The Downfall Of John Proctor In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Through the development of the character John Proctor from The Crucible, Arthur Miller strives to portray the extent of the effects leading to the downfall of a great man who made a single human error of adultery which evolved into a mass hysteria of his community and personal life. These unfortunate events changed him from an honest, upstanding community man to the shell of a man that no longer felt worthy in the eyes of his wife or god, and then back to an honorable, honest man who left this world with immense dignity and integrity.

John Proctor was a hard-working farmer who took great pride in himself, his family, and farm. He was a loving father and husband to a wife and three children. He was a very righteous, dedicated, and prideful

From this one monumental decision, one could say that this lead to the hysteria upon the community. If John had not had the affair with Abigail, she would not have turned to witchcraft to try to eliminate John’s wife, which would not have created the community witch hunt. If Abigail had not made these false claims, Elizabeth and all the others would not have been arrested and people would not have lost their lives. Even after the accusations, John could have publicly admitted his fault of adultery and may have stopped the entire witch hunt. Unfortunately, John wanted to try to save his pride and good name in the community, so he chose to fight Abigail with anger and to get revenge. He thought he could punish Abigail but not choosing her over Elizabeth and to get Mary Warren to testify against her in court. His plan was unsuccessful with Mary turning on him, which then led to his arrest on charges of perjury and witchcraft. In reality, he ended up triggering many more undeserved misfortunes to himself which ended up costing himself and others much more. Had he made the decision to come clean publicly of his faults, more than likely none of these later events would have

He symbolizes many traits throughout this story that made him a true tragic hero such as noble, honorable, imperfect, prideful, and a fatal failure. All his positive qualities still not overshadow his one single negative quality that caused him to fail yet succeed at the same time. Those that overcome tragedy and are still able to rise above and leave this world the right way with pride, integrity, and honesty, will be rewarded with self dignity and eternal redemption in the eyes of God. By making these difficult to decisions to fight the courts, fight against Abigail, and refuse to publicly display his signed untruthful confession, he earned his wife’s forgiveness and regained her trust in him. He was also finally able to forgive himself and let go of the guilt and regret knowing that he was still a good, righteous man in the eyes of his wife and God. He was truly saved and left this world a peaceful