Forgiveness In John Proctor In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

During a session in court, John openly admits to giving Abigail Williams a motive to cause The Witch Trials. Proctor states, “I have known her, sir. I have known her… A man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now, I beg you, sir, I beg you—see her [Abigail] what she is” (Miller, 110). The judge is astonished by the information at hand and demands Elizabeth to confirm the claim. She lies for the first time in her life, thinking that she will save her husband from execution, but proves John a liar. This leads him to act as he has consorted with Lucifer. As Proctor is awaiting his everlasting consequence, he is asked to write the names of the civilians he saw with the devil. John replies, “They think to go like saints. I like not to spoil their names… I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another. I have no tongue for it” (Miller, 141). Proctor does not want to give names of people he knows that were not communicating with the devil just to save his own life. He would rather protect his whole town and sacrifice his own life to save innocent citizens of Salem, Massachusetts. John Proctor capitulates his own life to save others who would otherwise be murdered due to Abigail William’s untruthful

In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the town of Salem is afflicted with hysteria, intolerance, and accusations that lead to death. According to philosopher Aristotle, a tragic hero possesses a tragic flaw, excessive pride, and an inevitable downfall. Protagonist John Proctor illustrates a tragic hero because he is presented as happy, powerful, and privileged, which later leads him to suffer because of his own actions.

In the story known as, “The Crucible”, a character known as John Proctor has wishes and desires that conflict directly with the society where he lives and his own conscious. The ramifications for his natural and circumstantial disposition of anti-conformity clearly create conflict in between John Proctor and the town which he called home. To further investigate the reasoning behind his rebellious zeal and untimely death we need to examine John Proctor’s main two conflicts during the Salem witch trials.

John Proctor was a man of honor and had a well respected name in the town of Salem. Sadly he died tragically but as a hero. He was hanged because he was accused of doing the devil’s work. He was given the chance to save his life if he admitted on a piece of paper that he was working with the devil but he refused to tell that lie. He wanted his sons to be able to walk the streets without being shunned from the world because they deserved better. John Proctor didn’t want his name to be the ruined because he felt that was all he had left. John Proctor was tragically killed for a sin he had not committed but was found a hero because people followed in his footsteps by not confessing to something they didn’t do.

The end of the Crucible is very suspenseful when the protagonist, John Proctor, is faced with choosing between confessing to a lie or dying for the truth. At first, Proctor is hesitant and signs the papers, confessing himself to evil, but before the signed paper is collected by the court, he tears it apart and is sentenced to death. This was his best option, for it stopped him from living a remorseful life. His decision to tear apart the signed confession was the most correct not only for himself but for his family and the community as well.

One’s identity can make or break you. This is being demonstrated in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, “Half- Hanged Mary” written by Margret Atwood and “The Lessons of Salem” by Laura Shapiro. The play The Crucible is about how reputation impacts the puritan and Salem society, while “Half-Hanged Mary” is a woman who is accused of witchcraft when innocent and is hanged but does not die. “The Lessons of Salem” is about the Salem witch trials through Americans history that has to do with the inequalities of the people when these texts are examined together they indicate that reputation is the most important thing a person can have in life.

One’s morals can make one’s principles more important than one’s life. John Proctor, the protagonist of The Crucible,

“A man cannot become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall,”Aristotle. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, John Proctor, the main protagonist of the play faces several situations in which he struggles both internally and externally; all of the struggles that Proctor

Arthur Miller was the author of the Crucible who wrote this in 1953 in response to the second

By looking at The Crucible by Arthur Miller one can see that the characterization of John Proctor reveals the theme of reputation and integrity, which is important because refusing to tell lies to protect his reputation and stop delirium from spreading throughout Salem.John Proctor states that the woman of Salem who have been locked up for witchcraft:”Excellency, does it not strike upon you that so many of these women have lived so long with such upright reputation”(3.1.305-309). Proctor represents reputation because he would rather die than have his reputation downed to a victimizer. Protecting his reputation motivates John Proctor to deny that witchcraft exists in the village. All he hears is crying out of screams and wailing which is a cause of the Devil 's work: “What 's she doing? Girl what ails you? Girl what ails you? Stop that wailing!” (1.1 620-621). John Proctor is saying that Abigail is crying out in nonsense to protect her by making people think she was cast over by witches rather people finding out about the adultery that she committed . Proctor motivates to learn how the truth can still not matter if it is not what the court wants to hear causing people to be killed and put in jail.

Proctors final act was honor. Proctors actions were noble, he was a very honorable man. His actions really helped him and his family name. In the passage of the book ¨The Crucible” John Proctor says ¨i have given you my soul, let me keep my family name.¨ This statement is very noble. He gave his life for his family name making sure that the people who are going to kill know not to say anything bad about his name.

In The Crucible, the protagonist John Proctor was. In the town of Salem, in 1692, a group of young ladies by the names of Betty Williams, Abigail Williams and Tituba were found dancing in the forest naked by Reverend Parris, Abigail’s’ uncle. Reverend Parris assumed that they were participating in witchcraft. This idea of witchcraft spread through the city of Salem and the citizens began accusing each other of being witches. This started a series of court cases known as the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail Williams accused John Proctor of participating in witchcraft. Seven months earlier Proctor had an affair with Abigail who worked as his maid. When John’s wife Elizabeth Proctor found out, she fired Abigail immediately. This left Elizabeth feeling doubtful of John.

Closely following his act of adultery with Abigail Williams, we begin to see the cracks in Proctor’s persona and personal image. A veil of secrecy is apparent in John and Elizabeth’s marriage, with John covering up the truth whenever he needs to, and as Abigail catalyzes the witch hysteria, John is forced by society and self-preservation to continue with his incessant mistruths. Eventually we begin to notice that John grows heavy with stress and anxiety, and as he walks more deeply into this dark chasm of dishonesty, it gets more difficult for him to find his way out. One thing that remains constant, however, is Proctor’s sense of honor and the importance of his own

Through the development of the character John Proctor from The Crucible, Arthur Miller strives to portray the extent of the effects leading to the downfall of a great man who made a single human error of adultery which evolved into a mass hysteria of his community and personal life. These unfortunate events changed him from an honest, upstanding community man to the shell of a man that no longer felt worthy in the eyes of his wife or god, and then back to an honorable, honest man who left this world with immense dignity and integrity.

A man of conscience is one who is aware of his moral and ethical beliefs and judgments and one who will prefer right over wrong. The life of such man is ruled by the desire to seek the truth and justice in all that surrounds him, including himself. These attributes are seen in both character, John Proctor from Arthur Miller’s play, “The Crucible”, set in Salem in the early seventeenth century and in Atticus Finch from Harper Lee’s novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird” set in New York in 1950.