In many ways, Proctor’s moral dilemma drives the entire play. Though only a few characters know of his sin, all of Salem deals with its consequences. As a tragic hero, the audience recognizes he is imperfect and headed towards ultimate defeat but still admires him because of his nobility, as evidenced by the respect he has in Salem. Still, it is clear that he possesses a tragic flaw in the form of pride that, after several missed opportunities to confess his affair, leads to a tragic downfall ending in him being hanged. Throughout The Crucible, Proctor’s words and actions demonstrate his good status, his crippling pride, his multiple failures to confess, and his ultimate demise, and these combined make him a man who struggles valiantly against his fate but is doomed to die from the start.
While Proctor is not of royal birth, he still comes under nobility through his reputation in Salem. “Proctor, respected and even feared in Salem (20),” as he is described by Arthur Miller, is not
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the type of man to be crossed, and this unquestioned power, naturally given to him when he walks in a room, provokes many of the antagonists of the play and sets them up against him. After all, “In Proctor’s presence, a fool felt his foolishness instantly (20),” and the accusers in Salem fear him as a representative of truth, a man strong enough to undermine them. His good name makes it all the more difficult to believe that he could be condemned, and yet, as a tragic hero, it has to happen. In the end, his refusal to confess to witchcraft preserves his nobility, and he dies believing the court’s assault on his reputation may very well help to discredit the court for good and save his friends. Every tragic hero has a flaw, and in Proctor’s case it is his pride. He is attached to his good name, and, especially in the end, he believes it is the only thing that is still truly his. This unwillingness to compromise his own self-value keeps him from admitting his affair with Abigail, forcing him to deny his guilt to himself and to his wife. “Do you truly think me base (62)?” he asks Elizabeth, upset with her for withholding her forgiveness, though he fails to see that it is his conflicting pride and desire to be moral that is bringing hard judgment down upon himself. He does not deal with judgment well because he is so afraid of his secret being revealed, and it causes him to act with anger against Hale, rather than asking him for help. It takes Proctor four acts to realize that his affair with Abigail started the trials, and his pride sealed the fate of the innocent. At first, he cannot acknowledge what he has done, “Because it speaks deceit, and I am honest (62)!” It is only when it is too late that he overcomes his pride. It is Proctor’s pride that causes him to miss several opportunities to confess his sin before more innocent are sentenced. “Adultery, John (67),” being an obvious example because he “forgets” the commandment he disobeyed, and Hale already has his suspicions of an “abomination” and a “secret blasphemy” not brought to light, regarding why Abigail would tell Proctor she is faking. His hesitancy, displayed when he initially says “I’ll think on it (53),” is only erased when Elizabeth is taken away, and he can no longer bear the thought of his good wife dying for his sins. He spends the rest of the play trying to rectify his mistake but to no avail. Elizabeth seals his fate when she cannot believe that he has finally confessed in Act III, and from there it is too late to make the court see the truth. In the final moments of the play, Proctor redeems himself by choosing to die rather than confess to being a witch, thereby saving his wife and the other innocents accused.
“And there’s your first marvel, that I can. You have made your magic now, for I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor (144).” With his tragic fall, he has an epiphany in which he realizes his promise to Abigail meant more than he ever realized, and it has more repercussions than he can deny. He realizes that no matter what goodness he might have had, none of it would have saved him. To save himself, to be at peace with his own soul, he has to die to protect the others, and this one act, since Abigail’s first accusation, has always been unavoidable. “Beguile me not! I blacken all of them when this is nailed to the church the very day they hang for silence (143).” In his noble death, Proctor’s pride and his hesitancy are made up for, and though he dies, his name and his goodness are not taken from
him. Proctor may have been marked for death from the very moment he consented to his affair with Abigail, but at the conclusion of The Crucible he redeems himself. He counts himself a fraud in Act I, and by Act IV that guilt is taken away from him because he is finally able to show his goodness in sacrifice. He overcomes his pride, and he asks for no one’s judgment but his own. As he falls, he realizes there was never anything he could do, but he is content with the manner of his death. He dies a hero, though without the happily ever after.
Corruption has always existed in our society since the beginning to present time due to conspiracies such as the witch trials and the communism era. The Crucible by Arthur Miller was written during the era of communism to mere the hysteria. The Crucible is about the Salem witch trials in Salem Massachusetts in 1692. It’s a corrupt witch trial in Salem that’s due to false accusations of witchcraft for personal gains. John Proctor is the protagonist in the story The Crucible who goes through the ultimate test by choosing his reputation over integrity. He also had an affair with a young girl named Abigail who is the antagonist and is the main reason the bloodshed is occurring in Salem. Initially, Proctor hesitates to deal with his sin, but as the play progresses, he begins to understand its effects; this ultimately leads him to find goodness in himself as he stands for the truth.
