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The Theme Of Good And Evil In John Steinbeck's East Of Eden

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The concept of good and evil can be defined as ideas of complete opposites. A person that is good can be described as a person with virtuous morals and beliefs. In contrast, a person that is bad can be described as a person with atrocious morals and beliefs. In East of Eden, John Steinbeck claims that all human thoughts and actions can be narrowed down to a single theme of good and evil; he makes the assertion that a person can only be judged as such after that person has died. When a person dies, his or her traits of virtue and vice are absolute. If a person has qualities of vice, they cannot have qualities of virtue and vice versa. All of these judgments are easily made while a person is alive. However, if the person is dead, it is nearly …show more content…

This is evident in John Proctor as he was viewed as an evil person by the members of the court. His ideals were of virtue but his character overall was seen as one of vice. Even though he was deemed evil, John Proctor remained true to his ideals as he “tears the [confession paper] and crumples it” (Miller 151). In this case, John Proctor was presented with the opportunity to publicly prove that he is good with the price of his name. However, he remained loyal to his sense of goodness and tore up the document. John Proctor’s execution followed his decision. Although he was deemed evil, John Proctor cannot be judged as good or evil after his death. Proctor decided to remain loyal to his ideals that his beliefs of honesty were worth more than his life, ultimately proving that his actions cannot be judged as good or evil after his death. Cathy Ames from John Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden is also a prime example of this. Cathy was known to be a person of pure evil. Cathy “made people uneasy… And since this had always been so, Cathy did not find it strange” (Steinbeck 72-73). Even though people saw Cathy with a troubling look, she chose not to care. Although Cathy was predominantly evil, she expressed the ideals that she believed in. She refused to let others cause her to stray away from her ideals and practices. As a result, Cathy cannot be judged. Both Cathy and John Proctor died while remaining loyal to their ideals, thus making it difficult to judge the

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When Danforth tells Proctor he has not sold his freinds, Proctor states, “Beguile me not! I displays that Proctor is a hero because he is blacken all of them when this is nailed to the church the very day they hang for silence!”(Miller, 132). This incident displays that Proctor is a hero because he is willing to incriminate himself to save his friends because of an affair he decided to have with Abigail that led to her speaking blasphemously about Witchcraft in order to become Proctor’s wife. This exhibits honesty and supportiveness, Proctor himself could’ve stayed out of the trial, but he refused to let Abigail falsely incriminate his society, so he takes a stand. John Proctor is a tragic hero because he stood for a good cause and feels remorse knowing that if he had told the court that he had an affair with Abigail earlier, they wouldn’t have killed off prominent members of their society.

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The play The Crucible by Arthur Miller is based on true events of the Salem Witchcraft Trials but is changed in some parts to make it a better story. One exaggerated part of the play is a character named John Proctor, who has an affair with a girl named Abigale and is trying to stop the Salem Witchcraft Trials because he knows that the afflicted girls are false. While he is trying to stop the trials he ends up being accused and is hanged because he would not “confess” to being a witch. Some people think John Proctor is a flawed person because he made a lot of poor decisions, but he is actually an honorable person because he tried to make up for his mistakes. Some people think John Proctor is a flawed person because he had an affair with a younger girl named Abigale

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In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor is accused of performing witchcraft and contracting with the Devil. He is faced with the decision to either confess to or deny the accusations. Ultimately, Proctor chooses to deny the accusations and dies a martyr. Proctor’s decision to sacrifice himself is justified because he protected the reputation of those who died and risked being arrested to save his wife, Elizabeth Proctor. John Proctor’s death is justified because he was willing to sacrifice his life to protect the reputation of others.

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In conclusion, John Proctor had a lot of guilt thought out the Crucible for having an affair with Abigail and hurting his wife Elizabeth because of the affair with Abigail. There is a lot of people that put guilt on themselves and on others. Guilty controls a lot of people’s actions in the Crucible of example John Proctor had a lot of guilt for admitting

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As act III progresses Mary Warren decides to turn on Proctor saying, “John Proctor you are the Devil’s man” (Miller 121) and “I will not hang with you I love God…” (Miller 121)which then causes Proctor to lash out in rage against her lies. The court marshals arrest John and place him in jail, where Arthur Miller says they have to chain him because he throws fits of rage and he then sits like “a great bird”. (Miller 151) All of those events leads up to Proctors Tragic Flaw, which is pride. Proctors pride inevitably leads to his death because he won’t give up the good name to live out his life with his wife and children.

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