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Elizabeth Proctor As A Tragic Hero In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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“The Crucible,” a play formulated by Arthur Miller, bridges the Aristotelian philosophies of a hero bounded by fate and the time of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 through a series of climatic expositions in his dramatic thesis. Specifically speaking, Elizabeth Proctor demonstrated the qualities of this “tragic hero” by moments of characterized crescendo and its unleaded downfall in her pinnacle instances. Such events of this identification were shown when she herself fractured her own developmentation such that it aroused her questioning of the social construct while justifying the adamant dignification in her assimilation with society. With the cause of this moment, Elizabeth Proctor commensurates her denouncement of heroism through the realization …show more content…

Elizabeth Proctor, of high social regardings in the subtleties of the play, shows proposition of her character’s daintiness when aroused by the severity of the witchcraft accusations. In a series of dramatic discourses between Elizabeth Proctor and John Hale in Act II, ultimately defining Elizabeth Proctor’s hamartic demise, it states:

Elizabeth: I cannot think the Devil may own a woman’s soul, Mr. Hale, when she keeps and upright way, as I have. I am a good woman, I know it; and if you believe I may do only good work in the world, and yet be secretly bound to Satan, then I must tell you, sir, I do not believe it.
Hale: But, woman, you do believe there are witches in--
Elizabeth: If you think that I am one, then say there are …show more content…

While Elizabeth Proctor inherently depicts a fracture in her character development, the cause of this matter is not yet so blatant. Because she carried a sense of localized internal fortitude, the notion of proprietary social identification concluded her consciousness in defense to John Proctor’s deeds of ignominy. One quotation that supports this idea was when Elizabeth Proctor had an altercation with John Proctor in Act II, stating, “You’ll tear it free--when you come to know that I will be your only wife, or no wife at all! She has an arrow in you yet, John Proctor, and you know it well!” This quotation not only interprets the characterization of Elizabeth Proctor as impulsive confidence but also pinpoints the ultimate decline of her character. The motivation of Elizabeth Proctor centers around her contempt with John Proctor. Since the introduction of Abigail in their marital relationship, her character is threatened by the calamity of Abigail’s characterization. Elizabeth Proctor’s need to interject her social acknowledgment foreshadows her imminent downfall in Arthur Miller’s dramatic

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