The Crucible John Proctor Tragic Hero

John Proctor seals his fate as a tragic hero when Abigail threatens to accuse yet another innocent soul of witchcraft in her plot to have him to herself, prompting him to break forth, shouting, “It [Abigail] is a whore! …I have made a bell of my honor! I have rung the doom of my good name—you will believe me, Mr. Danforth! My wife is innocent, except she knew a whore when she saw one!” (Miller 3.3). Proctor, in his dealings throughout the play, models the definition of a tragic hero given by the Greek philosopher, Aristotle: “a person who must evoke a sense of pity and fear in the audience. He is considered a man of misfortune that comes to him through error of judgment” (qtd. in www.literarydevices.net/tragic-hero). In The Crucible, a play

by Arthur Miller that uses the Salem witch trials as an allegory for McCarthyism in the mid-20th century, Abigail Williams and a gang of teenage girls plunge the village of Salem into a sea of disorder and chaos with their claims of witchcraft and of the Devil at work within Salem. This is an indirect result of the affair John Proctor, a Salem farmer, has with Abigail Williams, which culminates in the witch trials, an event that brings, in great quantity, both external and internal tribulation for Proctor. During his internal strife to find peace and reconciliation with himself, John Proctor experiences a downfall in society as his wife and even John, himself, eventually, are accused of witchcraft as a result of mistakes he previously made and especially as a result of other inherent character flaws he carries in a way that embodies the American tragic hero, s literary archetype that occurs in many aspects of literature and of life, including the Bible.
While the tragic hero is not substantially heroic in origins as compared to the typical person, it is the tragedy and downfall surrounding his story and his response to it that enables John Proctor to claim this role of a tragic hero (www.literarydevices.net/tragic-hero). Proctor, at the beginning of the play, is quite average in his life as a well-respected farmer in Salem. He is not exuberantly rich nor exceedingly poor, but he possesses the means by which he is to provide for his wife and children as do most people in Salem; however, what separates him from the rest of the villagers is the affair he has with Abigail Williams (Miller 1.3). Through his poor discernment and erroneous judgment, Proctor engenders his downfall. Immediately after his affair, Proctor tries to right himself and put his sin out of his mind, indicating that Proctor does, indeed, possess a more positive and virtuous side within his persona. When he is approached by Abigail in Act 1, and they are alone together in a room, Proctor says to her, “Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of mind. We never touched, Abby” (Miller 1.3). Although he has inherent character flaws, manifested in the affair he has and his inability to accept and take true responsibility for it afterwards, Proctor tries to live honorably and to restore his integrity. He is so consumed by sin that he is unable to reconcile with himself for months after it. His flaw is not his inability to stay true to his wife, Elizabeth, but rather his inability to forgive himself for his faults and to unmask both himself and Abigail to Salem as sinners. This flaw allows Abigail to create a scheme to get Proctor to herself and is the primary reason the witch trials had to occur, bringing with them hysteria and the suffering and persecution of the innocent, as well as the downfall of John Proctor and multiple other respected Salemites.
John Proctor’s most obvious character flaw, the flaw that deems him a tragic hero, is hubris, his incapability to surrender his name and reputation which ultimately leads to his downfall. Although he wants to put his sin behind himself, he cannot do so for a number of reasons, but these reasons all stem from Proctor’s main hamartia, or character flaw, a staple of the tragic hero archetype, of pride and unwillingness to blacken his name (www.literarydevices.net/tragic-hero). Because of his pride and ego, Proctor is unable to forgive himself for what he has done. Elizabeth makes this obvious during a strained conversation with her husband when she says, “I do not judge you. The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you. I never thought you but a good man, John…only somewhat bewildered” (Miller 2.1). John cannot forgive himself for his actions, and because of this, he is unable to regain Elizabeth’s full trust. When Proctor is unable to find self-forgiveness, his behavior insinuates that he may still be sinning. A man who cannot forgive himself is a man who exudes an aura of guilt. Therefore, Elizabeth remains suspicious as to Proctor’s remorse and turnaround from sin. His insecurity over his fault and his pride cause Proctor to believe that Elizabeth is being unscrupulously cold and unforgiving towards him; he will only ever be able to regain his wife’s trust if he first finds peace with himself. In reaction to accusations from Elizabeth that the harshest critic of John is himself, Proctor responds, “Oh, Elizabeth, your justice would freeze beer” (Miller 2.1). This further illustrates that Elizabeth is unable to forgive her husband because he has not yet forgiven himself and must remain on guard until Proctor can show her he is worthy of her full trust again. Proctor is unable to put his pride aside to stop Abigail from sending Salem into a frenzy as she accuses people of witchcraft, gradually working her way up to accusing Elizabeth. Proctor’s concealment of his sin causes more trouble than the sin itself. Even after both he and his wife, Elizabeth, are accused of being witches, Proctor still struggles to swallow his pride in order to save their lives. When asked to sign a confession to witchcraft to save his life, John does so, but the moment Danforth, the judge, says the confession will hang from the church door for all to see, Proctor snatches it away and tears it up. When Danforth is astounded and asks why Proctor refuses to allow the confession to hang from the church door, John wildly retorts, “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! 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!” (Miller 4.4). Proctor, in this discourse, has surrendered his integrity and has “given his soul” by lying and admitting witchcraft. He is able to do this because he already believes himself to be damned for committing adultery, and he confirms this opinion when he mutters, “My honesty is broke, Elizabeth; I am no good man. Nothing’s spoiled by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before” (Miller 4.3); however, Proctor fervently repudiates the thought of giving up his name and honor in Salem because without it, he would be nothing (Miller 4.4). In truth, hubris is Proctor’s most fatal character flaw, not his act of adultery, and until he is able to overcome it at the final scenes of the play in an attempt to save his wife, it causes the downfall of many innocent villagers.
