John Proctor’s abusive nature toward Elizabeth epitomizes the prominence of patriarchy and his strong self loathing. John Proctor is undoubtedly an individual who is tormented. In his mind, he has made an unforgivable mistake, and has made an irreparable mistake that has broken his and Elizabeth’s marriage. While it is true that he committed adultery, he believes there is no way that he can ever forgive himself and punishes himself mentally for what he has done.
To me, John has so many qualities that make it very hard to distinguish whether he is good or not. The one thing that he is, for certain, is morally broken. As a person, he holds himself in high regard, and the rest of the town seems to as well. His most valuable possession is his
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I’m not promoting the verbal, mental, and physical abuse of women by any means, but it’s tough to beat up on Proctor because everyone was treating their wives poorly at this point in time. Now, not everyone was having affairs with eighteen year olds then and he needs to be held accountable for that, but John Proctor definitely has a minor understanding of moral values. Nevertheless, Proctor did fall under the charm of Abigail Williams, which makes him lose the moral high ground he once held, thus taking away his status of the perfect …show more content…
(We later discover that this tension is because of his affair with Abigail while Elizabeth was sick at home. We also find out that this is the sole reason of Abigail getting fired by Elizabeth.) Additionally, we can see that John makes many efforts to please Elizabeth with his kindness. For example, as the act starts, he grabs some food from the fireplace and takes a sip. He immediately adds salt to it, but as she turns around, tells her it’s “wonderfully seasoned”. Time after time, she shoots him down. He talks about the crops for this season and blatantly asks, “Elizabeth, how would that please you?” Clearly, he is trying to impress her or make her happy with him for once. However, just as clear is her frustration with her husband and the strain of their