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essay on John proctor from the Crucible
The Tragedy of John Proctor in The Crucible
essay on John proctor from the Crucible
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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.
As formerly indicated, tragedy occurs not only to selected people or noteworthy humans, but rather to the ordinary person. In The Crucible, John Proctor epitomizes “tragedy” for the common man in Salem. In the article Tragedy and the Common Man, Miller explains tragedy as “the consequence of a man's total compulsion to evaluate himself justly, his destruction in the attempt posits a wrong or an evil in his environment. And this is precisely the morality of tragedy and its lesson” (1). Miller expresses his view in the recognition of “tragedy”, which characterizes John Proctor an average man in Salem who challenges the accusations of Abigail and her friends and is willing to give up his life for a justified ruling.
John Proctor is categorized as a courageous hero in The Crucible. He stood up for the absurd accusations of w...
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...or refuses to post the testimony in the church doors because he will not allow the judge and ruin his name and instead would die if he cannot have the only thing left for him.
John Proctor depicts a courageous individual with an image of a sincere and an honorable man, not only in minds of the Salem community, but also in his own. His death implies more than a “tragedy”, but rather a strong action that inspires and encourages citizens in Salem to follow his footstep for change. Proctor is frustrated at how the court for believing Abigail and not the innocents. He says, “My wife is innocent, except she knew a whore when she saw one! You are pulling Heaven down and raising up a whore!” (Act III). He is infuriated that the officials in the court believe the ridiculous pretenses and acting of the Salem girls, that everyone’s the belief in god seems to be deteriorating.
Miller uses the conventions of self-recognition and the common man to complete his tragedy in The Crucible. Miller defines recognition to be the “need of man to wholly realize himself is only fixed star” (Tragedy and the Common Man), clearly, miller believes a self-recognition to be the most important convention of a tragedy. The protagonist, John Proctor portrays a tragic hero in The Crucible, where his recognition is the discovery that he still contains goodness in him. Elizabeth, John’s wife, describes how John “[has] his goodness now”(Miller 145). When John believed that he is a man of no value, he quickly chose to live his life by confessing to witchery in Salem Village since this made up lie connected to his worthless personality. But through his wife’s support, John Proctor finally sees the goodness he holds and truly live in the name of by choosing to die an honorable death by following the steps of Giles Corey and not giving the court his name to use on the church door as one of the people who falsely “confessed” to witchery in Salem Village . Through Johns death, he realizes that this would bring him Elizabeth’s mercy and forgiveness for the adultery that he committed with Abigail. Furthermore Miller also connects John’s recognition to the convention of the common man since it is only possible to have a Millerian Tragedy if the tragic hero is a common man. Miller implies that the common man is much more suitable...
When the play sets in to action, John has had a past affair with his servant Abigail Williams. His wife, Elizabeth Proctor is very forgiving of his sin, but John has his mind set that he will not confess to anyone else, in fear of ruining his good name, and reputation. The affair between John and Abigail caused the start of chaotic witchery and accusation. After the affair, Abigail became horribly jealous of Elizabeth Proctor. Proctor realizes there is only one way to stop all the witch hysteria in Salem, and that would be to confess his sin of adultery. Although he knows he should, he continues to be determined not to confess. Also in the beginning Reverend Paris is new to town, and John insist continually that he is only speaking of hell, and hardly ever of God, as Proctor goes on to say to Parris, "Can you speak one minute without we land in Hell again? I am sick of Hell!" (Miller 30). In the drama, Mary Warren places a needle in a poppet she gave to Elizabeth; John firmly demands that Mary Warren tell the courts that she really put the needle in the poppet that day. Proctor says to her, "You're coming to the court with me, Mary. You will tell it in the court." (Miller 80). Furthermore, at the end of the play Proctor is persistent by saying that no matter what anyone says to convince him differently, he would rather die an honest man and save his name. John Proctor took pride in his thoughts, feelings, values, and his name. It took persistency to make his intent clear to others.
The play “The Crucible” written by Arthur Miller depicts the horror and fear suffered due to the Salem witch trials; where countless were condemned due to suspicion of witchcraft. Through the play, the reader builds strong emotional connections to the characters. John Proctor, the play’s protagonist, exhibits complex emotions and character traits. These character traits cause him to heavily affect the course of the play as well as the fates of the other characters. These traits include pride, bravery, and integrity. Due to John Proctor’s sense of prideful, blunt spoken, and integrity will undoubtedly leads to his death, but will also leaves a strong lasting impact on the play.
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.
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.
