Throughout The Crucible many of the characters experience changes to their

Throughout The Crucible many of the characters experience changes to their

personality. The change in John Proctor is quite prominent

In Act IV Proctor says, ‘I cannot mount the gibbet like a saint. It

is fraud. I am not that man.’ At the end of the play he goes to

execution saying, ‘Now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John

Proctor.’ What has made this change come about?

Throughout The Crucible many of the characters experience changes to

their personality. The change in John Proctor is quite prominent and

extremely important in the play.

When John says, ‘I cannot mount the gibbet like a saint. It is

fraud. I am not that man’ he is sure that he does not want to die.

Later on, while waiting for execution he says, ‘Now I do think I see

some shred of goodness in John Proctor which shows he is now ready to

die to state his worth. This drastic change from sinner to martyr is

provoked in a number of ways.

John loves Elizabeth greatly and her opinions mean a lot to him.

Towards the end of the play, Elizabeth forgives John for his sins,

which allows him to forgive himself. Elizabeth tells John that she’s

never seen so much goodness in the world; he realizes he is Elizabeth’s

example of perfection so accepts what has to be done, so not to loose

this ‘perfect’ view. We can also see that John cares about Elizabeth’s

thoughts as he asks her if she thinks he should confess. This also

shows that he is a weak man, who cannot act by himself. John is

forced to make up his own mind, when Elizabeth will not help him.

John thinks about only himself and agrees to confess. When Danforth

pressures him to name any other guilty parties John will only speak of

his own sins.

John is a religious Christian ...

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...ct. Seeing

the written confession makes everything real to him. The temptation

of life brings another trial into John’s life, which he has to fight

against. The desire fore ‘more names’ in court brings home to him the

power struggle he has faced. At the point where he has to decide

whether to lie or not, it is proof of John’s honesty that at this

point he is unable to lie, but instead he tears his signed confession

and follows his friends to the gallows. It is clear that the ‘heat’

of his trials has transformed John from a sinner to a martyr, and has

shown him to be the ‘good man’ of whom Elizabeth speaks. The real

John Proctor is a man who knows whit is right, even if he has not

always done right and he is incapable of dishonesty or selfishness.

It is clear that the change in John Proctor has come about because of

the ‘real’ John Proctor coming forward.