Pride: noun: a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc. Although some might not believe it, today's society is filled with pride; from being proud of your heritage to being proud of your life in general, pride is all around. But the Catholic Church believes that pride is the absolute worst of the seven deadly sins because all a prideful person thinks of is only himself, and that is the exact opposite of what the Catholic Church teaches. In 1692, Salem, Massachusetts is coated in pride, like gasoline, just waiting for someone to light a match and start the flames. It moves the plot, it pushes the characters through ultimate tests, and thus it drives the characters to do what they do. Pride is one of the most important themes in The Crucible by Arthur Miller.
John Proctor, the protagonist, the average man, The Crucible’s own tragic hero, lost everything due to his own pride. Proctor is a proud man, he held himself with an air of indifference. On the inside, Proctor considered himself a fraud. He believed he was unworthy of his wife, Elizabeth. But of course, no one could tell from the outside. He seemed the same, strong, powerful, and overall intimidating. His excessive pride keeps him from unleashing his greatest secret. “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! 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!”(133). To such a proud man like Proctor, if he told his secret, it would ruin his name, the one thing he will always have, the one thing everyone will reme...
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...ud a man, he wouldn’t have been nearly as guilty.
Throughout The Crucible, many characters have shown their pride for various reasons, whether it be for their own personal, selfish needs, or their undying devotion to their family. Pride kept both Proctor and Elizabeth from seeing the truth. John Proctor lost everything due to his excessive pride. He couldn’t see he needed to reveal his greatest sin to the court in order to stop the trials. Elizabeth couldn’t see she needed to forgive her husband before he could forgive himself. Parris’ pride led him to use his little power over Salem to get what he wanted, when Giles’ pride led him to do whatever he could to make sure his family was cared for after he died. Whatever the motives behind their individual actions, each of the above characters each have a certain amount of pride, which in turn pushed the plot along.
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, both pride and excessive pride influence the characters throughout the play. Pride is a sense of one's dignity and worth. Excessive pride is being overly confident of one's own self worth. Throughout, pride influences the actions, reactions, and emotions of the characters in such ways to establish the outcome of the story. Three characters are impelled by their pride. Hale, who takes pride in his ability to detect witchcraft; Elizabeth Proctor, whose pride makes forgiving her husband difficult; Proctor, whose excessive pride causes him to overlook reality and the truth.
Pride in itself, can be seen as a positive attribute, however, when it is expressed as arrogance it becomes a fatal flaw that leads to one’s downfall. In the play The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, John Proctor allows his excessive pride to get in the way of his decisions. John Proctor would rather die honest than live a lie. In order not to tarnish his good name, John makes the corrupt decision of being hanged. Although this act can be seen as noble, it is ultimately foolish because he allows his excessive pride to put him to death. John's corrupt decision to be hanged to save his family’s name and protect his wife was the result of excessive pride.
One example of how John Proctor had too much pride is his refusal to admit to the scandalous adultery crime, his admittance to this could have ended the numerous deaths and trails that occurred in the town. A quote that supports this thought is: “God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat! But it is a whore’s
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter share remarkable parallels not only in their examination of early Puritan America, but also in the dilemma of the two main male characters, John Proctor and Arthur Dimmesdale. Both these men had sinful relations with another member of the town, and must deal with the adversity that resulted from their sin. Although both John Proctor and Reverend Dimmesdale become hypocrites in their society, Proctor overcomes his sin and is able to redeem himself, while Dimmesdale’s pride and untimely death prevent him from fully experiencing redemption.
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 story, “The Crucible”, John Proctor is thought to be a sinful person because he does not know all of the commandments and sometimes plows on Sundays. The author does not reveal this to the readers directly but tells them what others have been saying about him. Readers can also learn that Proctor is quite prideful. His main goal was to save Elizabeth from hanging, but when Danforth gave him a deal that would save Elizabeth he did not take it. Proctor was too proud to take the deal. Also when Proctor confessed to seeing the devil, his pride got in the way from saving his life. He did not want his name to be slandered.
In the play, The Crucible,by Arthur Miller.Many characters have desires that drive them to pursue certain things.This affects the plot in many ways.In this puritan society,people strongly cared what other people think of them and how their reputation stands in the village.They always strive to make sure their actions reflect wisely on their names.A major motivation John Proctor,Abagail,and Parris share is pride in their names,which eventually leads to their ultimate downfall.
In The Crucible, a few of the townspeople speak out against the injustice of the magistrates. These include John Proctor, Giles Corey, his wife Martha, Rebecca Nurse, Elizabeth Proctor, and even Reverend John Hale. Proctor refuses to give up his integrity and sign his name to a false confession. He thought it was enough admitting to a lie, but he can not bear to sign a confession when others had died for refusing to give the courts what they want. "Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! 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!" exclaims Proctor (886). Giles Corey is being pressed to death for not giving the court the name of an innocent person. Even to the end he refuses to give in. "Great stones they lay upon his chest until he plead aye or nay. They say he give them but two words. `More weight,' he says. And died," explains Elizabeth (883).
The only thing John Proctor wants to be is an honorable man in the eyes of Puritan society. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible John Proctor repeatedly tries to do good for other people. John’s motivation motivation to retain his honor is seen throughout his actions. Since John Proctor is motivated by his honor, his decision to admit he committed adultery creates doubt in the guilt of the accused.
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.
In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, John Proctor, a proud and frustrated farmer of Salem, chooses to die rather than to give a false confession to witchcraft. Many might view this act as that of a selfless martyr; on the other hand, it can more readily be seen as the height of human stupidity in the face of vanity and pride.
The first, the importance of personal integrity, is brought to light through John Proctor, who finds himself facing personal conflict when making the decision of whether to lie and 'confess' to the court, saving his own life, or to tell the truth and be condemned by it. Upon first deciding to confess and live, Proctor acknowledges he has given his soul to the devil, but refuses to also tarnish his name by allowing his confession to be stuck to the door of the church.
In The Crucible, John Proctor is considered the anti-hero. Honest and humble, Proctor is a good man, but one with a secret, fatal flaw. He has fallen for Abigail Williams leading to her jealousy of Elizabeth, Proctor’s wife. Once the trials begin, Proctor realizes that he can terminate Abigail’s accusations; however, he can only do so if ha admits hi own guilt. Proctor is a proud man who places great emphasis on his reputation and such an admission would ruin that. He eventually makes an attempt to name Abigail as a sham without revealing the crucial information. When this attempt fails, he finally breaks out with a confession, calling Abigail a “whore”...
...g! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” The notion that reputation is the most important thing, that having a clean name is what matters most, that it is more important than even life itself, is given to the reader. The idea that John Proctor has given up his soul, his moral principles, his honesty, just to keep his good name is one that is hard to understand in our time but, by this speech, the reader realises the importance accorded to reputation and status.
Mary provides the readers her opinion and definition of pride in an excellent manner. It did not help that she is trying hard to interact with her sister Liz and Ms.Lucas, but her interpretation of pride and vanity is correct. In addition her quote includes a clue for the readers, specifically on how it affects Elizabeth and Darcy. Pride usually always found itself in Darcy’s character and along the book affected his reputation. When attending his first ball with Liz’s presence, he comments to Bingley: "She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men” (8). At the beginning of the book, Darcy’s pride became his enemy that everyone in society catches. Even though pride attached itself to Darcy, other characters contained this quality. Lady Catherine de Bourgh mentioned further on who ...