the crucible john proctor essay

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'The Crucible' Character Study: John Proctor

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Arthur Miller drew inspiration from Greek tragedies in his plays. Like many of the storylines from Ancient Greece, " The Crucible " charts the downfall of a tragic hero: John Proctor.

Proctor is the main male character of this modern classic and his story is key throughout the play's four acts. Actors portraying Proctor and students studying Miller's tragic play will find it useful to learn a bit more about this character.

Who Is John Proctor?

John Proctor is one of the key characters in " The Crucible " and can be considered the leading male role of the play. Because of his importance, we know more about him than almost anyone else in this tragedy.

• 30-year-old farmer.
• Married to a pious woman: Elizabeth Proctor .
• Father of three boys.
• Christian, yet dissatisfied with the way Rev. Parris runs the church.
• Doubts the existence of witchcraft.
• Despises injustice, yet feels guilty because of his extra-marital affair with 17-year-old Abigail Williams .

Proctor's Kindness and Anger

John Proctor is a kind man in many ways. In Act One, the audience first sees him entering the Parris household to check on the health of the reverend's ill daughter. He is good natured with fellow villagers such as Giles Corey, Rebecca Nurse, and others. Even with adversaries, he is slow to anger.

But when provoked, he does get angry. One of his flaws is his temper. When friendly discussion does not work, Proctor will resort to shouting and even physical violence.

There are occasions throughout the play when he threatens to whip his wife, his servant-girl, and his ex-mistress. Still, he remains a sympathetic character because his anger is generated by the unjust society which he inhabits. The more the town becomes collectively paranoid, the more he rages.

Proctor's Pride and Self-Esteem

Proctor's character contains a caustic blend of pride and self-loathing, a very puritanical combination indeed. On the one hand, he takes pride in his farm and his community. He is an independent spirit who has cultivated the wilderness and transformed it into farmland. Furthermore, his sense of religion and communal spirit has led to many public contributions. In fact, he helped construct the town's church.

His self-esteem sets him apart from other members of the town, such as the Putnams, who feel one must obey authority at all costs. Instead, John Proctor speaks his mind when he recognizes injustice. Throughout the play, he openly disagrees with the actions of Reverend Parris, a choice that ultimately leads to his execution.

Proctor the Sinner

Despite his prideful ways, John Proctor describes himself as a "sinner." He has cheated on his wife, and he is loath to admit the crime to anyone else. There are moments when his anger and disgust towards himself burst forth, such as in the climactic moment when he exclaims to Judge Danforth : "I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! And it is my face, and yours."

Proctor's flaws make him human. If he didn't have them, he wouldn't be a tragic hero. If the protagonist were a flawless hero, there would be no tragedy, even if the hero died at the end. A tragic hero, like John Proctor, is created when the protagonist uncovers the source of his downfall. When Proctor accomplishes this, he has the strength to stand up to the morally bankrupt society and dies in defense of truth.

Essays about John Proctor might do well to explore the character arc that occurs throughout the play. How and why does John Proctor change?

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"The Crucible": Character Analysis of John Proctor

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The Crucible John Proctor Essay

Follows the character development of John Proctor in The Crucible by Arthur Miller.

Related Papers

Jared Robinson

Basaad Mhyyal

In the period immediately following the end of World War II, American theatre was transformed by the work of playwright Arthur Miller. Miller tapped into a sense of dissatisfaction and unrest within the greater American psyche because he was profoundly influenced by the depression and the war that immediately followed it. His dramas proved to be both the conscience and redemption of the times; allowing people an honest view of the direction the country had taken.1 Miller has his own concept of tragedy as a modern playwright. He believes that tragedy may depict ordinary people in domestic surroundings instead of talking about a character from a high rank, a king or a queen. Miller’s main concern lies in dramatizing the whole man as he is part of a family and as he is part of a society. In this paper, The Crucible is going to be considered in detail as one of the major tragedies of Arthur Miller. Miller’s The Crucible is based on the events surrounding the 1692 witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts. Miller used that event as an allegory for McCarthyism and the Red Scare, which was a period of time in which Americans were in fear of communism and the government blacklisted accused communists. The play was first performed on Broadway on January 22, 1953. The reviews of the first production were hostile, but a year later a new production succeeded and the play became a classic. The play in the present time is often studied in high schools and universities because of its status as a revolutionary work of theatre and as a document to political events of the 1950s. This play is regarded as one of the best plays of the modern age, due to its deep and captivating plot.2 Miller’s The Crucible is essentially a critique of McCarthyism and the communist scare of the 1950s. Miller saw the parallels between the witch hunts and the McCarthy trials, and found the witch trials to be a compelling vehicle for discussing modern events. The play is a great tragedy, but remains a tragedy for the modern times. The characters in this play suggest what Miller tries to show his readers the lessons from the witch hunts which still apply.3 After performing, the audience is convinced that this play remains relevant and powerful in the twenty-first century. This play can be related to the contemporary world events. It shows the willingness of human beings to blame anyone but themselves. It reinforces the belief that humans are not ready to take responsibility for their actions and would rather find a scapegoat. Miller went back to American history and dug up the records of the Salem witchcraft trails and created his own characters based on the few facts of “known behavior” of the persons involved. The result is a powerful indictment of mass hysteria and savage fury born of terror and superstition. In John Proctor, the tragic hero of The Crucible, Miller has created one of the few heroes of modern drama. A blunt, honest man, but neither an exceptionally good nor a complicated one, Proctor grows with the pressure of circumstances. Like most of Miller’s heroes, Proctor asks to preserve the honour of his name, his right to face himself and his children without apology. However, when a society has gone mad, such a simple reasonable desire makes a man on enemy of the state.4 This paper deals with Arthur Miller as a great playwright of tragedy. It consists of an introduction and two sections. The first section tackles Miller’s concept of tragedy and his view about the common man. Then, section two deals with The Crucible as Miller’s special tragedy and the conclusion reflects what is found out in this paper.

