...No, I do not believe that John Proctor’s design to hang instead of admitting that he was consorting with the devil is an act of excessive pride or stubbornness. I instead believe that John Proctor is the tragic hero of the Crucible and that his decision to choose principle over self preservation was an honorable act with the goal of affirming his goodness before God. In the second act of the Crucible, the audience first meets the character of John Proctor while he is in his home with his wife Elizabeth. The reader’s initial reaction of Proctor is that he is a benevolent husband as he states “I mean to please you Elizabeth” (50) and is otherwise kind and respectful towards his wife. However, as the act progresses, the reader comes to find out...
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...Coming up with fiction when the truth needs to be told. John Proctor in The Crucible, is a farmer in a Puritan society. Proctor has a wife, Elizabeth, and three boys, but only two are baptized. In Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, John Proctor was a dishonest man by lying, being dishonest towards Reverend Hale, and betraying his family by being actively involved in adultery. John Proctor is a dishonorable man because he lies.This is an issue because his wife is becoming weary of him. In Act I, John Proctor was alone in a room with Abigail Williams. When Abigail asked how Proctor calls her a child, Proctor replies with, “...I may think of you softly from time to time” (Miller 146). This quote relates directly to Proctor; he states, to Elizabeth, that he does not think...
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...Proctor: Fabricator or Straightforward? Fabrication is looked at the same way lying is, wrong. Coming up with fiction when the truth needs to be told. John Proctor in The Crucible, is a farmer in a Puritan society. Proctor has a wife, Elizabeth, and three boys, but only two are baptized. In Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, John Proctor was a dishonest man by lying, being dishonest towards Reverend Hale, and betraying his family by being actively involved in adultery. John Proctor is a dishonorable man because he lies.This is an issue because his wife is becoming weary of him. In Act I, John Proctor was alone in a room with Abigail Williams. When Abigail asked how Proctor calls her a child, Proctor replies with. This quote relates directly to Proctor; he states, to Elizabeth, that he does not think of Abigail in that way anymore. Proctor told two different people two different things in the time frame. In Act II Proctor says that he...
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...is too late(definition from book). In the crucible by Arthur Miller, it recognizes John Proctor as a tragic hero for the following reasons; he recognized his own faults ,was honorable, and died doing the right things. In The Crucible, John Proctor is a male in his early 30’s with three sons and a wife. He is a farmer and a holy man. Unfortunately, he is killed in the last act of the story. He was accused of witchery, by hateful...
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...Lauren Barash Mrs. Dachille ELA: Hour 4 25 November 2014 John Proctor Tragic Hero A tragic hero is one who holds a high status in a community. The protagonist habitually faces a supernatural force of misfortune in which they conquer and gain admiration from the audience. In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, John Proctor was not the ordinary resident living in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts. Salem during this time period embodies pure unintelligence. The community faced ruthless weather, deceased crops, and sickness. They didn’t know how these dreadful happenings arose. The only knowledge they had came from books, which did not contain the solutions for their troubles. The idea of witchcraft was proposed, and with this being the only possible...
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...waste in its wake. Throughout the ages vengeance has played an important role in history and literature. In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller the theme vengeance is portrayed as neighbor turns on neighbor. First, as the theme vengeance reoccurs throughout the play The Crucible many people end up turning on each other to exact their revenge. For example, Hale is in the home of the Proctors when he brings up how Rebecca Nurse’s and others names got brought up in court. Then Francis Nurse the husband of Rebecca Nurse enters the house following Giles Corey to inform them about his wife’s arrest, Francis exclaimed, “For the marvelous and supernatural murder of Good Putnam’s babies”(Miller 1175)....
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...John Proctor sacrifices his reputation in order to save his wife and stop the court proceedings. Then again, there are really two ways of having a reputation. The first is to follow the rules, which is what John Proctor gives up by admitting he committed adultery. The second is to have integrity by being honest. John Proctor is known as a good man who is fair and hard worker. He is an honest man who regrets breaking his marriage vows with Abigail (also accused of witchcraft). It is at the end of the play (The Crucible) when John Proctor is most honorable. Even though he has agreed to admit witchcraft, he refuses to name any other people of his community. He also tears up the paper he has signed admitting witchcraft when he learns that the...
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...Hannah Rogers 10/26/15 Character Analysis of John Proctor Arthur Miller’s The Crucible has a variety of characters that are hard to connect with. The story takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the late 17th century. Puritans made up most of the population in the area, and their court systems were based on their religion and what they believed God would want them to do. They were particularly against witchcraft, and believed that those who practiced it should be put to death. However, a seventeenyearold girl named Abigail Williams had been practicing witchcraft with her friends in the woods, and basically got caught. To cover up the situation she accuses innocent people in the village of doing it in such a way it made the judges believe she was seeing the devil with them, which saved herself from trial. John Proctor though, is no fool. Once he makes this clear to Abigail, she decides to accuse his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, of witchcraft out of jealousy because at one point she and John had a brief affair, and she felt that Elizabeth got in the way of their love. John Proctor is strong though, and will stand up for what he believes in many times throughout the story. John Proctor was pious, fallible, and a man of integrityho valued having an w honorable name in the community. He was a farmer and dedicated his time to hard work. However, he is a human which means that he made mistakes. When Elizabeth Proctor saw signs that he might fancy Abigail...
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...Arthur Miller gives us this play, which represents many things. He shows us people we can relate to and understand. We see trials and tribulations that these characters go through which helps us seem them as raw and unperfect people. Through these effects he establishes the foundations of The Crucible: courage, truth , and weakness which are represented by many characters throughout the play. Elizabeth Proctor, one of the plays most important characters, resembles truth like no other in the play. The part where she reveals her honesty and character is when she is called in front of the court to testify against Abigail Williams for comiting adultery with her husband. In this moment, she lies to protect her husband. Here she is honest to her husband and to her marriage. She is honest and tries to the bigger person in times of trial which is something we can all admire her for. John Proctor, like his wife, has not only superior morals and character, but more courage than the average man. Proctor shows us multiple times that he is more than willing to stand up for...
