In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor was accused of witchcraft. John Proctor was a man of great integrity and knew he did nothing wrong. He was given the choice to confess and lie or be hung. Being the honest and stubborn man that he was, he decided his name was more important than his life. John struggled both internally and with others while trying to fight for what he thought was right. One major character trait of John Proctor was his honesty. When John Proctor found out about the accusations, he looked for the truth. Once he was told by Abigail Williams that the witch accusations were not true, he went to court with Mary Warren to tell the Judges the truth. When the Judges started questioning him, he admitted his affair with Abigail Williams, which put his name at risk. Then, John was accused of witchcraft. He was given the choice to tell the truth and be prosecuted or confess to a crime he didn’t commit and be set free. He chose to tell the truth and got sent to jail. During this time, he said “... what is John Proctor? I think it is honest” (page 138). This showed that he was trying to keep his name clean by telling the truth. When John was in prison, they give him another chance to be freed of charges. They tried to persuade him …show more content…
He trusts himself and goes with his gut even when everyone else is telling him something different. When he is first accused, everyone told him to confess, even though he didn’t do the crime. But he goes with his gut and doesn’t listen to them. Then, when John Proctor is in jail, they try and get him to sign a paper saying he confesses. He signs it, but won’t give it back. He says “No, no. I have signed it. You have seen me. It is done! You have no need for this” (page 142). He then rips the paper, changing his mind about confessing to a false accusation. This angers everyone else, but John doesn’t care. He knows what is right and tries his best to do
He also brought Mary Warren, one of the accusers, into the court to testify that the whole thing was an act and that none of the girls had seen spirits. This shows that John is an honorable character because of how he is dedicated to helping his wife and others who have been falsely accused of
The biggest weakness of John Proctor is him not sticking to his Christian beliefs. Proctor states, “I cannot mount the gibbet like a saint. It is a fraud. I am not that man. My honesty is broke, Elizabeth; I am no good man.
He was given the choice to either confess to being apart of witchcraft and be spared or not confess and get hanged. He is allowed to talk this over with his wife and at first they decide it would be better to confess even though they know he didn’t do anything! At this point in the play John realizes that it is not the right thing to do. He says “ How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul now give me your name.”
JOHN PROCTOR: TRAGIC HERO Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a greatly revered work, and it reflected the times of America in the days of McCarthyism. Perhaps the character that connected to the audience most was John Proctor, the protagonist of the play. He reflects the mistakes that we have made in our lives, and the struggle that some of have while trying to take the blindfold off of other people. He should be considered a hero because he feels guilt, and therefore tries to make up for the fact that he once had an affair.
Proctor says “ You are the high court, your word is good enough! tell them i confessed myself; say proctor broke his knees and wept like a woman, but my name cannot!”. In the quote John Proctor does not want written proof that he was a witch because he wants to protect his friends and not throw them under the bus. This means he cares for his friends and is truly a good man. Proctor says; “ let them that near dead now take their souls, it is pretence to me.”
The Crucible Argumentative Essay John Proctor should have risked taking a stand against a system that was against his beliefs. In the past, people have sacrificed themselves for what they believed in. As seen in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor defies the court, and it results in his execution. John Proctor should have risked taking the stand, because he maintained his reputation as a good man and role model.
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?
John Proctor’s character is one based on reputation, and guilt. The guilt comes from his affair with Abigail Williams. The reputation aspect comes from when he is accused by Mary Warren of trying to turn her to the Devil. I believe that John Proctor grows tired of the accusations, as to why he speaks of his false involvement with Satan in front of the town. Specifically, Deputy Danforth uses John Proctor as an example for conviction as he is certain he will be able to turn others
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.
John Proctor the Wrongly Accused In The Crucible there are many people condemned and hanged for witchcraft, one of these, John Proctor, I believe to be innocent. A man with as much integrity and honesty as John Proctor, could never perform the act of witchcraft. Undoubtedly he wasn’t a perfect man but no one ever is. As we are proved time and time again, John is an honest, hardworking man; who is haunted by his past misdeeds.
I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”(1272). These words by John Proctor exemplify his character by making, in my opinion, not a very wise decision. In the play The Crucible, John Proctor’s unwillingness can be seen as selfish because others hung before he confessed his affair with Abigail but he redeemed himself by undoing his confession and refusing to sell the court other names, which Arthur Miller used to convey a message about a crucible being put through a fire/trial and coming out in its purest form, through the character of John
The first impressive characteristic of John Proctor is his bravery. Speaking out against the “afflicted” girls in the way he did could cause serious question of him as a person. From the court’s standpoint John could be seen as directly opposing the court, which would have him jailed, or could even have him be accused of witchcraft. Also, he would have had to have known that Abigail Williams would have immediately accused him of being a witch once he spoke out against them. However, that did not stop him from delivering the truth to the court.
In The Crucible, a drama by Arthur Miller, John Proctor demonstrates courage by speaking out for what he believes in while knowing his consequences, admitting his wrong doings with Abigail to save Elizabeth’s life, and choosing to be hanged over having his name posted on the church door because the second his signed confession is posted, his and his loved ones reputations will be ruined. In the beginning of the play all John Proctor cared about was his reputation. However, ultimately he sacrificed his reputation by telling the court he committed adultery. John telling the court he was guilty ruined his reputation, which made all hell break loose.
In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor is accused of performing witchcraft and contracting with the Devil. He is faced with the decision to either confess to or deny the accusations. Ultimately, Proctor chooses to deny the accusations and dies a martyr. Proctor’s decision to sacrifice himself is justified because he protected the reputation of those who died and risked being arrested to save his wife, Elizabeth Proctor. John Proctor’s death is justified because he was willing to sacrifice his life to protect the reputation of others.
John Proctor is well liked and respected in the Puritan community and is trusted by everyone. In Act I, on page 1269, It says “Proctor, respected and even feared in Salem, has come to regard himself as a kind of fraud.” This quote shows that John has a lot to lose if his secret gets out because everyone looks up to him. Although John is a great man, his tragic flaw is his pride.