Pragmatics and Cognition

Mahmood sabbagh

Apart from the stylistic and cognitive studies which have already been done separately on Miller’sThe Crucible, this paper provides a new insight into the play and its system of characterization by integrating these approaches. To this end, the paper draws on Jonathan Culpeper’s cognitive stylistic theory of top-down and bottom-up processes in literary text comprehension and characterization. Based on this holistic framework, the paper takes advantage of such stylistic tools as speech acts, the Cooperative Principle and politeness theory to examine features of the language used by the characters Proctor and Danforth. In this regard, the article assimilates those linguistic elements with the embedded schemata within the play. Consequently, the study reveals that Proctor’s complex characterization does not coincide with the readers’ schema and thus they form their impression of his character based on piecemeal integration. On the other hand, Danforth’s character reinforces the readers...

OCIAL SCIENCES STUDIES JOURNAL (SSSJournal)

Khorsheed Ahmed

Many researches, although, have been conducted on American Literature in general, but this study focuses on The Impact of Transgression on the Human's Life in which is presented by Arthur Miller throughout The Crucible. The play explores several complex and trans-historic topics, many of which relate to the playwright's experiences during the McCarthyism era. Miller asks his audience to value independent and personal truths, which he defines as more morally right and good than social truth. This is because, in the playwright's mind, social veracities are often manipulated and exploited to gain a desired personal result regardless of how they affect people's lives. The study comprises four chapters. The first chapter includes the introduction, aims and value of the study, Socio-political background, The Crucible as a Tragic Play, Author's Biography and his major literary works and summary of the Play. While the second chapter concerns with the literature review. The third chapter focuses on the outcomes of this research paper which is Social Transgression, Political Transgression and Religious Transgression. The last chapter includes the main conclusions of the study.

pawan sharma

The present study attempts to examine the relationship of husband, John Proctor, and wife, Elizabeth Proctor, in Arthur Miller's play The Crucible (1953) by clarifying how their use of language in communicating with each other reflects the nature and the development of their tensed relationship. Their relationship, though personal, yet it has been influential in setting in motion the disastrous events which upset the whole community of the 1697 Salem, Massachusetts. Speech act theory associated with the work of J. L. Austin (1962) and John Searle (1975) is employed to reveal 1) a failure of communication between the two at the beginning of the play due to their troubled marital life, 2) a true rapprochement achieved by them near the end due to their long suffering during the witch hunt and also to Elizabeth's essential honesty and courageous self-awareness. Her heroic integrity forces her husband to face the truth and soon he makes his final noble choice i.e. death with ho...

rabbia rani

Psychoanalytic Study of Abigail's Mind In Arthur Miller's Play ''The Crucible'' Rabbia Rani M.A English U.O.S (M B DIN) Abstract: The present research explores the psychoanalytic study of Abigail's mind in Arthur Miller's play ''The Crucible''. This drama is about the Salem witch trial of 1962, in North America. .As it is clear like daylight that 'Crucible' is a container in which we melt the things to purify the purity of the people. This research suggest Abigail's mind under the umbrella of Psychoanalytic study. Sigmund Freud is the pioneer of psychoanalysis theory. He divides mind into three parts; Id, Ego, Super Ego. As Sigmund Freud discloses that ‘’the mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one –seventh of its bulk above water”. Abigail prefers id. It prevails 98 percent in our mind. Id is the only part that is present spontaneously in our mind. It subsist with carving, yearning, longing, ambition and fascination, impulses particular our sexual and aggressive drives. The findings of the present research is about Abigail’s personality has a confrontation between id and super- ego. Although, she follows id because her parents does not give love and affection to her and she wants to gets love and affection from hideous way. Keywords: Id, Ego, Super- Ego, Naive, love and Affection, Neurotic

