Characteristics Of John Proctor In The Crucible

The character John Proctor does not qualify as a tragic hero because most of the qualities in his personality match how a tragic hero is defined yet the most important trait of the tragic hero is missing which means he is not a tragic hero. The first trait of a tragic hero is having noble background where a character in the beginning of a story or before a story has or had wealthyness or nobility. This Trait isn't directly followed by John Proctor, John doesn’t start as a noble, wealthy, honest, or morally sound as a tragic hero should. ”Proctor, respected and even feared in salem, has come to regard himself as a kind of fraud.”(pg 19) However, John is a well respected by the people in salem and has a good name in the village, therefore he has a noble background.

The reader finds John’s flaw almost immediately when he is introduced in the play. John broke his own morals and had an affair with Abigail one of the girls in the village. “He is a sinner, a sinner not only against the moral fashion of the time, but against his own vision of decent conduct.”(pg 19) This act slowly eats at him and interferes with his relationship with his wife, Elizabeth, john believes he is constantly judged by his wife for the sin he has committed yet it is his own conscience that is slowly eating at him. While is his wife did judge him, she loved him deeply and would have never thought any less of him no matter what sin he would have committed. However he refuses to see this, and that flaw leads to him being sentenced to hang for witchcraft, which is the third trait to be a tragic hero; reversal of fortune. This trait is shown by him eventually being sentence for