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John Proctor’s honorable act
In the Crucible, people were continuously accused of doing witchcraft. Those people who were being accused had to either confess or die despite of the truth. Struggling in this moral decision, people began to recoil and lie to others and even to themselves in order to save their lives. Marry, who was first accused of doing witchcraft told the judges that John Proctor was connected to the devil. Obviously, Marry chose to live as a liar. Eventually, It was John Proctor’s turn to decide: to confess and lie or refuse and die. Struggling in a decision that drives people into craziness, John Proctor chose to refuse anything despite of being hanged.
In the play, Reverend Hale insisted that John Proctor’s decision to hang is an excessive pride or stubbornness, but I think it was an act of honor. In the novel, people who were accused of consorting with the devil admitted and were forced to give names of innocent people; Those people then did the same thing in order to save their lives. The same thing was done over and
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over again by different people. It became a vicious cycle. What would be the end if everyone chose to save their lives by lying? I believed every single person in Salem would be accused eventually. So, in order to stop the chaos in Salem so to stop anymore innocent people from being accused, people have to tell the truth. Although lying is immoral, if people have to choose between living as a liar or dying as a good man, it is forgivable to choose living by giving up their integrity. By contrast, Proctor choice makes him a hero in the play. Unlike the others, Proctor chose to hold his righteousness and goodness even he had to die. His action is definitely noble. For Proctor, there were some reason for him to tell the truth which he thought is more important than his life. Proctor said “I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another. I have no tongue for it.” It shows that Proctor didn’t want to ruin others’ name to save his own life. He is moral and not self-centered even in a desperate and crucial time. Most importantly, he wanted to keep his name clean. Proctor said "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!" He sacrificed himself to keep his name with integrity; he felt that his and his friends’ name is as important as his life. He also made his decision to be a good father as a paragon for his children. He told Danforth “I have three children-how may I teach them to walk like men in the world, and I sold my friends?” Proctor said that if he could not behaved as a good man, how could he expect his children to be a good man? That’s why he did the right thing instead of lying. Although Proctor’s decision is noble and honor, I think this is also kind of selfish and unconsiderable.
If I were him, I would consider about my family too. John Proctor’s children had to grow up without their parents if Proctor died. Being honest is definitely important to Proctor in order to be a good example for his children, but as a father, isn’t it even more important to live and teach his children about lives? But anyways, John Proctor’s bravery and righteousness are highly honorable because these are what nowadays people need. Some people really cherish their lives and willing to give up anything to save their lives. People are secular today; If lying can save their life, they will definitely give up their integrity to live. Although John Proctor is a sinner before, he sacrificed himself and became a good man. If there is god, I believed John Proctor will be honored by god in heaven and his
afterlife.
During a time when Salem was overrun with witchcraft hysteria, very few people were resilient enough to stay devoted to their religion/morals. Miller frames history by demonstrating how a few individuals were devoted enough to combat the communist trials regardless of the consequences. Since the confession required John to blame another person in Salem of committing witchcraft, he chose to hang instead of betraying his comrades, for he did not want to fuel the witchcraft hysteria/blacken his name. Ethos were of high importance to Proctor and he valued his character above all else. He used an ethos tool called screw up recovery to enhance his character through his own errors. By describing how he failed to meet his own high moral standards throughout the play, Proctor corrected the mistakes he made and he appeared to be a highly virtuous character to the audience. Miller depicts John Proctor as a hero because he was able to rise above the trials/actively defy them. Although John intended to make a false confession to spare his life, he refrained from blaming his innocent friends such as Rebecca Nurse; therefore, his confession did not count and he was sentenced to hang. Proctor uses a logos tool called reduction ad absurdum to prove to Hale and Danforth that making a false confession is absurd/illogical; therefore, he justifies his decision to hang. He
For many reasons, John Proctor is an honest man. By no means is Proctor afraid to tell you what is on his mind.
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.
Although John Proctor isn’t much of a pious man, he does choose to do the right thing in the end. He doesn’t go down to the level of Danforth, he stays truthful and prideful to himself. Not many people would confess to something if it meant they would be hanged or imprisoned for their actions, John Proctor did. These three personalities of John Proctor prove that he is an overall good man even if he made a few poor choices in his lifetime. He ultimately shows that everyone should be proud of who they are and always tell the truth because if you want to be successful, you must be true to
In the play, The Crucible, John Proctor dauntlessly serves as the voice of reason and justice when he is willingly ready to sacrifice his own life in order to save his innocent wife, Elizabeth Proctor, from getting hanged. With all the accusations of witchcraft that Abigail Williams made it caused mayhem in the Puritan town of Salem. Many innocent people had to be tyrannized due to her. With all of the persecution it led up to making its way to John Proctor. He as an innocent man put his life to the most fatal seconds of the entire circumstance. With everything that is happening the debatable question still stands, is John Proctor truly innocent? We presume true that he is an innocent man. Although he put his life on the line he was an ethical
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.
