John Proctor's Character In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

In scene 1 of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Anne Putnam, whose daughter was currently lying “afflicted” on her bed, blurted out to Rebecca Nurse “There are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires”(26). Contrastingly, in the movie version of The Crucible, rather than Mrs. Putnam, John Proctor says this line to Reverend Hale when he arrives in the village. Both speakers mean different things by this line, but I do believe that John Proctor should be the owner of this line.

Anne Putnam had lost 7 of her 8 children up to this point in The Crucible, and after Rebecca Nurse said, on the affliction of Ruth, “let us rather blame ourselves”(26), Mrs. Putnam says this deep remark. By speaking of “fires within fires” and “wheels within wheels”, Anne meant that there were villagers making events, such as 7 of her children dying, happen. She was convinced that witchcraft was the internal “fire” or “wheel” inside of these people and that these helpers of the devil needed to be found out in the village of Salem.

He had an affair with Abigail, and when Mrs. Proctor found out, she kicked Abigail out of the house. Abigail continued her lust for John and grew a hatred for Elizabeth Proctor, which eventually led to her “dancing” in the woods (the original cause of the witch trials) and accusing Mrs. Proctor of being a witch. If John Proctor were to have this line, it would also create irony in the story. He was the only one who saw the accusations of witchery for what they really were and ended up paying a fatal price for saying so. The irony would be shown as Danforth said, “a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between” (87), while in reality, Proctor was trying to prove the villagers actually being against each other, not against the