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

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What is necessary to qualify as a tragic hero? A tragic hero must have a respected background, a fatal flaw whether it be their pride, ignorance, or carelessness that ultimately brings the downfall of the character in question. This flaw would then need to cause the character to experience a reversal in fortune. The character would also ultimately need to suffer greatly in the end. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, John Proctor qualifies to be a tragic hero, due to his fatal flaw being pride. In the beginning of the play, the readers find out that Proctor, in his mid thirties, cheats on his wife and had an affair with a 17 year old character, Abigail Williams. Due to John Proctor’s pride he doesn’t confess in court after Abigail’s first accusations …show more content…

John Proctor, while not a king or duke, is still very respected in Salem. Farmers are seen as good, honest people and that’s what was important in those days. Everyone knew who Proctor was, no matter who they were. During act four, Proctor is confessing to witchcraft, although he refuses to accuse or out another. Danforth won’t let him sign the paper due to this. Parris and Hale are pleading with Danforth to let Proctor sign. Parris says, “It is a weighty name; it will strike the village that Proctor confess” (Miller 131). This shows that Proctor’s name is known and respected. This is one reason Proctor qualifies to be a tragic …show more content…

John Proctor experiences this reversal of fortune when his life was at stake and if he were to give his written confession over to Danforth, Proctor would live another day. However John chooses the opposite, because of his pride, and he won’t give up his name. As I showed in a quote above. This decision he makes causes him to suffer greatly and result in the loss of his life. I think Proctor at first doesn’t give up the confession due to pride, but then realizes that this is silly and gives up his life for the greater good and to punish himself. You can see John gets over his pride in act 4 when he says, “Tell them I confessed myself; say Proctor broke his knees and wept like a woman” (Miller 132). You can obviously see, his self image is getting less and less important because he is realizing how silly it was to think that way

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