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

Even a hero can face tragedy. This very much applies to the tragic hero in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. John Proctor, a man who lived in Arthur Miller's fictional Salem, is by all accounts a tragic hero. The Crucible is about the town of Salem, Massachusetts and how all the residents turned against each other all because of two people, a man who committed adultery and a jealous teenager. There must be certain requirements fulfilled to be considered a tragic hero. One of these requirements is to have the character tragically fall, another requirement is that the punishment must exceed the crime. There is also a distinct feature that makes someone a tragic hero, this is that the hero must have increased awareness, all of these traits were tied

This is a great element because the entire story revolves around the fall of John Proctor. One event that showed John’s fall was his conversation will his wife, Elizabeth, on page 883. During the conversation John is just talking to Elizabeth about events that have transpired. He then asks Elizabeth what should he do, in terms of confessing. Elizabeth tells him that it is not up to her to judge. By her not judging him, Proctor can only judge himself. Proctor then most likely sees himself as a fraction of what he used to be. Another example of how Mr. Proctor fell is given on page 873. During this event Proctor confesses to his affair with Abigail. In the society John was a respected man, even if he was not liked, so once it was found out that John broke one of the ten commandments he fell in the communities eyes, such as any person would. This is definitely professed by Danforth who is completely dumbfounded and that John was

Increased awareness could include the character having or understanding other information that is not present to other characters. A prime example of this trait is that Proctor knows that all the girls are faking their ailments and “feelings”. This is understood when John proclaims to the court that he knows the girls action to be fake on page 868. John also speaks with Hale on page 857 and says that he knows that they are faking because the girls were dancing in the woods for fun, and Abigail said it had nothing to do with