International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation,

arunakumari s

The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, was an adaptation of the Salem witch trials, which took place in the American province of Massachusetts Bay in 1692 and 1693. In the Crucible's play, all characters are all based on real people who lived in Salem. Although there are several similarities to our own time in the play, it is full of ideas and attitudes that were unique to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. To clearly understand the play, some knowledge of Salem is required. As a result, the following information discusses essential Puritan beliefs and customs, as well as history including its historical Salem witch trials. In particular, Miller's use of such Salem witch trials to critique upon this McCarthy trials in the 1950s discussed all these things throughout this paper.

مجلة کلیة الآداب .جامعة بورسعید

Mohamed A L - S A Y E D al-Ashry

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The Crucible (essay on John Proctor)

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, John Proctor is a flawed, conflicted character. Proctor is a man whose mistakes lead him to a place of self-doubt. Throughout the novel, he teteers on an inner scale of self-confidence and self-worth vs. self-hatred and self-deprecation. It is only at the end of the novel that he decides that his identity is worth clinging onto, although, paradoxically, this means being hanged. It is an important realization for Proctor that he would rather die as himself, with at least a shred of dignity and self-worth, than live feeling confined, oppressed, and used by Danforth and the church. Proctor is both a failure and an ultimate hero because his fatal mistake, his moral sin, leads him to acknowledge his flaws, forgive himself, and realize his personal worth and integrity.

Prior to the events in the story, John Proctor has a short-lived affair with Abigail Williams, who was the servant of Proctor and his wife Elizabeth. Out of some place of desperation or loneliness, and discontentedness with himself, Proctor lusted for this young, charming girl. He regrets his decision immensely and falls into a place of despair and self-hatred, convinced he can never right his wrong and is now forever dishonorable and sinful. Great stress is put on his relationship with his wife, Elizabeth, whom he still loves. There is a feeling of separation between them, a cold distance that discomforts them both. At the end of the play, Danforth and the others allow Elizabeth to see John before he is set to be hanged, his punishment for refusing to admit to witchcraft. John looks to his wife to help him justify his actions. Elizabeth tells her husband, “John, it come naught that I should forgive you, if you’ll not forgive yourself” (136). Elizabeth understands that John feels as though she must forgive him before he can forgive himself. But she also knows that ultimately, he must come to terms with his actions and that he can only set himself free from his burdensome guilt—she can’t do that for him. Throughout Proctor’s conversation with Elizabeth, he demonstrates that he is wrangling with his notions of morality, self-worth, and self-forgiveness. His determination to redeem himself and willingness to own up to what he did prove that despite making an appalling moral error, he is still a moral hero.

Proctor ultimately decides to deny allegations of witchcraft. He refuses to live under the false pretense of committing and admitting to witchcraft, appeasing the church, and being used as another name in the storm of accusations and anxiety occurring in Salem. By letting himself be hurled into the pool of the accused, Proctor feels that the church is taking his soul and using him, an important name in town, to make their cause look legitimate. He says, “God knows how black my sins are!” (142) and in spite of this, God doesn’t need his name nailed up on the church doors for the world to see—this matter is between him and God. Proctor’s inner strength and sense of self-worth are demonstrated when he declares to Danforth and Parris, “You have made your magic now, for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but white enough to keep it from such dogs” (144). Proctor strives to come to terms with his past sins and acknowledge that he is more than his shortcomings—they needn’t forever weight him down. Similar to how Proctor’s decision to be hanged or confess changes back and forth, his belief in himself wavers, but he finally decides to forgive himself: in an ultimate inner battle for self-worth, Proctor prevails. He dies as himself, cognizant of his righteousness as well as of his flaws.

Throughout the play, John Proctor’s mistakes weigh him down and lead him to a place of self-doubt. Ultimately, he is able to forgive himself and learns to view himself as no less of a person than anyone else despite moral wrongs he has committed in the past. Ironically, by fully believing in himself and deciding that his identity is worth not giving up to the merciless Danforth and Parris, he is hanged. However, Proctor’s life ends when he is truly himself, flaws included, rather than continuing to live feeling used and oppressed by the church. Realizing that he would rather die as himself demonstrates Proctor’s growth and courage, making him worthy of the title moral hero. A man who has done no wrong is surely moral, but a man who has done wrong, recognizes it, finds a way to forgive himself, and learns deeper meaning from this emotional trauma is a moral hero.

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