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If doing the right thing meant going against everything you believed in, would you do it? In Arthur Miller’s the Crucible many characters have to decide whether to do what they believe in or whether to act solely on their harsh Puritan teachings. Courage and integrity are displayed throughout the Crucible to show that even in times of hysterical fear and scathing accusations people still have the power to be virtuous. Within the theme of courage and integrity three characters stand out showing incredible morality: Reverend Hale, John Proctor, and Elizabeth Proctor. Despite Reverend Hale’s deep set puritan values he understands that it is natural for people to make mistakes and sometimes the Church’s convictions are not always justified. Hale, without the court’s authority, visits the town’s people who have been accused of witchcraft in order to see for himself if the accusations have basis in truth. When meeting with the Putnam’s he realized they are not perfect Christians but they are nowhere near siding with the Devil, he tells them “God keep you both; let the third child be baptized, and go you without fail each Sunday into Sabbath prayer; and keep a solemn, quiet way among you” (Miller, 70). Hale attempts to help the Putnams get back onto the church’s good side instead of convicting them for …show more content…
When faced with death or conceding to have dealt with the Devil, Proctor decides to die in order to keep his name clean from the dirty mark of witchcraft. In the last moments of his life he says “I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but white enough to keep it from such dogs. Give them no tears! Tears pleasure them! Show honor now, show them a stony heart and sink them with it!” (Miller, 144). Proctor dies with honor and integrity, clearing his haunted conscience and leaving him at
Despite these good qualities, John Proctor had many flaws as well. Lust was a constant struggle for Proctor in many forms. For instance, when Abigail was working for him and his wife, he lusted after her and committed adultery by having an affair. Afterwards, Proctor was extremely repentant and stopped seeing her. “Abby, you’ll put it out of mind. I’ll not be comin’ for you more” (Miller 21). This essentially lead to his demise because of the affair, Abigail became infatuated over Proctor to the point where she went into the woods with her friends and Tituba and practiced “witchcraft” to kill Proctor’s wife. “You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife!” (Miller18). When the girls were caught and the whole “witch” hysteria broke out, people were getting accused and executed, including Proctor, who wouldn’t confess to witchcraft and died because of it. If Proctor never lusted after Abigail and had an affair with her in the first place, accusations of “witchcraft” would have never happened and his death. Throughout the book unlike many other characters, Proctor never accepted the girl's story about witchcraft to be true. He on the other hand knew
Proctor’s prideful personality does not let him baptize his third son because he dislikes Reverend Parris (168, l. 516-520). Proctor withholds his affair with Abigail because of his pride, he was unable to confess it until his wife was accused. Before he confessed he stated that “a man will not cast away his good name,” this statement suggest that a man has a lot of pride in his name and therefore his confession must be true (189, l. 845-847). In addition, after confessing to witchcraft Proctor takes pride in his name and refuses to have his name nailed in the door of the church showing everyone that he confessed to witchcraft (207, l. 894-897). “You will not use me! I am no Sarah Good or Tituba, I am John Proctor! You will not use me!,” Proctor beliefs he is better than Sarah good and Tituba hence he would not sign his name (207, l. 899-701). Towards the end, Proctor thinks better of his action and rips the signed paper after declaring, “Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” (207, l. 725-730). Proctor compares himself with the brave people that are about to hang and takes pride in his name by refusing to keep on lying and ripping the paper with his signature; he bravely accepted death with the thought that his name is not tainted by
In The Crucible, there are many examples that ambition can corrupt even the most steady and kind, through the use of characters such as Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale and John Proctor as well as others. Rev. Hale, as an example, came to Salem with an ambition to rid the town of witchcraft, but at the same time disregarded the fact of the matter, innocent people are being put to death for the sake of reputation. As Hale says in Arthur Millers' The Crucible, book/movie/play,
John Proctor, the protagonist in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, refused to lie and confess to witchcraft, a crime he did not commit. Because of his reasoning he hanged for what he believed for. Proctor felt that his two main principles were more important to respect and uphold than life itself. These two beliefs were to keep his reputation clean and just and the second was to keep his personal integrity. It is my belief that these two reasons were and still are valid principles to die for. John Proctor and the others that were hanged, who believed in these same two principles, should be regarded as martyrs; true heroes who died for what they believed in.
