The Crucible: John Procter is the Ideal Tragic Hero

Looking upon his situation with the Puritan perspective, Mr. Dimmesdale “…loved the truth and loathed the lie, as few men ever did. Therefore above all things else, he loathed his miserable self” (136). Mr. Dimmesdale felt he was living a lie for he, the very man who preached to the community about living a pure life, was living one tainted with... ... middle of paper ... ...y, Dimmesdale suffered constantly from corporal afflictions as well as the internal conflict of coping with his actions. After the initial sin, Mr. Dimmesdale lived a life of endless struggle and underwent the most suffering throughout The Scarlet Letter. Dimmesdale allowed his life to become consumed with guilt and the quest to complete a suitable penance, which brought him sorrow, self-hatred, and the demise of his body and spirit.

Personal choice showed no mercy to Victor for his fiendish actions, and punished him for severely for them. The punishment he received was entirely deserved due to the way he treated his creation. Victor was relentless in the way that he treated his creation and because of this suffered deeply. Victor learned how deadly personal choice was the hard way as he watched helplessly as everyone that he loved died before his very eyes. His choices caused him to go mad with grief, and to be filled with the need for revenge when in fact he should have realized that he only had himself to blame.

Thirdly and lastly, his pity and fear flowers into an understanding of his prideful and destructive nature leading to his redemption. Nevertheless he is left with the burden of the deaths of his family, becoming a shell of misfortune and loneliness. Although Creon's actions cannot be labeled as courageous, his character traits pertain greatly to that of a tragic hero. The power Creon had was the cause of his stern and haughty traits and irrational judgments. He needed an affirmation of his manhood and confirmation that everyone he ruled over would assuredly respect him and his decisions.

Arthur Dimmesdale has a grand reputation and authority in his community, which worsens his downfall. The respect he had from his community makes them hurt worse when they see his decline. His excessive pride makes him ignorant to most, until the end when all things go downhill. He also made a life altering decision of whether to stay and face his guilt, or to run away from his mistakes. Arthur Dimmesdale, from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, is an example of a tragic hero because of the downfall brought about by his guilt and necessity to uphold his authority in the town.

Dimmesdale was broken down by Roger Chillinsworth, Hester Prynne’s real husband, and by his own self-guilt. Dimmesdale would later confess his sin and die on the scaffold. Dimmesdale was well known by the community and was looked up to by many religious people. But underneath his religious mask he is actually the worst sinner of them all. His sin was one of the greatest sins in a Puritan community.

Victor’s self-centered behavior effects everyone in the novel; he hurts his family’s feelings, he lets those that he loves die, and abandons his own creation. Even the creature couldn’t have committed such horrible acts before the effects of society’s rejection.

All in all, the conf... ... middle of paper ... ... truly was. Without that understanding, the man simply made poor decisions and froze to death. His pride and masculinity wouldn’t have played a role without that understanding of internal conflict. In conclusion, much of this story is hidden between the lines. Most readers will see the main external conflict of nature killing the man but there is so much more to it.

Thus the ultimate evaluation of Othello must be that, although he leads well and means well, he lacks good judgment and common sense. This becomes most plainly obvious in his final two speeches, where even though the play ends properly, and in a dignified way, Othello never fully realizes or takes responsibility for what has happened. These two last orations of Othello are noble in speech and purpose, but lack comprehension. He uses the first to attack himself for his horrible deed; certainly this is the first reaction of anyone who has wrongly killed his beloved. He delivers condemnation upon himself with eloquence and anguish.

In conclusion, Creon is the tragic character of Antigone because of his pride which caused him never ending agony by the end of this tragedy. Although Antigone’s stubbornness concerning the divine law and her brother’s burial lead her to her misfortune, her suffering was cut short by her death. On the other hand, Creon had to live through having his own son and the citizens of Thebes against his decision. Also, Haimon and Eurydices died as a result of his actions, leaving Creon without a family. Hence, Creon is the tragic character of the tragedy due to eternal distress caused by his judgment.

In the end, he ended his life because he was internally hurt and when he opens up his guilt, anger had risen against him, feelings of pain, helplessness, and the misery inside of his heart was unbearable. Suicide is a tragedy that now his family would have to live with for the rest of their lives, that’s the biggest sellout of Death of a Salesman, but in actuality, the biggest let down personally was how everyone was adding salt to his wound while he was cutting his heart open begging for help and the ones that added alcohol to his grief was the people he held as the dearest-his family.