John Proctor's Inner Turmoil In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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.
Proctor is a flawed man who willingly gives out his advice and considers himself imperfect as well because of his affair with Abbigail and his distance from the church. His main quarrel with the church is he does not like the way Parris teaches the sermon. His dislike for the way Parris

frightens his the congregation into submission is highlighted by comment, “Can you speak one minute without we land in Hell again? I am sick of Hell!” While he may be correct in his distaste of Parris’s frightful sermon, but he forgets he has committed the sin of adultery and has not confessed to it within the church or community. Within his own household, he blames the coldness of it on Elizabeth. Again, he doesn’t want to recognize how much his stint with Abbigail affected Elizabeth. John also had very strong feelings for Abbigail and may still have them throughout most of the play. This makes him act even more distant and defensive to his wife. His prior experiences with Abbigail also shapes how he feels about the witch trials. He knows how much of a fraud she is and how she can manipulate people to her will.
Proctor’s situation and his inside knowledge of the case gives him several chances to do the right thing and disband the case, but he doesn’t attempt to come clean until it is too late. His troubles with the church make him reluctant towards working with them to shut down the case. Abbigail’s grasp on him also hinders his judgement for a solid portion of the play. Combined, these factors cause him to stay away from the trials until his family also comes under fire. By withholding valuable information about Abbigail, it allows her to gain merit within the church as well as the community. John could have saved multiple people and put an end to the trials out in the beginning, but his value in his meaningless reputation seems to prevail above his value in the lives of his fellow neighbors. Even when questioned by Hale about the circumstances of his sudden confession, he passes it off as not knowing "the world had gone daft with this nonsense” when he actually knows about the severity of the situation. When John had to choose between his wife and Abbigail, he finally did the correct thing and recounted her accusations of witchcraft. By then it was too late, his failure to confess officially with his wife before it was absolutely necessary sealed the fate for the condemned townspeople.
John Proctor’s delayed confession causes mayhem and even greater chaos in the end.

By the time it is fall, multiple people are hanged and the remainder are left as a shell of their former selves, including John and his wife. Proctor is finally feeling and seeing the consequences of his lack of action, and the effect it has on the people as a whole. He still does not seem to understand the implications of what could have been had he shut out Abbigail or revealed her as a fraud. When he finally sees his disheveled wife, he understands how he wronged her and wishes to fix it by fulfilling her wishes and confessing. Proctor should not have been in that situation in the first place, and attempts to make amends when it is too late. At the last moment, his pride bests him in one last episode when he declares, “Because it is my name!” when confronted about the circumstances of withdrawing his confession. His confession could have convinced many others to confess as well, but his selfishness prevailed overcame him until his death. His three children will have to fend without a father and survive with a broken mother because of his pride and

vanity.
In the end, John made some of the right decisions a moment too late. Proctor is not a bad man, he just had far more power than others to change things for the better. His knowledge of the nature and intentions of Abbigail could have vastly changed the situation in Salem. He let is conflicted feelings for her get in the way of his rationality to the situation, and pulled the trigger when her plan had already happened. Proctor had the power to change things, but he let his vanity and pride subdue him.