Redemption In The Crucible

In The Crucible, John Proctor the protagonist, looks for redemption of his sins. At first, Proctor was full of guilt and doubt after he had committed adultery with Abigail, his former maid. However, as the play progressed, Proctor started down the path of redemption by confronting his sins with his wife. Finally, in the last act, Proctor was able to regain his self-respect and his own forgiveness, finding Proctor’s character change through The Crucible was portrayed in three stages: destitution, progress, and resolution.
In the beginning, Proctor was devastated by his adultery with Abigail. He judged himself as “a sinner not only against the moral fashion of the time, but against his own vision of decent conduct”(Miller 20). According to the moral fashions of the rigid Puritan society, indulging in sex was considered highly immoral. Thus, under such a standard of this period, Proctor undoubtedly viewed himself as a serious sinner. Additionally, his adultery pitted him against his own views of conduct. Proctor used to be a well-respected man, one known for his distaste towards hypocrisy. However, the incident caused him to “come to regard himself as a kind of fraud” (Miller 21). By partaking in adultery, he was …show more content…
This plot of self-forgiveness was captured in three stages. At first, Proctor was a man wrecked with guilt and self-doubt. In the second stage, however, he begins to recover his sense of self-respect, a feat marked by two events: his confrontation with his wife, and his confession to the public. In the final stage, Proctor emerged as a man with peace himself, for he found forgiveness and resolved his guilt. Proctor was a model of the Puritan community before his adultery with Abigail. He can be a model once again to the reader. With Proctor, Miller exemplified the path of a moral man and taught a lesson of redemption: guilt will always linger, unless one can find the strength to face one’s wrongdoings and to forgive