakes and tries to be as careful as possible.
We see him start to regain himself when his wife is being accused of witchcraft by Abigail. In which of this accusation gets him into a frenzy and tries to find Abigail to confront her himself. When John finds out from Mary Warren of what happened he then proceeds to tell Mary Warren to testify her statement in the court. The following quote shows Proctors way of making Mary Warren go to testify to the court. “ We will slide together in our pit you will tell the court what you know.” (Miller 81). In the pursuing quote Proctor demands Mary Warren attest in court to prove his wife’s innocence and Abigail’s sinfulness. Proctor swears that he will become better to not only help himself, but to also help his
The Crucible is a fictionalized story of salem witch trials, it took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1692. In the story, Arthur Miller interprets the characters to have some kind of “beef” toward each other. Arthur Miller foreshadowed the truth to make the reader feel uncomfortable and want to know what will happen, this is actually made this story interesting. Arthur Miller shows that fate is something you can realize, but it can be changed.
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.