Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
John proctor the hero
John Proctor as a tragic hero
The crucible essay characters
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Tragedy of John Proctor Being a persecuted man Arthur Miller understood the paramount importance of resisting a despotic society that is compelled to trifle the rights of individual persons for standing out as non conformists or undesired outliers from the general populace. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller effectively parallels the paranoid style of life of the early Puritan culture of 17th century of New England during the witch trials, with his own modern era of paranoia in the 20th century Red Scare. Like Miller, John Proctor, a well respected farmer and husband of 1692 Salem was a man who broke the mold of his paranoid society and challenged the powers that be. Arthur Miller had a fixation for tragic heroes as he makes perfectly clear …show more content…
When we are first introduced to him he seems to be a man incapable of forgiving himself for his lustful acts of adultery with Abigail Williams and this is made apparent by his awkwardness around Abigail and his quarrel with Elizabeth. When Elizabeth finds that John and Abigail were alone together her attitude towards him in this instant shifts, and she begins to grow distant towards him and even verbally aggressive towards him. John’s inability to forgive himself, and Elizabeth’s inability to trust her husband is representative of the flaws that do indeed haunt John Proctor as a tragic hero. Flaws do not however break a tragic hero, on the contrary Arthur Miller remarks “The flaw, or crack in the characters, is really nothing-and need be nothing, but his inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity, his image of his rightful status.”( The Tragedy of The Common Man) The reason why John is not so quick to strike down Elizabeth for his suspicions, is because he himself recognizes his lustful sin in knowing Abigail Williams and seeks to redeem himself by doing well by his family. Only when Elizabeth becomes overbearingly berating towards John does he object to her behaviour towards him, securing his place as a self redeeming
The Puritans had many values that everyone must know and completely obey. One of those values is to know, and obey the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were one of the most important things for all Puritans to know and obey, because without them there would be no order. For a Puritan not to know his Commandments by heart was nearly unheard of seeing how the Commandments are the basic rules for them. Although almost all of the Puritans knew the Commandments there were a few who didn’t know them all by heart. John Proctor was one of these who didn’t know them all by heart. Its not just the fact that he didn’t know them all by heart that lets him fit into the category of not being a good Puritan because he lacks the Puritan characteristic of knowing and obeying the Ten Commandments. One way he shows that he doesn’t obey the Ten Commandments is the fact the he rarely attends church anymore. This is breaking one of the Ten Commandments, ‘Thou shall remember the Sabbath Day and keep it Holy’ this Commandment states that on every Sunday you must attend church. Yet John doesn’t, which isn’t following what he should do. Another example of not obeying the Commandments is by having an affair with Abigail, who was his housekeeper and who happened to be eleven at the time. In committing this act he directly disobeyed the Commandment ‘Thou shall not commit adultery’. This Commandment states that when one is married to someone they should only be active among themselves. The finally way John shows that he is not a good Puritan is by not knowing all the Commandments when asked to say them by Mr. Hale. John says them all but adultery. These three things made John Proctor ‘an unworthy Christian’ by Puritan standards.
The protagonists In both the play The Crucible, and the movie “None without Sin” ultimately emerged from their own nightmares without sin. Both Terry and John Proctor had to endure challenges and had to complete correct course of action, however both characters differ in comparison to the screenwriter Dalton Trumbo’s quote.
John Proctor plays the leading role in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. He was persistent, honest, and full of integrity. He was simply, a man with pride. A wise woman once said, "Do what you feel in your heart to be right--for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't." (Eleanor Roosevelt). Proctor was the protagonist of the dramatic piece of literature.
John Proctor has a great amount of inner turmoil throughout The Crucible. Most of his conflict within himself stems from his affair with Abbigail. Throughout the work by Arthur Miller, John tends to judge people and does not examine himself for mistakes and faults. All of his guilt builds up and overwhelms him when his wife is accused of witchcraft. This is the final straw that makes him renounce Abbigail’s claims to the court. John was in the right place at the right time in many situations, but his inner conflicts clouded his judgement.
Tragedy is interpreted in various ways. For example the wise Greek philosopher Aristotle defines “tragedy” as a story that contains a character that commits a terrible mistake in his life that leads to his pitiful death. On the other hand, Arthur Miller defines “tragedy” as a characteristic common to all human beings who are willing to give up their lives for the necessary and righteous causes, and for their dignities. A composite definition of a tragedy is a character in a story that recognizes his awful error committed, and is willing to give his life for the necessary cause that would leads to his inevitable death. In The Crucible, John Proctor’s dilemma is to either confess about his affair with Abigail or remain silent about this secret to keep his reputation. John Proctor does have a tragic death and is thus a tragic hero, but he fails to be an admirable character in The Crucible for committing adultery.
