Characteristics Of John Proctor In The Crucible

In the play The Crucible, there are a few round characters, characters that have many or a few different sides or facets. These characters have different, conflicting traits, that confuse the reader on whether they should side with the character or not. The most dominate round character in the play is John Proctor, he progresses a lot as a character throughout the play, he changes from being someone you may not like, into a character that you very well may end up liking a lot because of his actions in the play. He has a past of being unfaithful to his wife with another character, who turns out to be one of the main antagonists in the play. But, at the same time John is the main protagonist of the play, he defends the wrongfully accused in Salem,

When John and Abigail are alone in Act I, Abigail flirts with Proctor by saying how she wants Proctor to give him “[a] soft word” and by saying bluntly “I am waitin’ for you every night”, along with other evidence of their affair during this conversation (Miller 21). John confirms that the affair occurred later in the conversation when he says “I’ll not be comin’ for you more” (21). Even though John does not want to continue with this affair, he can still be looked down upon because of his past, as adultery is considered one of the main sins. John can also be thought of as a bad person because he disagrees and dislikes the town’s minister, Parris. John thinks of Minister Parris as a greedy, unjust man. This is shown when John says “the last meeting I were at you spoke so long on deeds and mortgages I thought it were an auction” (28). This interaction shows exactly what John believes Parris to be. John also believes that Parris’ witchcraft accusations are unjust and not backed up. Later in Act II, John tries to push away Elizabeth’s accusations of John’s sins, but then gets into a heated argument over the subject. Elizabeth strongly believes that John had an affair with Abigail, and her thoughts are right. Elizabeth says many things showing the sins John had committed hurt her and that she wants him to end it completely and come clean to his sins. This is evident when Elizabeth says “[t]hen go and tell her she’s a whore. Whatever promise she may sense - break it, John”, this shows Elizabeth just wants this whole thing to be over, and again that John has hurt her with his actions (59). If the others in Salem knew about this affair, they may not want to be around John, or believe a thing he says regarding the trials. Also, since Salem is a very religious colony, people may not like John because of his bitterness