A tragic hero is defined as “a literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on a tragedy” (Dictionary.com). This identity holds true for John Proctor. He is a valued and respectful man who has made a misjudgment while in a dark place. Sometimes a hero can make a mistake that leads to his or her downfall. Many tragic heroes have a flaw that leads to their tragedy and John Proctor’s gets the best of him. In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucibles John Proctor qualifies as a tragic hero because he is vulnerable, proud, and brave throughout his downfall.…
The play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller is a cautionary tale. Miller warns his audience that the witch hunts and the Salem Witch Trials was a very tragic time period and we must not mimic what had occurred in the past in 1692. This affected many aspects of people’s lives. It cautions us to keep history from repeating itself. A way to prevent this is to avoid tolerance against ignorant power hungry officials at all cost so that lives may be spared.…
Through my time being with the church I have never questioned or doubted the sacredness of our work once, but recently I have come to find myself realizing that the duty performed by reverends of this sanction are ill minded in determining the wrongfulness of a fellow towns member’s affairs. I am now considering leaving the church; I must record all of my reasons for doing so in this journal.…
If you don't believe in witch hunts, that's fine. But the idea of them is very real. The Crucible is a story that takes place in Salem, Massachusetts. This small community is full of superstition and the towns people let their beliefs destroy friendships, and lives. Arthur Miller uses many repeating themes in the play The Crucible. There are many good, and bad themes that come up throughout the play. Some of the common themes of this story are lust, fear, and courage.…
In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, John Proctor is a tragic hero. A tragic hero is defined as a person who is good and decent, yet he has a tragic flaw which leads to his downfall. In The Crucible, John Proctor is a highly respected farmer whose tragic flaw is pride. John Proctor plays a crucial role in Salem when the townspeople were being falsely accused and hanged as witches by a group of teenage girls. One of these girls is Abigail Williams, with whom John Proctor had an affair. John Proctor is a tragic hero because he is noble and honorable, he is very protective, yet his tragic flaw is that he had an affair with Abigail Williams.…
When you’re scared, sometimes it’s hard to go with your gut feeling, right? It may be hard to stick up for yourself, or stand up for what is right. This is the feeling most of The Crucible characters probably felt. Reverend Parris, Abigail Williams, and John Proctor are good examples of how fear and hysteria can destroy good judgment.…
"You are combined with anti-Christ,are you not?"--Danforth. Within Miller's book The Crucible he portrays and explains how Puritan life was and how the people responded to it on a daily basis. Within The Crucible there is a horrific village known as Salem and in it everything runs off of the bible and the people's thought and if they think you are a witch you will be accused and have to either confess or be brought to death. By closely looking at how Puritanism caused such havoc and destruction . Two themes that obviously dealt with the outrageous destruction and the attitudes of those people would be the philosophical theme of examined their inner lives closely looking for signs of grace or of being damned and the religious theme of which are certain that most of of humanity would be damned for all eternity.…
In the story, The Crucible, Abigail Williams showed that she was very different from all the other girls. When all the girls were in the forest with Tituba she whispered to her that she wanted to sacrifice her turkey so she can kill John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth and be with John. When Tituba told her no, she smashed the turkey’s head and drank its blood hoping to kill her. The next day, when the girls are acting funny and John Proctor hears about it and comes into town, she sees him at her house. This is when it shows how crazy she is about him. She follows him outside when he is about to leave and flirts with him, reminding him of their affair and how much she misses him. When the whole town finds out about “the witch plague” Abigail is blamed and she throws everything at Tituba to save herself. She makes a big scene in front of everyone so she can convince everyone that it’s not her fault, but when Tituba confesses she screams out that she did see the devil; that she worked with him and that she wants to be cleansed for God. The group of girls begin to follow her and they basically take…
Woah nelly, The Crucible sure was something alright. It took place back when The Puritans were still a thing, and they spend their time hunting witches, spooks, ceiling monsters and hanging people for being in cahoots with the devil him(her?)self. It’s all fun and games till some ladies lose their chill in the forest and then, to protect themselves, accuse everyone else of being in cahoots with the devil. This sounds like something that would never in a million years happen on our doorsteps, especially when the “accusers” sound like a dried vulture's claw being scratched against a chalkboard, and truthfully, this really isn’t the case.…
