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Elizabeth Proctor character analysis
What is the significance of the scene between elizabeth and john proctor
Elizabeth Proctor character analysis
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The curtain rises in a small room in the Proctor household, Salem, Massachusetts, in the spring of the year 1693. There is an old man by the name of Hale Corey sitting at a small table, with a women named Elizabeth Proctor. There are two chairs a small window to the left of the table and a door that leads to the kitchen is on the right. It is ten minutes past noon and Elizabeth is crying softly. Hale begins to comfort Elizabeth, and they both sit quietly neither of them talking. Many of the people of Salem are shut up inside their homes on this chilly spring morning. Elizabeth’s children are in the kitchen playing with a poppet. The men that are out working are solemn and quiet because the town of Salem was torn apart by the witch trials.
Salem Village, Massachusetts was the home of a Puritan community with a strict moral code through 1691. No one could have ever anticipated the unexplainable events that were to ambush the community’s stability. The crisis that took place in Salem in 1962 still remains a mystery, but the accusations made by the young girls could be a result of ergot poisoning or the need for social power; this leads the people of Salem to succumb to the genuine fear of witchcraft.
In act two of The Crucible, a poppet with a needle in it’s stomach is how Elizabeth is accused of stabbing Abigail. Abigail cannot let the affair she had with John Proctor seven months ago. She will do anything she can to get John Proctor for herself, even accusing Elizabeth of witchcraft. While Abigail Williams isn’t physically in act two, her dark shadow is noticed throughout the act causing trouble for the characters, especially Elizabeth Proctor.
Proctor exemplifies an ordinary second class Puritan of Miller’s adaptation of the bloodthirsty town of Salem, Massachusetts. Miller fabricates the character of Proctor to appear wholesome and scrupulous, however, acts of sacrilege in the form of adultery tarnish the character’s reputation, thus bringing to light the scepticism of an exclusively Puritan society. Proctor embodies the qualities revered by the Puritans; diligence, integrity, and frugality. Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor, is an advocate of John’s morality, describing her husband as “a good and righteous man. He is never as drunk as some are, nor wastin’ his time at the shovelboard but always at his work” pg. 100. Miller skilfully constructs a well-rounded character epitomising the ideal Puritanical figure, however, man’s tendency to be fallible resulted in a fatal flaw in the character of John Proctor. This flaw, also being a sin, is his lust and infidelity. Miller demonstrates the influence of cultural relativism through Proctor’s incapacity to absolve his own sins, despite his wife’s forgiveness, “I do not judge you. The magistrate that lives in your heart judges you.” pg. 55. This ‘magistrate’ is denoted by Miller to symbolise Proctor’s conscious, which was moulded and cultivated by the Puritans of Salem. The
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, various characters, whether it is from physical trials or unseen personal struggles, experience some kind of major conflict. There are those who spend every day in fear, wondering whether or not they will be falsely accused of witchcraft. There are others who struggle with more internal trials, such as forgiving those who have hurt them. The protagonist, John Proctor, was a man of strong moral constitution, and held himself to a high standard for the sake of his good name and family. As a result of this, he struggled with a major internal conflict throughout the play.
The impact of the convictions have on the people of Salem. People were being accused of being witches because of the fact that the girls especially Abigail wants something out of it. Like Abigail wants John Procter and wants Elizabeth Proctor out of the way. That accuses in the play were the group of girls, such as, Abigail Williams, she was the leader of the group. The so called “witches” in the play were over 50 people such as John Procter, Elizabeth Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, Giles Corey and many more. The town and the judges blindly tr...
John Proctor is a tragic hero. He goes through a lot to try and save his wife and prove the other “witches” innocence. But hen has a downfall that holds him back and causes him to suffer. This ultimately leads to his downfall and his death. Thus fits with the definition of a tragic hero so I believe John Proctor was a tragic hero.
Shannon L. Alder once said, “Sometimes painfully lost people can teach us lessons that we didn 't think we needed to know, or be reminded of---the more history changes, the more it stays the same.” Salem has been teeming with rumors of witchcraft since the 1600s, which is evident in the different sources and stories about witchcraft that supposedly took place there along with the intense and lethal trials.Throughout the different articles and the novel centered on Salem and the witchcraft trials that occurred there, a recurring pattern is apparent, those within Salem have quickly turned on each other and resorted to mayhem and chaos when there are not reasons for strange events.
It is set in 1692, in a small village called Salem. In this essay I am
A tragic hero is a great and noble character in a tragedy that has a tragic flaw. In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrays John Proctor as a tragic hero with a flaw. John Proctor’s tragic flaw was that he had an affair with Abigail, a 16year old girl who was a servant at Proctor’s house. Eventually, Proctor realized what he had done was wrong and decided to end his relationship with Abigail but soon this caused many other problems in Salam. Abigail, with a thirst of revenge, started the accusation of witchcraft in Salem and many were arrested including Elizabeth Proctor. John Proctor was heartbroken knowing that his wife has been falsely accused because of his mistake so he went to help her by confessing.
Through explicit and detailed staging directions, the setting reflects the Puritan’s and a New Southerner’s lifestyle based on exterior and interior visual imagery. The “raw and unmellowed”(Miller 3) wood of Salem’s houses versus the “white frame, weathered gray” and “faded white stairs”(Williams 13) of New Orleans’ houses introduces a society in a new settlement, with the latter in the older, poorer part of town. The interior of Salem’s houses with just “the bed...a chest, a chair, and a small table”(Miller 3) of Rev. Parris’ home and the “plain bench[s], long meeting table, with stools”(Miller 77) of the meeting house are simple, tidy and minimally decorated to reflect the avoidance of beauty and lust away from religious belief. Ironically, it is through the lack of a free and imaginative setting that sparks the Salem girl’s imagination and the act of pretending to rebel against their restrictive society.
Pride is often viewed as a positive characteristic. However, in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller the protagonist’s, John Proctor, pride stands in his way making him a tragic hero.
Elizabeth was a strong, cold woman. She knew of John’s lechery with Abigail, who was their servant at the time, while she w...
In Salem, during the times of the Salem witch trials, the church and the people were very close. This is what led to the hysteria and chaos which was the Salem witch trials. It also led to many conflicts between the characters in this book, because anyone who was against the church was considered a criminal. Some of these conflicts were between; Abigail and the other children, Danforth and the town folk, and John Proctor with himself and his wife. Abigail consistently intimidated the village girls.
Dialogue is a major component in the novel as much of what is written is speaking between two character. Thus such, a lot of insight can be gleamed into the society of Salem from the interactions between characters. More specifically, the hypocritical nature of the society can be seen in the words of Reverend Hale when he states, "Man, remember, an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven" (Miller 77). What can be seen here is irony in the fact that God, a being considered to be pure, considered the Devil, a being of pure evil, to be good of heart. Parallels can be drawn to the mindset of the people who reside in Salem. They believed at one point that these witch trials were welling meaning and just. They truly believed
Character: Concerned citizen of Salem just before the hanging of Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor