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The crucible reputation and integrity character essay
Why does miller develop the characters within the play in the crucible
Analyze john proctor's character
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It is always shocking when someone that was generally well loved and respected is ruined. Because such people usually have few enemies, often times, the cause of their hardship is out of control hubris. Excessive pride can ruin even the most morally upright person by motivating them to do things they would never do unless they stand to lo. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Miller utilizes the prideful nature of John Proctor and Mary Warren to demonstrate how arrogance can lead to the downfall of any kind of person, whether they are a moral person or a social climber. Miller uses John Proctor’s prideful nature to explain how it can ruin even a morally upright man’s life, as Proctor is portrayed as a good man throughout the play. Hale’s visit to the Proctors …show more content…
Hale responds to Proctor with, “And yet, Mister, a Christian on Sabbath Day must be in church…” (Miller 37. Act 1. Scene 2). Proctor is not a bad man; he identifies as a Christian and had most of his children Baptised, however, his pride and stubborn nature keep him from visiting Parris' church. While Proctor has good intentions when he isolates himself from Parris' influence, this casts suspicion on him and his family and eventually putting him and his wife in grave danger. Despite having this opportunity early on to throw this shadow of suspicion off of him, he is held back by his inability to swallow his pride. Later, after both Elizabeth and John Proctor have been jailed and face execution, they discuss what has happened for the past few months after they have been jailed. When asked why he has not confessed in exchange for his life, John replies, “Spite. Spite only keeps me silent. It is hard to give a lie to dogs!” (75.2.3). This is the most direct example of Proctor's pride harming him. This is his last
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, both pride and excessive pride influence the characters throughout the play. Pride is a sense of one's dignity and worth. Excessive pride is being overly confident of one's own self worth. Throughout, pride influences the actions, reactions, and emotions of the characters in such ways to establish the outcome of the story. Three characters are impelled by their pride. Hale, who takes pride in his ability to detect witchcraft; Elizabeth Proctor, whose pride makes forgiving her husband difficult; Proctor, whose excessive pride causes him to overlook reality and the truth.
Pride in itself, can be seen as a positive attribute, however, when it is expressed as arrogance it becomes a fatal flaw that leads to one’s downfall. In the play The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, John Proctor allows his excessive pride to get in the way of his decisions. John Proctor would rather die honest than live a lie. In order not to tarnish his good name, John makes the corrupt decision of being hanged. Although this act can be seen as noble, it is ultimately foolish because he allows his excessive pride to put him to death. John's corrupt decision to be hanged to save his family’s name and protect his wife was the result of excessive pride.
Reverend Hale was correct, John Proctor possessed an excessive sense of pride. Proctor chose to be hanged because he didn’t want to put his name in vain by claiming to be associated with the devil. Proctor refused to confess he was acting honorably. Thus, earning himself respect in Salem by dying. His actions were foolish; he committed adultery with Abigail Williams.
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
In the story, “The Crucible”, John Proctor is thought to be a sinful person because he does not know all of the commandments and sometimes plows on Sundays. The author does not reveal this to the readers directly but tells them what others have been saying about him. Readers can also learn that Proctor is quite prideful. His main goal was to save Elizabeth from hanging, but when Danforth gave him a deal that would save Elizabeth he did not take it. Proctor was too proud to take the deal. Also when Proctor confessed to seeing the devil, his pride got in the way from saving his life. He did not want his name to be slandered.
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.
Though he does make some mistakes, John Proctor is essentially a good man. In act one, Proctor exchanges angry words with Reverend Parris and says, "I may speak my heart, I think!" (30). Parris is more concerned with money than God, and John honestly speaks of how wrong that is even though it would get him into trouble. When Reverend Hale asks him why his third son is not baptized, John tells him, "I like it not that Mr.
To begin with, Proctor was considered a strong person in the community, and he was respected for it. He was a handsome, hard-working, and revered man in the community. To the people of Salem, he was a dedicated farmer that had done nothing to blacken his family name. His attitude was “. . . even-tempered, and [he was] not easily lead. . .” by the rumors and hysteria surrounding Salem at the time of the witch accusations (Miller 21). When other were jumping to the conclusion of witchcraft and starting to fear, Proctor kept a realistic, skeptical look on the situation. Contrary to the ideas of the time, Proctor would miss church and openly disagree with Reverend Parris (Scheidt and Calandra). Despite this, he had a strong belief in God and followed his own moral standards more than strict rules the Puritan church set out at that time. He was revered in Salem as an honest man who always spoke his mind, and who had the ability to silence the hypocrites with his quick logic (Sparknotes Editors). Whenever Reverend Parris would try to tear Proctor down with criticism on his church attendance and Sunday activities, Proctor would always cou...
