Similarities Between John Proctor And The Crucible

Morals are what define a person: their personality, their behavior and so on. Morals are what a person believes in, something a person can fall back on no matter what. But Sacrificing morals for the sake of others is always the right thing to do.
Sacrificing morals saves lives and is undoubtedly the right thing to do. A person can save lives just by alleviating their standards and allowing themselves to go back to what they believe. This is something John Proctor, a character from Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, had the opportunity of doing during the infamous Salem Witch Trials. He was in a situation where the whole town was looking up to him to see what decision he would make, “It is a great service, sir. It is a weighty name; it will strike

the village that Proctor confess. I beg you, let him sign it.” (Miller 415). Proctor knowing he has 4 young kids and the town looking to see what he determines, chooses to remain complacent with his moral standing and chooses to die indirectly causing the deaths of many other wrongly accused and leaving his children with no father.

On the other side of the spectrum, there is Nick Carraway a character from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby who unlike Proctor was not directly involved in the incidents of the book but similar to John Proctor in the fact that he could have prevented the incidents if he had acted on the sake of others instead of the sake of his morals. Nick was always told at a young age “‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’” (Fitzgerald 1). Nick took what his father told him and always stayed true to it never judging others of their mistakes but only listening. If Nick were to keep honest with others and instead of just listening and told others their faults and how to fix it he could have inadvertently prevented the deaths of two people throughout the novel. Gatsby was in love with Daisy and willing to do anything to be with her but, Daisy was a married woman and had a child. Nick either way still listened to Gatsby’s drivel on how Daisy is his

right to have and helped him orchestrate an affair. If Nick had told Gatsby the truth of how the affair would have never worked it could have prevented Daisy and Gatsby driving off and running over Myrtle which eventually led to the death of Gatsby.