The Crucible: The Tragic Hero

Not many people have heard of a selfish hero. With the current American Literature educational plan, this can come as a surprise to those who saw John Proctor, a character in Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible”, as a selfish hero. A hero can never be purely good, and bad mistakes are made everywhere. Flaws and misjudgments are made constantly, with every hero one can see or read about. John Proctor was a very important character in “The Crucible” and one of the reasons as to why would be his accusation against the “afflicted children” and a direct accusation towards Abigail Williams.

The concept of good and evil can be defined as ideas of complete opposites. A person that is good can be described as a person with virtuous morals and beliefs. In contrast, a person that is bad can be described as a person with atrocious morals and beliefs. In East of Eden, John Steinbeck claims that all human thoughts and actions can be narrowed down to a single theme of good and evil; he makes the assertion that a person can only be judged as such after that person has died. When a person dies, his or her traits of virtue and vice are absolute.

“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?

1. Which character developed or changed the most during The Crucible? How did he/she change? What caused this change? Give specific examples from all stages of development.

The act of death by inequity is explored in depth within “The Crucible”, written by Arthur Millar. It is based in 1692 within Salem, Massachusetts. The play is an allegory to the McCarthyism era. The theme of death is prevalent throughout “The Crucible” and is embodied as dying for personal pride when faced with the decision to tell a lie or die for the truth. This is represented clearly through the tragic hero, John Proctor.

Nobility of the few brings together the masses of the many. To which any man perceived to be noble having to possess the traits of someone who will raise other and will not fall. In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a man named John Proctor shows his nobility with all his actions, statements and natural talent. A tragic hero is a literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on a tragedy. In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrays John Proctor, the protagonist, as a tragic hero who has a major flaw—lust for Abigail, his house servant.

Yes, in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible John Proctor’s act is believable. John Proctor isn’t this person in the beginning of the play ; he wouldn’t of even considered this at the time being. He is not entirely truthful with his wife and himself, his marriage affected the goodness in himself. His marriage is very cold and seems false, resulting in him and his wife to not trust each other and be distant.

Christopher Paolini once said that “without fear there cannot be courage.” In “The Crucible,” John Proctor was put up to the ultimate test. During the Salem Witch trails if one was unable to cry real tears, unable to recite the Lord’s word, or seen with the “Devil’s Mark” then they would be accused of being a witch. Since witches are not real, it can be concluded that all who were accused were innocent. So, common ways that the public forced innocent people to confess about being a witch was to torture them, sexually abuse them, and have the threat of death looming above them.

With John Proctor as our main character it is only suited that we claim him to be our one true tragic hero. He is introduced as a strong character that has secrets that few know. The reputation he has set forth for himself means a great deal to him. But, the higher you are the more the fall hurts. His fall from the graces was extremely tragic, as he proclaimed his act of adultery in front of God and everyone.

In the Crucible by Arthur Miller which protagonist is John Proctor, his desire to do what is right because of his reputation, his name in the town was synonymous with integrity and pride, all he wanted was respect. Notwithstanding, Elizabeth gave him his respect he deserved after his death, and Mary Tyrone, the protagonist of Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill does not want people to know that she’s addicted to morphine after Edmund’s birth. She’s the main focus of the play because each act ends with her and she causes everything to happen due to the fact that she’s the only character in the play who’s looking for her motivation back that she has lost over the years before she met Tyrone. Unfortunately, she’s unable to find her