It is ironic how the Puritans were called to lived a life exactly as the bible says, yet many of them sinned and lived quite oppositely. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, touches on the misery during the Salem Witch Trials, and also how the Puritan community fell apart. The dark themes are common in most tragedies. Many of the main characters committed sins such as lust and greed, but the most detrimental sin committed was pride. Pride is prevalent in the actions of the tragic hero, John Proctor. Pride was his tragic flaw and eventually was the cause of his death, fulfilling the definition of a tragic hero. The Crucible is considered a tragedy because of its themes of human suffering and the somber feelings it evokes from its’ audience, its’ use of John Proctor as a tragic hero, and his tragic flaw, pride, playing an instrumental role in his death. By definition, a tragedy is a piece of work which carries the theme of human suffering and also evokes a feeling of …show more content…
Examples of his pride are strewn all throughout the play. In the beginning, John did not want to confess his sin of adultery solely because he did not want to destroy his good name, and respect from everyone in the town. In Act III, John finally admits to being a lecher. When Francis and Danforth begin having doubts about John’s honesty, it shows how much of a disbelief this confession comes across as telling the reader just how respected John is. To prove himself, John says “... A man will not cast away his good name” (Miller, 1206). When John says this, it is a way of seeing how important John's reputation is to himself, and how much pride he takes in his name. At the end of Act IV, when the court is trying to have Proctor sign the confession papers, his pride is shown again when he refuses to sign off his name. John Proctor would rather die than have a bad reputation ultimately proving his priorities and