The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play based on real events in 1692 about the Salem witch trials. A group of girls were joking around in the woods and pretended to play around with witchcraft. The main character John Proctor who is a married respected man with 2 kids must try and stop Abigal his former servant/mistress before she gets everyone in the town killed because the church is believing her over everyone else regarding her accusations in witchcraft. Proctor has a greater positive effect by allowing the church to take his life so that the truth can be revealed and the people who were killed did not die in vain.
Proctor allows the church to take his life so that The people that died would not die in vein. At the end of the play when
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He believes that his death will set the truth free and show his children and everyone else in the town the fraud the church has been displaying, hoping that his children will take faith from taking his own life. In The Noble Art of Self-Sacrifice, when Andersen says “They often make decisions they know will put an extra burden on them”(Andersen 1), shows that the decision to die is for the right reason, did cause an extra burden (leaving his family) it was something he had to do. Although it will be a tough future for Proctors family, especially for his wife because he must take care of their three children alone. He had to what was best for everyone. Proctor lets the church kill him so that the truth will be revealed. When Proctor says, “You will tell the court you are blind to spirits; you cannot see them any more, and you will never cry witchery again, or I will make you famous for the whore you are!” (Miller 152). Proctor is confronting the evils in the town and although he knows that she could easily have the entire …show more content…
Proctor made this decision because he knows in the long run and in the present it was the right thing to do and it makes sure his family and everyone else will be protected. Although it was the right thing to do that Proctor died he did leave his wife and kids, which is extremely dreadful and selfish. Although Proctor dying showed an example that set a ripple effect that later would uncover the truth, he could have lived and taught his children that himself. This is shown in the play The crucible when Proctor goes out and says, “I’d have you see some honesty in it. Let them, that never lied die now to keep their souls. It is the pretense for me, a vanity that will not blind God nor keep my children out of the wind” (Miller 136). Proctor has a wife and 3 young boys who must be taken care of, him dying would leave his family with no support, to help raise the children and maintain the farmland that they own. If Proctor is alive he will be able to stop the “wind” or the lies spoken by the church, and to make sure his children are not raised to believe in
... 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.
...fess to them Elizabeth” (238). He’s thinking about giving in to the corrupt church to save his own life like everyone else. But when the Judge Danforth asks him to sign his name on a document confessing of witch craft he won’t do it because he explains, “It is my name I cannot have another in my life because I lie and sign myself to lies. Proctor finally stands up for what’s right and he shows that he won’t taint his name in order to save his own life. So they send him to be hung but he dies with his honor and his integrity.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is set in Salem in a Puritan community. John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale, Reverend Paris, and Abigail are the main characters. The book is about witchcraft or what the town thinks is witchcraft. John Proctor is the tragic hero because he is loving, loyal, authoritative, but his tragic flaw is his temper.
His refusal to go to church and avoid baptizing his kids is due impart to him thinking that Reverend Parris is a dishonest church leader. All these acts against conformity truly define who he is at the end of the play when he avoids succumbing to the conformity. Proctor was falsely accused of being a witch and was facing execution. He was desperate to give in to the conformity because he was facing death, but he stayed true to himself and did not give in to conformity. Proctor says, “And there’s your first marvel… for now I do think some shred of goodness in John Proctor”; this implies that he realizes he made the morally right choice (Miller 144). He just saved the life of many innocent people by giving his own life. For Proctor saving the people and giving up is life was the only option. “I am no Sarah Good or Tituba … it is no part of salvation that you use me… I have given you my soul; leave me my name”; as John Proctor says this it implies how morally strong he is because he thinks it is shameful to go along with the conformity (Miller 142 – 144). Most of the court was against Proctor and were pressuring him to surrender but he refused. He says, “for them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed… we will burn, we will burn together”; this emphasizes the fact that he truly understands that there is
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.
Proctor concentrates on his name, because it would be destroyed of he signs. He finally comes to a true understanding of what a good reputation means, and his defense of his name enables him to muster the courage to die heroically.
John Proctor believed that he wasn’t a truthful person to begin with, so giving in to a lie would not automatically make him a sinner in God’s eyes. When speaking with Elizabeth, he says, “Nothing’s spoiled by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before.” Proctor doesn’t believe he should have a heroic death due to his past sins such as his affair with Abigail. His implication was that he has lied before and therefore it would be no different if he lied again. He later decides to tear up his confession because he realizes the only way to save his soul isn’t by continuing to fall from evil, but rather get up from it and die as much as an honest man that he
Proctor’s affair with Abigail Williams was the main cause of his death and downfall. “I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart...You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!” (Act 1 p.24) The quote above lets us know that Abigail is still in love with Proctor and wants him to leave his wife and come to her but he refuses and says that what they did was a thing in the past. “Wipe it out of mind. We never touched. Abby.” (Act 1 p.23) As a result of Proctor wanting to end all relations with Abigail, who will do anything to be with him, a chain of events happen that lead to Proctor being accused of being a witch and eventually his death. “You’re the Devil’s man…He wake me every night his eyes were like coals and his fingers claw my nick, and I sign, I sign…” (Act 3 p. 118-119). Proctor’s adultery lead to him being accused of a witch but he could have prevented his death if it wasn’t for his pride. Pride killed Proctor at the end of the novel not his adultery. Proctor could have saved his life and taken care of his...
In the next act the setting is very intimate. During this act you start to see the affects that the girls are having on individual lives. Proctor confesses his affair with Abigail, who then sets up Elizabeth. Abigail claims Elizabeth sent out her spirits to stab her with a needle, when they come wi...
Overall, his main goal was to protect his wife from her conviction, to show that Abigail was lying about witchcraft, and to spend the rest of his life with his future family. He was even morally contempt with lying in court, as long as he could get away with his false confession. Unfortunately, his plan failed and he became caught up in a mixture of lies and wrong impressions. In the end, he could only choose from two negative solutions - he could either falsely confess, live with his guilt, and have a destroyed reputation, or he could refuse to confess, continue to possess his righteous status, and die. In the end, he chose the second option, showing that he will go to any length in order to save his dignity, despite any collateral damage seen as an obstacle. As Miller wrote, “Tragedy… is the consequence of a man's total compulsion to evaluate himself justly.” (Miller, Tragedy, 1) John Proctor, a stand-up, Christian man, clearly fits in as the hero that tries to better the tragic situation. However, despite all of his efforts, his self-evaluation of having the need to maintain his decent name seemed more important than his “compulsions” to stay with his dear wife and soon-to-be
...imself. Once Proctor commits adultery with Abigail, he loses his self-respect. Throughout the course of the play he attempts to find the best method for regaining this quality. In the end, he sacrifices his reputation to try and save his wife’s and to bring down Abigail in the process. He does not succeed, but dies an honorable man of strong character.
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 most important scene in the play was act two, scene three, where John Proctor is able to talk with his wife, Elizabeth, one last time. He decides that he will "confess" to the crime of witchcraft, thereby avoiding being hung. He says to Elizabeth:
The Crucible by Arthur Miller raises many thought provoking issues throughout the play, including the importance of personal integrity, injustice in society and the rights of the community versus the rights of the individual.
...h, his wife, does not want to admit her husband’s deceit, proctor is accused of lying to the court. When Proctor confesses his sin of lechery he feels better and his internal guilt is freed. This is different to the end of the play where he signed the confession to witchcraft. He later rips it up as could not live with himself if he were to allow Abigail to get away with her lies, through confessing to something he did not do. In ripping up the confession he is also able to keep his good name which he says at the end is all he has left, his name, and he does not want to give it away.