To explain, when John Proctor asserts, “Beguile me not! O blacken all of them (other members of the town) when this is nailed to the church the very day they hang for silence” (Miller 132) it shows him refusing to have his confession sheet nailed to the door of the courthouse. If John Proctor were to allow Danforth to post the confession to the church, his friends will be chased after by the church and possibly killed as well. John Proctor chooses to die and keep his friends safe rather than to save himself. This is in opposition to Puritan norms as Puritanism focuses on self-salvation, and he could have had the Church clear his soul and this would have allowed him to keep living; however, he protected those close to him instead of himself. This also contrasts John Proctor to the other members of this society who sold others out in trade of their own well-being. This demonstrates John Proctor’s religious progressivism by having a viewpoint focused on the salvation and preservation of others opposed to self-salvation. Due to his desire to help others before he helps himself, John Proctor is shown in a forward thinking
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.
In this act he finds the goodness in himself to take responsibility for something he did not do just to make up for his sins. He says to Elizabeth, “Spite only gives me silent. It is hard to give a lie to dogs…” (4.136) He wants to confess, but he has to find the courage in him to confess it. He has to swallow his pride in order to confess of something he did not do. After he finds the courage to confess, Danforth makes him sign a confession statement, but he cannot. In support of this Proctor says, “I have confessed myself! Is there no good penitence but it be public? God does not need my name nailed upon the church! God sees my name; God knows how black my sins are! It is enough!” (4.142) Proctor has already confessed and he feels as if that is already enough, but he has to sign the confession or he will be hung. He finds the courage to sign it but then rips it apart before it is hung upon the church, and he could not build up the courage to re-write it. This leads him to being executed. Henry Popkin once again helps support my sources by stating, “The real, the ultimate victim in this play is John Proctor, the one independent man, the one skeptic who sees through the witchcraft "craze" from the first…This is a climactic moment, a turning point in the play. New witches may continue to be named, but The Crucible now narrows its focus to John Proctor, caught in the trap, destroyed by his effort to save his wife, threatened by the irrationality that only he has comprehended.” (143) Abigail’s idea did not go as planned because Proctor rebelled against her. Therefore Proctor was accused and died because he was not going to let Abigail ruin the pureness of his
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
Throughout “The Crucible”, John Proctor is tormented by his past mistakes and haunted by his wrongdoings as the Salem Witch Trials begin. His final and most crucial decision comes when he must choose whether to lie and confess to witchcraft, saving his life, or to stick by the truth and die with his name untarnished. John Proctor made the right decision by choosing to be honest and die with his dignity.
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.
In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, John Proctor, a proud and frustrated farmer of Salem, chooses to die rather than to give a false confession to witchcraft. Many might view this act as that of a selfless martyr; on the other hand, it can more readily be seen as the height of human stupidity in the face of vanity and pride.
The first struggle that John Proctor faces in The Crucible is his guilt over committing the sin of adultery. This moral problem continues throughout the play, and it is the primary moral predicament that Proctor faces in the play. He has broken his own moral code as was as the moral law in the Puritanical Salem in his affair with Abigail.
Throughout the whole play, John Proctor placed himself as a “servant” of God only and maintained that position regardless of what happened. He represented the image of a person that corresponded for God in Earth, and at the same time he acted consciously and knew what was happening in Salem. In an attempt to disengage from God, his principles, conscience, and morality acted upon him and brought him back to God. Elizabeth and his friends also affected his conscience, as the only reason why he went to the court was to try to release them. John Proctor can be considered the savior of Salem, he can be considered Jesus in that story. His name was important as it was the main reason why he decided to die with dignity instead of live for a lie; but what is the symbolism behind his name? What is conscience and why does John Proctor struggle with his?
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, various characters, whether it is from physical trials or unseen personal struggles, experience some kind of major conflict. There are those who spend every day in fear, wondering whether or not they will be falsely accused of witchcraft. There are others who struggle with more internal trials, such as forgiving those who have hurt them. The protagonist, John Proctor, was a man of strong moral constitution, and held himself to a high standard for the sake of his good name and family. As a result of this, he struggled with a major internal conflict throughout the play.
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
I think Proctor is to be admired for the way in which he handles this
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.