According to many experts of both history and literature, Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero is used to describe many protagonists in both American and world literature. There are many aspects to Aristotle’s definition, and each idea helps to explain the structure, purpose, and intended effect of tragedy. Many of Aristotle’s ideas can apply to multiple characters in The Crucible. Although Proctor unarguably represents the tragic hero of this novel, Reverend Hale’s story fits surprisingly well with the criteria that Aristotle believes to define a tragic hero. Hale is a character of noble stature, suffers with his tragic flaw of arrogance, yet has a reversal of fortune that is not fully deserved and not fully
As time elapses, several more honorable natures of Proctor are revealed, including his boldness and his lack of fear of physical tribulation; however, one of the most forefront features that poses as a risk and a threat to Proctor’s relationships is his incapacity to forgive himself. John Proctor has had a frenzied history with breaking the law of chastity--having an affair with another woman named Abigail--and his wife, Elizabeth, could sense at least some sort of disunion in their relationship, declaring “John, you are not open with me. You saw [Abigail] with a crowd…” The embarrassment and guilt that John felt because of those few moments of lustful actions followed with John til the day he died, and he could not find himself able to pardon his own mistakes. His inability to forgive himself ultimately results in his own heroic death, and the cavity in John and Elizabeth's marriage that comes from this deficiency of self-compassion dramatically influence his actions throughout The Crucible. Throughout each act, John Proctor made major decisions that affected nearly everyone in the town of Salem and brought a voice of sanity and logic to the broken and corrupted
John Proctor, whether consciously or not, constantly determines the path to his fate through his actions, choices, and judgment. Though overall he is an honorable and principled man, he is flawed by one crucially harmful past deed to his reputation—his committing of adultery with seventeen-year-old Abigail Putnam. In a final attempt to save his wife from the accusation of witchcraft, he admits to his crime of lechery, by which he plans to unveil Abigail’s true motive for accusing his wife Elizabeth: “A man will not cast away his good name. You surely know that…She thinks to dance with me on my wife’s grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is promise in such sweat. But it is a whore’s vengeance, and you must see it, I set myself entirely in your hands” (Miller 113). This merely warrants him harshly disapproving views from his puritanical peers, and not even this act of utter honesty and sacrifice can reverse the witch trial hysteria that his affair with Abigail sparked. Both he and his wife Elizabeth are jailed, he is hanged, and Abigail maintains po...
Mr. Proctor, a main character in the play The Crucible, is very important in understanding and analyzing of the story. Throughout his time in the play, the audience came to know and love him. However, because of his disgraceful actions with another woman, among other things, he ended up in the hangman’s noose. This is the analysis of how Mr. Proctor became this well-known tragic hero. Among the things that will be discussed: his affair with Abigail Williams, his wife, his fatal flaw, and fate/external forces.
...his sin of adultery, for it causes breaks in his bonds between his wife and Abigail. He grapples with authority, for Proctor is not one who listens to authority simply because it is the excepted thing to do. He also faces death because he chooses to be a noble man and denies all charges of witchcraft. Though John Proctor is not a perfect man, his beliefs and values are in the right place; he listens to his heart. When his head tells him to listen to the court because it is the law, and when Hale tells him to choose to live as an accused witch, Proctor does not listen because he knows that these acts are not in his best interest. He follows his soul, a lesson the whole world should learn to follow.
In the tragic play The Crucible, the reader learns a lot about what Puritan life was like during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. John Proctor was a man in his mid-thirties who was married to Elizabeth or Goody Proctor and had three boys. He was a middle class farmer, who was very well educated and was not a man to blow things out of disproportion. Although very few people knew he was a sinner and was not immaculate, he was a well-respected and feared man in Salem. His character could be described to have effrontery. John Proctor had a good reputation in the Salem community, but by the end of the play John has learned to have integrity. He was a bold man who spoke his mind, this feared many due to the talk of witches taking over the minds and thoughts of people.
The Crucible is a tragedy play that retells the witchcraft trials occurring in Salem. Tragedies normally include a main character that suffers and in the end usually dies. Every tragedy has a tragic hero. The tragic hero usually has an error in judgement or a flaw in character, which results in his suffering and misfortunes. John Proctor is a prime example of a tragic hero. In Crucible, John struggles with his guilt over the affair with Abigail which led to lies and unfaithfulness. John is a tragic hero, because of his noble stature, tragic flaw, and self-knowledge.
In Salem, at the time of the Salem witch trials, people were being accused of witchcraft left and right. The Crucible is filled with mistakes, guilt, and a man who puts his life on the line to remain true to who he is, but is he truly a tragic hero? According to Aristotle, a tragic hero must possess four characteristics: goodness, superiority, a tragic flaw, and an eventual realization of their tragic flaw. In Authur Miller’s essay, Tragedy of the Common Man, he describes a tragic hero as being a “common man,” someone who suffered from a wound of indignity, and someone willing to lay down their life for their dignity; based on this criteria, John Proctor is a tragic hero.
Firstly, John Proctor is not seen to be a good man because in chapter one is affair with Abigail is exposed. “Give me a word, John. A soft word. (Her concentrated desire destroys his smile.) From this it can be seen that before they did have an affair but now it is over. The personal pronoun ‘me’ shows how she wants him all to herself and that the meeting is held in secret. The word ‘desire destroy’ in the stage directions is then used to contradict her feelings as Miller suggests how their affair is now over but Abigail doesn’t want it to be and that she still loves Proctor. From this quote it is then shown that John Proctor can’t be a good man if he committed adultery. However, John Proctor also speaks to Abigail to mention how their affair is mentioned and how their affair to him was at his moment of weakness when his wife, Elizabeth was ill. As it was a mistake Proctor mentions how Abigail should, “Wipe it out of mind.” This shows that he wants to forget it ever happened and that he also doesn’t want anybody to find out about this. From this it shows that John Proctor is not a good and as when his wife was ill and when he was at his weakest he committed a sin. If the people of Salem were to hear...
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.