Greetings to all. I am Dillon Marshall, I’m here today presenting to you why John Proctor was an unfavorable and bad character in The Crucible. The story takes place in Salem Massachusetts in 1692. John Proctor a farmer who lived in Salem. Elizabeth Proctor’s husband. A hard, bitter tongued man, John a man who also hates hypocrisy. John Proctor also putting his marriage to the test having relations with Abigail Williams along with his wife creating a scandal. John Proctor wasn’t the man he proclaims to be.
John was a cherished man, a man that no one can replace. I stand before thee to bid my beloved John Proctor one last goodbye. John if you are listening to this, let me tell u, I had never seen such goodness in this world till the day I set my eyes on you. God has you in his arms now John and I in my heart. Oh the sorrow of bitter justice, if only there was such a thing, my husband would still be alive and well today to see his creation brought into this world. He is under gods wings now, a white knight who stopped the pillars of Salem from crumbling down to the cinders of hell.
In this town Salem will be forever corrupted… with this so called justice. Those who you have know and we're friends are aren't what they are anymore. The judges have no reason. Justice has vanished. There is no god in this place anymore. The people believe nothing but a liar. It is not Elizabeth's fault. It was I, John Proctor who has betrayed her. I shall be punished for the cause of such tragedy. I never wanted this to be. I was too careless and excited. Elizabeth deserves someone better than me, For I am nothing other than a deceiving husband. Everytime I look into her Hazel eyes, it reminds me of my flaws of a husband. I so ashamed. I shall redeem myself and be free from this chaos that I have started. Tomorrow I will be forgiven for my shame. Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. Today is my last. I John Proctor will be forgiven for the sins I sins I have made. Farewell.
Fear, resulting in chaos, and overturned lives affected the personal decisions of John Proctor, thus creating inner conflicts, as well as desperation in the story. In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, John Proctor's stand in a society where opinion drove fate created ignominy towards him and his beliefs. At first he hid his horrible sin inside, fearing the consequences. When he finally did, he was placed in a tangled labyrinth of feelings as to what his next action should be. Lastly, it's Proctor's defiance and integrity in his own self that proved him stronger than the entire community of Salem. Proctor's tremulous feelings and general unease of the situation built up to his defining point of confession. Theocracy came together to take coerce control Salem and it's actions. Proctor saw this and feared, for diabolism was a practice unheard of. Danforth states, "You must understand, sir, a person is either with the church or against it, there be no road between. We live no longer in the dusky afternoon and evil mixed itself with good and befuddled world. Now by God's grace the good folk and evil entirely separate"(63).
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 Salem Witch Trials of 1692 was the death of nineteen men and women to hang and jailed many more. The city was filled in accusation; as fear and and distress took all control. As one of the men was accused, John proctor a man of irreproachability and truthfulness was hanged for his association with the devil. In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the author portrays John Proctor to be a good man because of his loyalty and honesty shown throughout the play.
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.
The primary dramatic focus in the play The Crucible is the moral struggle of its protagonist, John Proctor. Certain characteristics of John Proctor's character and also the environment of the Puritanical Salem alleviated this problem for him. The main issues running through out the play are a series of dilemmas that John Proctor faces. The first and foremost of these is his guilt over his adulterous affair with Abigail Williams, the second his hesitation to testify against Abigail to bring out the truth and the third, his final decision to make the ultimate sacrifice.
John Proctor faces many decisions in response to his moral dilemma to try to save his life. One of the difficult decisions John makes is to reveal that he had an affair with Abigail Williams and thereby has committed adultery. If the local court convicts him of this crime, he faces being jailed. Also by admitting this crime, John reveals a weakness in his character. This flaw in his personality will make it harder for him to stand up in the community as an honorable and believable person. In trying to convince others that witchcraft does not exist John’s dishonesty with his wife will make him less convincing to the community.
In John Proctor’s sudden confession of committing adultery, Miller used strong ethos and pathos to help further his agenda. He used disinterest, a rhetorical ethos device, to show that he reluctantly confessed for the greater good. By casting away his reputation, he made a personal sacrifice to show that his revelation helped the people of Salem more than it helped him. Throughout the play, Proctor concealed his disloyalty to his wife from the public; however, he finally came to terms with his sin to save Elizabeth and other innocent people from the trials. John used a rhetorical tool called the reluctant conclusion during his confession, which is blatant by the uneasiness/hesitancy he displayed. John Proctor lost his credibility and appeared