Character Analysis of John Proctor in the Crucible by Arthur Miller

Erik JacobsonOct/4/98Lit/ Essay-1 3. Prove John Proctor to be a tragic hero. The Crucible had many excellent characters placed throughout its brief 145 pages, some were good, some were bad, but most could be described as somewhere in the middle. John Proctor was without a doubt one of the characters that could be described as almost good, or almost bad. As in most stories with tragic heroes, the character is not known to be a tragic hero until fairly late in the book.

This was very true in the case of The Crucible; the reader did not know John Proctor to be anything but a victim until the last few pages, or maybe even the last few paragraphs. Yet he eventually proved himself to be a tragic hero, though perhaps he was not the only character who deserved this title. One of the marks of a competent writer is the creation and usage of characters whose personal character cannot be easily defined. This book was full of such people, aside from Rebecca Nurse, not many of Arthur Miller s characters can claim to be completely righteous. Nor are their many people in this book who seem to be filled with exclusively malignant intentions.

Take for example, Mary Warren, though she did cry out against many an innocent person, she felt that if she did not, her own livelihood would be in danger. In reading this book, one finds John Proctor s character to be neither all good nor all bad, though it indubitably leans toward the side of good. Yet, what is this if not realistic, few are those among us who can raise their hands to the question of moral perfection.

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In the last act of the book is where John Proctor proves himself a tragic hero, he stands accused of witchcraft and is to be hanged at dawn. At first he strikes the reader as just another victim of the courts shameless quest for power and self-affirmation, though he demonstrates that he is more than just that. Though his bravery is more evident at the end, John Proctor has been trying to curtail the court s bloody rampage throughout the book. He forced Mary Warren to testify against herself and the other girls in an attempt to save his wife from death and imprisonment, knowing the whole time that he was placing his own life on the court s altar.

The life and story of John Proctor can be called nothing less than a tragedy; he was wrongfully accused of a bogus crime for which he paid his life. Yet the heroics of this are not clear until it is known that he chose to give his life for the sake of principles, and in the larger picture, to save the lives of others. He chose to be hanged rather than to sign a false confession, which would proclaim his role in witchcraft. He did not wish to give his accusers the satisfaction they would receive from his signature.

John was also aware that if he confessed he would shame all those who had already died, as well as Rebecca Nurse and all those who stood to be hanged in the near future. Proctor also knew that people were finally beginning to question the authority of the courts in Salem, and that by signing. he would only make the court stronger, leading to the deaths of countless others. John Proctor was not a perfect person, nor did he claim to be, but he was a tragic hero, as was Rebecca Nurse and all those who chose death as a defiance to the court s authority, and as a means to maintaining their principles.

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