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a play that discusses many issues and spurs contemplation within the reader. While reading this play, because of the controversy of many issues detailed within, it is difficult for one not to take a look at one’s own morals and determine what one would do if placed in a similar situation. The key issues discussed within this play, the effects of hysteria, marital betrayal, and the murderous powers of lies, are portrayed intriguingly and effectively. The lessons that can be learned from The Crucible are still quite applicable today.
Abigail Williams in the play The Crucible shows many signs of Narcissism also known as Narcissistic Personality Disorder throughout the play. “Narcissistic Personality Disorder is estimated at a 1% of the general population and 2% to 16% in clinical populations.” (Groopman) Narcissism plays a small part in the world but has a strong effect on the people who are in that 1% that have this disorder. “People with Narcissistic Personality Disorder demonstrate an apparently paradoxical combination of self-centeredness and worthlessness.” (Groopman)
After Hale acknowledges his flaw, his character changes to a minister who wants to save the lives of the false accusations, so he goes against the “flawless” court. After Danforth accused John Proctor of witchcraft and sent him to jail, Hale “denounce[d] these proceedings” (120). Danforth had said that a person is either with the court or against it, and Reverend Hale chose to go against it although he was a faithful minister. Also, he tried to save John proctor’s life by asking Elizabeth to make John confess because Hale had signed seventy two death warrants and regretted it. The reason that Hale gave to Elizabeth to save Proctor’s life was that “life is God’s most precious gift” (132). At this point Reverend Hale wanted to bring justice to the court even if Proctor had to make a false
This statement is true for John Proctor, he judges himself harshly for his sins and is disgusted with himself. John Proctor is a foil to most characters in the play. They are conformists and submissive as a result of the restrictive lifestyle they had to lead.
The Crucible is a famous play written by Arthur Miller. This play centers around the witch trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts. In Act II, Abigail and her friends accuse several innocent people of witchcraft. Once they leave the court, Reverend Hale goes to John Proctor’s house to inform Elizabeth Proctor that people in the court have mentioned her name. Then officials of the court, Herrick and Cheever, arrive at the Proctor’s house. They claim to have a warrant for Elizabeth’s arrest because the court declares she practices witchcraft. After, Herrick and Cheever take Elizabeth to jail. Injustice in Act II prevails because of the inability to see the truth. Reverend Hale and John Proctor illuminate the theme that closed-mindedness
John Proctor is, at first, willing to offer up a false confession that his life may be spared. Inevitably, John Proctor possesses that fateful attribute known to fall fatal to many human beings - pride. While he has, indeed, been ashamed of his many sins throughout his life, Proctor's soul still clings to his pride and his good name, however soiled it may have become. On the morning scheduled for his execution, Proctor wrestles with the realization that one more sin so heaped upon the rest in his life will make precious little difference in the end; "I cannot mount the gibbet like a saint. It is a fraud. I am not that man.... My honesty is broke... I am no good man. Nothing's spoiled by giving them this lie." (126) He attempts to calm his pride by telling himself that the other accused witches who will not give false testimony to save themselves from the gallows have every right to do so; they led lives free of blame. He, however, he tells himself, did no such thing; what right has he to hang among the righteous? "Let them that never lied die now to keep their souls. It is pretense for me, a vanity that will nor blind God nor keep my children out of the wind." (126) Thus the conviction first reached by John Proctor is to save his life rather than to throw it away in mock martyrdom.
Throughout the play John Proctor was an honest man, as was his wife, Elizabeth until she was asked to testify against her husband about his affair. One thing that never changed about Proctor throughout the whole play was his willingness to stand for his beliefs. Time after time, he was bombarded with questions about why he didn't regularly attend church or why he didn't have one of his sons baptized. He answered these questions with integrity and questioned the ministry of Parris. No one in the town of Salem had done that before.