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The Crucible John Proctor Tragic Hero Essay

827 Words4 Pages

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is set in Salem in a Puritan community, John Proctor is the tragic hero because he is loving, loyal, authoritative, but his tragic flaw is his temper.The most well known definition of a tragic hero comes from Aristotle who was a great philosopher . When describing a tragic hero, he states "The change in the hero's fortunes be not from misery to happiness, but on the contrary, from happiness to misery, and the cause of it must not lie in any depravity but in some great error on his part."He also explains the four essential qualities that a tragic hero should have, which are appropriateness, goodness,consistency, and lifelike.These necessities help, classify the character of John Proctor in Arthur Miller's play The Crucible as the tragic hero. Proctor's downfall in the play is initiated by a human flaw, which qualifies him to be the tragic hero. Arthur Miller illustrates John Proctor as a common honest …show more content…

The court presents him with an ultimatum with which he can plead guilty and live or be hanged with the others who didn't confess. After speaking with Elizabeth, John decides that he wants his life and surrenders to a confession. After he signs the confession, he also tears it up signing his own death warrant so to say, not wanting to live a lie. As Reverend Parris and Hale are about to object, John pronounces "...for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor..."(133), referring to his honesty. He would rather die for the greater good, which are the honest people in society. Elizabeth doesn't try to stop him either knowing that he needed to do this, tearfully saying to Hale "He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him!"(134). He preserves his pride and dignity and declares the truth at the same time, dying as a man with flaws yet a good man, allowing the readers the ability to categorize him as a tragic

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