John Proctor is portrayed throughout the play to be a man who has high moral values that he must abide by. He can spot hypocrisy in others easily and judges himself no less harshly. Elizabeth Proctor says to him in the second act:
There are many sides to John Proctor and they occur at different stages of the play, John is a complex character and is very well respected even though he has done wrong things. Arthur Miller was in the same situation as John Proctor in 1956-57 because he refused to give names of people he saw at communist meetings. There was the same trial system. If you confessed you would stay alive assuming you had turned from the communist meetings, however if you denied that you were seen at communist meeting you would have been hanged because there would be no evidence to show you weren’t there. You get the impression that the character of John Proctor was based on the real life character of Miller.
... be feeling in case he lied. The fact that his friends would be hanged contributed even more to his decision, as when he saw Rebecca and Martha he felt like he was being dishonorable and he realized that he was going to a worst place in his afterlife in case he lied. As said, every aspect of conscious on that play revolved around christian beliefs. Proctor can certainly be compared to Jesus, for he served as an example to people and died for them in a way that they will now realize that they can change. Since Proctor was a important person in the town, people will now look with different eyes towards the Minister’s judgement. Proctor’s struggle with his consciousness was a lifelearn lesson that he could take forever with him, had he not died. Proctor, with his principles, decided that the best thing to do was die proudly and that is certainly and admirable attitude.
The only thing John Proctor wants to be is an honorable man in the eyes of Puritan society. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible John Proctor repeatedly tries to do good for other people. John’s motivation motivation to retain his honor is seen throughout his actions. Since John Proctor is motivated by his honor, his decision to admit he committed adultery creates doubt in the guilt of the accused.
In conclusion, it cannot be denied that John Proctor made a major mistake and betrayed his wife and his own moral code. Despite that, he was a strong, level-headed individual that cared for his family and desired to leave them with a good name. He would not have felt such a high level of guilt if he had not expected so much from himself, which is the quality of a moral person. John Proctor was a good man who truly deserved the title of protagonist in The Crucible.
Honesty is a matter of life and death in this story. People are accused of witchcraft and if accused and you denied to anything dealing with witchcraft, you were to be hanged. On the other hand, in order to save your life, you had to confirm to witchcraft and agree with associating with the devil. What would you do if you were accused? Would you lie and agree to dealing with witchcraft and associating with the devil just to save your life? Or, would you be honest and sacrifice your life for something you didn’t do? In this story, the protagonist John Proctor plays a role of contradiction. Throughout the story, John Proctor attempts to carry out honesty when he is brought to the courtroom to admit to committing adultery with Abigail Williams and when Hale told him to confess to witchcraft and to sign his name. John refused to sign his name, the act of putting his name on paper was just too much for him. Even though he could’ve saved his life by just lying and signing the paper, he found goodness in himself and did the right
He did not think everyone was immaculate. “Proctor, respected and even feared in Salem come to regard himself as a kind of fraud.” (Applebee et al. 176). John Proctor regarded himself as a fraud, because everyone knew he was a good man, everyone held him at a high standard in the community. He believed he was lying to the people of Salem due to his past with Abigail that very few people knew. This is why The Crucible says, “He is a sinner, a sinner not only against the moral fashion of time, but against his own vision of decent conduct” (Applebee et al. 175). In his own eyes, he was not a good man, in his own eyes, he was a sinner, but in the eyes of the public, John Proctor was a highly regarded
Those who confess, ironically, are not hanged. The heads of court need a confession from John to help further the cause or at least prove that they were not flat wrong. John’s refusal to confess to witchcraft “strikes a chord.” Here we see this once quiet family man with his quiet sins thrust to the forefront of society for all to see. He will not be the town’s poster child. He did not die because he thought he was right. He refused to watch others die while he walked free. That would not happen. Miller uses John Proctor as an allegory for his own life and for his own
In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the madness of the Salem witch trials is explored in great detail. Arthur Miller was an American playwright, who was born in 1915. He grew up in a Jewish family in New York City. While attending the University of Michigan in the mid 1930’s, he began to characterize himself as a distinguished writer. His first plays were Honors at Dawn and No Villain. The Death of a Salesman, which he wrote in 1949, won him the Pulitzer Prize for literature.