John Proctor as the Tragic Hero of The Crucible

John Proctor as the Tragic Hero of The Crucible

A tragic hero is a literary character who makes an error of judgment

or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces,

brings on a tragedy. During the play The Crucible, a play written by

Arthur Miller, the character John Proctor suffers a change in fortune

from happiness to misery. Proctor is an honest, brave man that carries

a hidden fact, a fatal flaw. Proctor’s flaw is his lust for Abigail

Williams that throughout the play leads to jealousy and hysteria and

in the end results to his own death.

Proctor is considered to be a tragic hero; this is because he suffered

from his bad decisions, which were the causes of the trials. Abigail,

a true symbol of evil, defeated him. She influenced him to betray his

wife Elizabeth, leaving her lonely and forgotten. Proctor tremendously

regrets his flaw and feels guilt even though Elizabeth forgave him.

Proctors marriage still existed but it was very cold and suspicion was

everywhere. Everything leaded by Abigail that seduced Proctor. All she

wanted was to be better than Elizabeth and defeat her. It was

Abigail’s hate and envy that lead something that wasn’t a big thing,

into a big confusion. Proctor certainly made mistakes, and he paid for

them with his life. No one is perfect, every human being has flaws.

Many are courageous, but few are heroic. Proctor showed his heroism by

taking responsibility for his mistakes, risking his life in the battle

against evil, and doing none of it out of selfishness. He wasn’t

trying to save himself, blackening his name did no good for him.

Proctor denies he has anything to do with witchcraft. H...

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...else, has his own

mistakes and flaws. No one in the world is perfect and I think we

can’t be so judgmental and agree that a man that gave away this own

life with dignity, to save his town cannot be called a tragic hero

because of a flaw.

Hence, the protagonist John Proctor is definitely a man of

distinguished valor. Moreover, he is distinguished by exceptional

courage, aiding him to fight for a cause. Even though he is an honest

and pure character, one of his few unambiguous flaws, is a fatal one.

The long-term consequence of his affair with Abigail is the cause of

his tragic death. Proctor’s personal integrity is determinant to his

fate, but paradoxically, it also leads Miller’s ‘hero’ to his

self-salvation, as stated by Elizabeth at the end of the play: “He

have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him!”