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

“Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sell myself to lies!” (Miller 1333). This statement symbolizes all that readers need to know about John Proctor’s character in Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible. Over the duration of this play, Arthur Miller continuously leaves readers guessing on what will occur, and what will happen to the main characters. John Proctor is a character that is hard to predict what he will decide to do. Miller does a tremendous job of leaving hints for both sides of the story, such as his morals and internal conflicts, but at the same time leaves us with pieces of text where John feels guilty. Unfortunately for John, he has a tragic fall that leads to his downfall. There are many

During the play The Crucible, John Proctor is a character whose tragic flaws of passion and pride lead to his demise. A tragic hero is someone that is a main character that has a tragic fall that eventually leads to their downfall. John’s pride is the major cause of his downfall in the story. Nobody in the play knows about his mistakes other than Elizabeth and Abigail, because he is very ashamed of committing adultery. Elizabeth has to remind him of the commandment he missed: “Adultery, John” (Miller 1278). Proctor feels bad about his affair with Abigail, but Elizabeth still has a lack of trust because of it. Arthur Miller allows this quote to be very powerful, because it gives the reader insight as to how their relationship is going in regards to the affair. This is the main example of one of Proctor’s major flaws, because he feels terrible about it and eventually leads to his death. If John Proctor never mentions his affair with Abigail Williams in the courtroom, he would have never gotten to the point of hanging. John Proctor clearly trusts Elizabeth, and believes that she is a good woman. He believes that she will always tell the truth: “In her life, sir, she have never lied. There are them that cannot sing, and them that cannot weep-my wife cannot lie” (Miller 1310). Arthur Miller does a phenomenal job with this quote, because it helps the reader to know more about their

A tragic hero is one that will stick to their morals the entire time, no matter what the consequences may be. Throughout the play, we see that John Proctor is dealing with internal conflicts against his morals and decisions. He sticks to his word, and doesn’t abandon his morals and ethics when it could have saved his life. He believed that his children should be raised the right way, and that you should always fight for what you believe is right. He wants to be a great example for his children: “I have three children-how may I teach them to walk like men in the world, and I have sold my friends?” (Miller 1332). His name and his family name are very important to him, and Miller gives the final evidence about that trait here. He lets the readers know what he is going to fight for, and what decision he is going to make. He had to deal with the internal conflict of what to do, and he decided on acting upon what he believed was right. John has great rancor against Danforth and the trials, and gives up his life to attempt to end them. I believe that this made him a tragic hero, because his refusal to lie and go against his morals and ethics lead to his suffering. Proctor deals with internal conflicts during the entire duration of the