Heroism In The Crucible

Although Proctor cheated on Elizabeth showing a lack of integrity, Proctor , in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, he agrees to sign the confession and refuses to name names, but then rips the confession because he did not want to damage his and others’ reputation. To be a hero means to put yourself in front of others and sacrificing yourself for others and standing up for something you believe is right. So Proctor came home silently so Elizabeth won’t suspect him so that there was no conflict but then she catches him and they start talking about work. Then they talk about the court and how Proctor should say the truth about Abigail and the bad she has done and that is when Proctor tells Elizabeth that he was with her in a room alone. Near the …show more content…
Danforth questions, “Did you see her sister, Mary Easty, with the Devil? No, I did not. Did you ever see Martha Corey with the Devil? I did not”( Miller 130). What Danforth expects of him and what he actually does and why what he does makes him a hero. In addition to Proctor refusing to name names, he also doesn’t want to ruin his and their reputation. John points out, “They think to go like saints. I like to not spoil their names… I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another. I have no tongue for it”( Miller 130-131). When Proctor says, “They think to go like saints” he is referring to Rebecca and how she hopes to die like a saint. When Proctor says, “I have no tongue for it” he means that he cannot judge others when he has also commited some sins that are against the church like having an affair with someone else when you have a wife so that is what he is saying there. Proctor refusing to name other names in order not to spare their lives and refusing to judge others reveal the hero he really is to refuse to do that.Although he lied to the confession he later felt ashamed so he decides to rip the paper of confession accepting to get hung in order to stop …show more content…
Summary of thesis statement and main points. Proctor first told Elizabeth that he had an affair with Abigail and there is a lot of mistrust between them. Then he later confesses to have contacted the Devil so he can get saved from being hung but when they questioned him, he did not want to say names to not ruin their reputations. In that case, he rips the paper portraying him as a hero. In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self Reliance” he states, “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, - that is genius”(Emerson Part 1). This relates to Proctor because stood for what he believed in in order to stop Abigail from lying and he and a few are the only ones who stood up which overall makes them