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...John Proctor’s act is one that defines the word believable. The following quotes emanate the very understanding of why his actions are understood as credible to being honest and truthful. John Proctor, a good Christian man, is being sent to hang for two crimes: lechery and witchcraft. His only sin is that he lusted, but the crime of witchcraft isn’t a sin of his. Though he is to die for two crimes, he could have only died for one. He ripped up his one way out of witchcraft, which is the beginning of so many questions. Did he really need to die for two if he could prevent the one? The answer may never be truly justified, but the answers found here will prove that he was right in his mind to hang with his head held high. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible gives plenty of evidence to show that this deduction is correct, that John Proctor was believable. Proctor’s first authentic line is when he says to Elizabeth, “I have been thinking I would confess to them, Elizabeth. What say you? If I give them that” (Act IV. 465-468)? Here, he questions himself inside the lines. The quote shows that this is him in the process of rationalizing what he could possibly do to save himself. Someone who’s about to make a life-changing decision, such as one’s hanging, would question...
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...and has inspired men to do both great and terrible things. Men have gone to war in the name of honor, and killed to defend it, and evolving honor sometimes induces a change in societal structure. John Proctor from Arthur Miller’s Crucible and Will Kane from Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon exemplify honor’s ability to incite change. Both Proctor and Kane are portrayed as both honorable and influential men in their respective towns. Their actions motivated by their individual codes of honor allow Proctor and Kane to spark change their communities. Proctor’s honor leads him to sacrifice himself, inciting change in his community, and ending the Salem witch trials. Proctor’s code of honor is built around...
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...Valerie Delgado 1/14/11 Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953 during the McCarthy Era, when Americans were accusing each other of Pro-Communist beliefs. Many of Miller’s friends were being attacked as communists and Miller himself was brought up guilty of beliefs in communism. Miller was getting sick of this so he put his writing techniques in action and wrote a play called The Crucible to show the injustices. This playwright uses the Salem Witch trials as an allegory to the US injustices toward suspected Communists. The Crucible is set against the backdrop of the mad witch hunts of the Salem witch trials, where innocent people were being accused and hung because of witchcraft. Miller portrays a character that is known as a tragic hero, strong but flawed, to fight against the injustice of the town and to show that a tragic hero can still do what he believes is best even when the majority of society is influenced by lies. The character that Miller chooses to be his Greek tragic hero is John Proctor, who is a good, well known, and respected man in Salem. It is evident that John Proctor fulfills the requirements of the Greek Tragic hero because of his many positive traits, such as his noble characteristics, his honorable and righteous qualities, and always believing in himself fighting for what is true. However, he had a fatal flaw that showed the darker side to his perfect characteristics. His flaw is committing adultery towards his wife. Before the play...
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...Crucible Essay John Proctor, remains an honest and honorable man. He has a great deal of integrity. He believes in always doing the right thing or standing up for what is right. With John’s personality he was able to make a name for himself by gaining respect from others. In The Crucible, John Proctor, is able to escape if he signs his name on a document saying he is an ally of the devil; the document would be hung up in the church. He found it difficult to lie, “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies!” (IV 284-294) He is unwilling to go against his principles and integrity just to be a free man. Reverend Parris, a minster of Salem also Abigail’s uncle. He is known very well throughout...
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...Bryanna Miller English 2 L1 The Crucible essay March 13, 2014 “Because it’s 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 to hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” (43) This is the reasoning John Proctor, a tragic hero, gave to why he wouldn’t sign his name on the document confessing to witch craft. This is also one of his last statements he made before he was hung to prove that he is a hero. John Proctor is a tragic hero because not only does he bring trouble on people, but in the end he tries his hardest to fix his mistakes, making him a hero. Proctors mistakes and attempts to fix them also helps the author, Arthur Miller, of the play The Crucible, get the theme, your mistakes will catch up with you, across. John Proctor is known as a tragic hero because he has made many mistakes and brought trouble into people’s lives, but he tried to make up for the mistakes and fix the problems he caused. The mistake he made in the play was when he had an affair with Abigail. This causes troubles, with not only his wife Elizabeth’s life, but also with Abigail’s life. This causes great trouble for Goody Proctor because she had to live with the fact that her husband cheated on her, because divorce was very looked down upon in the community. To try and get over the affair John had, she tried her best to pretend that it didn’t happen, and that everything...
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...The Crucible Act Four Questions Short Response Answer the following questions based on your knowledge of the drama. Write a response on a separate sheet of paper. 1. Where does Tituba think that the Devil is going to take her? 2. Give one example of how Abigail shows her dishonesty in this act. 3. What effect do the trials have on Salem? Use three details from the drama to support your answer. 4. When first arrives at the Salem jail, Danforth complains, “There is a prodigious stench in this place.” How might this line be read to mean something besides a comment on the smell? 5. How is Giles Corey’s character reflected in his death? Use one detail from the drama to support your response. 6. What qualities does Proctor find within himself that prevent him from at last saving himself and signing the confession? Use details from the text to support your response. 7. Explain how Proctor is right or wrong for refusing to sign the confession. Use details to support your response. 8. A tragic hero’s fate, according to Aristotle, inspires pity and horror. Name the tragic hero in The Crucible, and describe how his or her fate inspires both pity and horror. 9. People accused of being Communists had a difficult time getting jobs; some even moved out of the United States in order to try to resume normal lives. How is Proctor’s situation like that of the people accused of Communist activities? 10. Based on the conversation involving Tituba, Sarah...
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