Despite finally finding peace with himself as well as purity of mind and spirit, John Proctor ultimately meets his demise as a tragic hero, labeled as a follower of Satan and hanged along with many others who died on account of his tragic flaws. When Elizabeth is accused of witchcraft, Proctor realizes Abigail plans to have Elizabeth killed so that Abigail can have Proctor to herself. Proctor demands that Mary Warren confesses to the court that Abigail and the girls have been lying: “My wife will never die for me! I will bring your guts into your mouth but that goodness will not die for me!” (Miller 2.4). This is the first step Proctor must take to find forgiveness with himself and reconciling with Elizabeth and with Heaven. When things go wrong in court, and his plan to have Mary Warren expose the girls’ lies about witchcraft falls apart, Proctor’s only remaining choice to save the lives of the innocent is to tell the truth about his adultery. Although he is fully able to hide this truth and walk away from the court with his life and reputation intact, he chooses to come clean before the court to save his wife and friends. He argues, “A man will not cast away his good name. You surely know that” (Miller 3.3). He then reveals the details of his affair with Abigail, the only true support that he is not lying being that no man would willingly tell a lie that blackens his name. After being thrown into prison and being accused of witchcraft, Proctor has to decide whether he will lie, claiming to be a witch in order to save his life, or if he will tell the truth, guaranteeing he will be hanged. After he finds forgiveness with his wife, Proctor is able to finally forgive himself for his adultery and arrives at his final decision to refute claims that he is a wizard. This denial of witchcraft and a refusal to tell a lie in order to save himself redeems Proctor of his integrity, his honor, and his name. At this point, Proctor, having cleansed his mind of his sin and having found forgiveness with himself and with his wife, begins to loosely resemble a Christ figure. He chooses to hang for his own life and to save the lives of other innocent people, showing true remorse for his sins in a way not overly dissimilar to how Jesus was crucified for the sins of the world. “Greater love no one has than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (Jn. 15.13). Proctor refuses to incriminate others of witchcraft and when asked to give the names of others who he saw in Satan’s company, Proctor responds, “I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another…I have no tongue for it” (Miller 4.4). Proctor dies for his own sins and to prevent any others from being killed for his faults, loosely resembling Jesus Christ in doing so. John Proctor has finally found peace with himself and his wife supports him by shouting, “He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him!” (Miller 4.4). In his final moments, Proctor achieves purity of mind and of the soul as he marches to the gallows to be hanged, but despite finding solace at the end of the play, Proctor must die. By this point of the story, Proctor’s self-redemption kindles a sense of joy and sympathy from readers; however, the consequences he faces thereafter instigate feelings of pity in tandem that align, again, with Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero (www.literarydevices.net/tragic-hero). Proctor, although able to find amity with himself and resolve his internal conflict, still faces downfall by being hanged for refusing to confess to witchcraft; therefore, he embodies the essence of an American tragic hero, ending play in a tragedy that secures him that role and title.
While he may not have any inherent character flaws, Jesus Christ matches the tragic hero archetype in other ways. Born in Bethlehem to a poor carpenter and a mother thought to be guilty of adultery as she was pregnant with Jesus before her marriage to Joseph, Jesus certainly had a lower, more basic start in life. In fact, Joseph, who acted as Jesus’ worldly father had to be assured of Mary’s divine conception by an angel to prevent him from divorcing her. “And her husband, Joseph…resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying ‘Joseph…do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit…’” (Mt. 1.19-20). Similar to Proctor, Jesus experiences a downfall from his average, but valued position in society. Jesus’ downfall occurred when he was betrayed by his Apostle, Judas Iscariot and put on trial before the Sanhedrin for blasphemy. This downfall was brought about by Jesus’ claims of being the Son of God without proof that was satisfying to the council of Jewish elders (Mt. 26.47-68). Although telling the truth, he found fault with higher members of society whose dissent to these claims led to Jesus’ appearance in court and his crucifixion. Jesus’ story evokes pity and sorrow in those who hear of it, and his downfall was caused by, although made purposely in order to fulfill God’s will, an error of judgement, allowing Jesus to match the Aristotelian definition of a tragic hero.
In his deeds and his manner, John Proctor exemplifies the classic definition of a tragic hero, a characteristic part of many forms of literature that is even seen in religion and in everyday life.

His actions and dynamics throughout the play mirror the definition of a tragic hero by Aristotle. Proctor, at the beginning of the story, is a man of modest means, a farmer, like many other villagers in Salem. As a result of tragic errors which he makes using poor, erroneous judgment, John faces a downfall as his life plummets into the depths of the confusion and chaos conjured by Abigail. John Proctor makes this decision that leads to his fall in society and the tarnishing of his name when he decides to reveal the truth about his affair with Abigail Williams to the court after his wife is accused of witchery. Although Proctor does eventually achieve purity of mind and spirit, he cannot escape his downfall and is presumably hung for witchcraft, ending his heroic tale in tragedy that befalls him as he finally decides to confront his own carnality and Abigail’s attacks on many of Salem’s women that merits him his designation as a tragic hero. The tragic hero of a story offers readers insight into the human spirit and teaches a lesson by showing the consequences of improperly judging one’s

situation.