According to the famous philosopher Aristotle, there are five common traits shared among tragic heroes in stories: (1) they must have a flaw or error in judgement, (2) they have to reverse someone’s fortune because of this misjudgment, (3) the character has to recognize that the reversal of fortune was a result of their misjudgment, (4) they are prideful, and (5) they must receive a fate worse than they deserve. In the popular play The Crucible, one common tragic hero is the main character, John Proctor. However, some others argue that Reverend Hale was also a tragic hero, though less recognized due to the fact that he appears less in the play than Proctor. Based on information provided in both the original play and the movie, it can be argued…
There are many different definitions of a tragic hero. Aristotle claimed "The tragic hero evokes our pity and terror if he is neither thoroughly good nor thoroughly evil but a mixture of both. The tragic hero evokes our pity because he is not evil and his misfortune is greater than he deserves, and he evokes our fear because we realize we are fallible and could make the same error." (www.killdevilhill.com) Another definition describes an archetypal tragic hero as having six distinct characteristics. They are "Noble stature, tragic flaw, free choice, punishment exceeding crime, increased awareness, (the ability to) produce catharsis in the audience". (www.kysu.edu) In The Crucible by Arthur Miller John Proctor is by definition a tragic hero.…
Our names are labels, plainly printed on the bottled essence of our past behavior. ~Logan Pearsall Smith “The Crucible” a 1952 play written by Arthur Miller is an allegory of McCarthyism. The play itself is a dramatization of the Salem Witch Trials which occurred in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. In Miller’s masterpiece we meet a wide array of characters, village people, ordained ministers, judges, and farmers. We have the major characters, John Proctor, Rev. Hale, Rev. Parris, Abigail Williams, and Elizabeth Proctor. Arthur Miller’s 1952 drama The Crucible illustrates that, moral integrity and human dignity are worth sacrifice. The clearest representations of a characters sacrifices for the preservation of their own moral and human dignity can be seen by the actions of three key characters; John Proctor’s sacrifice of his reputation and eventually his life to do the right thing, Giles’s brute force and refusal to save his own life by confessing a lie, and Rebecca Nurse’s will to stick to her moral believes to her grave. Reputation, a man’s image and how he is seen by those around him impacts his whole life, some can say that a man’s reputation is their most prized position if it is good, but can be a curse if bad. For Proctor to sacrifice his reputation, and name in the village to save his wife, and stop the courts trials is a truly selfless act and preserves ones integrity because they are making a large sacrifice to do the right thing. “She thinks to dance with me on my wife’s grave! And well she might, for I have thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a whore’s vengeance.” – (John Proctor 116) this public confession of John’s affair with Abigail was meant to expose Abigail’s hidden motive for the accusation of Elizabeth. Although this confession destroys John’s reputation he confesses not only…
Everyone, at one point in his or her life, experiences greed. Not because of choice, rather, by human nature alone. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrays greed throughout many of the main characters. The main people, for example, include Thomas Putnam, Abigail, and Danforth. Each character shows greed in their own way. Throughout these characters, Arthur Miller try’s to show us that as a human, we cannot help to control the underlying greed within ourselves.…
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a dramatic play based during the mid-1600s when the Salem Witch Trials took place. A group of young teenage girls accuse many of witchcraft even though it may or may not be true. Their accusations stir up a violent and unexpected outcome. There were definitely no small characters in this story. Specific characters such as Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Mary Warren change the dynamics of this drama to increase dramatic conflict.…
In the novel, The Crucible, John Proctor can be considered the tragic hero. He had all the components of a tragic hero, he had a tragic flaw which led to his tragic end. A tragic hero’s downfall is usually brought upon by his or herself by an error in judgment or a tragic flaw. A tragic hero is usually overcome by evil, but in the course of the struggle, the hero gains self-knowledge and wisdom. John Proctor is the perfect tragic hero because of his error in judgment, the fact that he is overcome by evil, and his courageous downfall.…