Characterization John Proctor: John Proctor is an old farmer who is the protagonist of this play to be the one to resolve the conflict of the story. In the beginning of the play, John is very conservative as he firmly denies the possibility of witchcraft and tries to stay away from being part of it. He has a round personality, for he has multiple sides such as high self-esteem and short temper, described as that he “cannot refuse to support to partisans without drawing their deepest resentment” (69). When he is discussing possible approach to address the wrongfully accused people of Salem, he is faced with an external conflict of standing against the radical court to prove that his wife Elizabeth his innocent of being part of the witchcraft. …show more content…
Her traits and actions soley depend on that of John Proctor’s, which expresses Elizabeth as a flat character. She is a very simplistic character because the biggest matter Elizabeth has are always concerning her husband, and even when “she doesn’t want friction, and yet she must” (51) the cause returns to it being because of John. She is yet not a stereotyped character because the decision she makes is unpredictable even though it invariably regards John. In particular, when the judge decided that he will consider John Proctor’s point if Elizabeth answers his questions in all exactness as that of John’s testimony, Elizabeth “in a crises of indecision she [could not] speak” (113) because she was not sure if her husband confessed the truth. The internal conflict she has within herself, of whether to answer the judge’s question in truth or in lie fails to be resolved successfully. Elizabeth has overthought about her decision because she truly wants to give an answer that would not be a harm to John, therefore, she concludes to falsely state that John and Abigail's affair never happened. Unfortunately, her static quality brings about a tragic consequence for John— to be sent to prison. Her unchanged characteristic causes her to make another terrible decision towards the end of the play, when she willingly tells her husband to decide on confessing or not, instead of stopping him from making the wrong decision. Elizabeth has a strong stance in her thinkings, however, her stance may be too firm for her to make the right conclusion; which altogether composes the characteristic of Elizabeth Proctor. (290