Honor, dignity, and integrity are traits that are becoming more and more rare in our society. The Crucible, a play written in 1952 by Arthur Miller, is based on the Salem witch hunts of 1692 and parallels the Red Scare and McCarthyism in the 1950s. In the play, Miller attempts to focus his themes around traits such as honor, dignity, and integrity, and as a result, the theme "is it better to die honorably or live dishonorably" becomes vital to the story and well conveyed throughout it. The characters that exemplify this idea are John Proctor and Giles Corey, both of whom die by the end of the play, and Reverend John Hale and Abigail Williams, who live through the trials.
The Crucible is a play with many underlying messages and themes. One of which is the idea of power. Power is a very important term in this play in that whoever holds the power, holds the fates of others. The hysteria within Salem has directly effected society. Everything has turned upside down and has gotten distorted. Arthur Miller is telling us that all the power in Salem is given to those who are corrupt and their abuse of it is directly shown through: the actions of Abigail throughout the play, the corruption and desires of Parris, as well as the witch trials held by Judge Danforth.
Although John Proctor was tempted to confess to black magic, he choose to to die with his name in tact, even if that meant death. Mr. Proctor believes that his name should stand with integrity and claims that “ how may I live without my name” (Miller1256). In this example, Proctor strongly communicates that he couldn’t continue to live with lies connected to his name; but he rather be known as a man who died for his morality. The town of Salem dominated upon accusations, allowing humans to confess to false accusations. Since Proctor didn’t confess, his honestly carried a legacy down to his
The Crucible written by Arthur Miller portrays the witchcraft and uneasiness of a city called Salem. In the story there is a seventeen year old girl named Abigail who is disillusioned about love. Abigail thinks a man named John Proctor has affection for her. However in reality he wants nothing to do with her; Abigail is delusional.
In the crucible characters are motivated by various themes such as, reputation, power, witchcraft and society. John Proctor, Reverend Hale and Reverend Parris’s actions are prime examples of how in the crucible these themes are dominant.
Arthur miller constructed some courageous characters throughout his play The Crucible. John Proctor is thought of as a good man who lusted at one point however earned back his goodness. The one with the greatest amount of courage would have to be John Proctor. Although he had made some poor decisions, he didn’t shy away from them like the rest of the village did. He did what all the others were too afraid to do. Most people would say that Giles Corey was the most courageous because he didn’t confess to witch craft either, but in addition to not confessing John Proctor also went against what Abigail was saying because he knew why she was doing it.
Arthur Miller’s 1953 play The Crucible and Alfonso Cuarón’s 2006 dystopian science-fiction film Children of Men both represent people and politics through an exploration of the concept of justice and conformity and non-conformity. Both texts represent people and politics in a unique and evocative way through their differing textual forms, contexts and techniques.
Is there any idea worth more than a human life? In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor decides that he has nothing left to live for, and therefore becomes a martyr. The question for him or one in his position would be whether or not there exist causes worth dying for and if his position is one such case. There is no principle worth more than a person’s life and therefore principles worth dying for, only principles worth living for.
John Proctor made the right choice when he decided to sacrifice his life in order to recover his self-respect and integrity - opposed to the alternative of sacrificing his dignity to live a life he would have been miserable with. He is able to redeem himself while defying the court he knows to be unprincipled at the same time just as Arthur Miller defied the HUAC in the panic of anti-communists. Proctor died content with his soul instead of continuing to live his life in anguish and
The Crucible by Arthor Miller, starts of with some of the village girls dancing in the woods when they are caught by Parris. The next day Parris daughter wouldn't not wake up and neither would the Puttams girl. So the towns people started to call witch craft on the girls for dance in the woods was not acceptable at the time. The girl started to get nervous and didn’t want to be accused so they confessed and then say they saw people with the devil. The trails of witch craft started with the girls as the witnesses and would pretend to faint or be choked but the accused. One of the girls was Abigail Willaims who had an affair with John Procter so she accused his wife of being a witch so she could have John. John went to the courts with friend
Reverend Hale arrives in Salem thinking that he will become a hero and rid Salem of the devil. Hale is speaking to the townspeople when he says, "Have no fear now--we shall find him out if he has come among us, and I mean to crush him utterly if he has shown his face!" Hale thinks that there is an actual devil in the town, and they must defeat it. He is trying to show the people of Salem that he is their savior, and that he knows exactly what to do.