John Proctor as a Tragic Hero in The Crucible Essay

captivated by tragedies, none more captivating though than The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller. In this tragic play, readers follow the story of the Salem witch trials in 1692. The play begins with a young girl in bed, unable to move. The town of Salem blames witchcraft, sparking a downward spiral of accusations towards the many women in town. Abigail Williams decides she must accuse Elizabeth Proctor in order to be with her husband, John Proctor, whom she had an affair with earlier in…

Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, John Proctor makes it his priority to bring justice to the Puritan town of Salem. He faces a series of events in which he attempts to bring justice to help protect the people who are accused of the false witchcraft accusations. As the story continues the audience is faced between two opinions on whether John Proctor is to be considered a tragic hero or is he just a failure? Many ideas have been brought up on how one can be considered a tragic hero, one of many are…

A tragic hero is described as “a literary character who makes a judgement error or has a tragic flaw that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction”. Aristotle defines a tragic hero as “a person who must evoke a sense of pity and fear in the audience” and “it is his/her downfall that evokes the feelings of pity and fear among the audience.” Some of the basic characteristics of a tragic hero are: Noble birth, Hamartia, Hubris, Peripeteia, Anagnorisis, and Catharsis. Noble birth is described as…

elicits pity or terror. Furthermore a tragic hero is a protagonist who possesses ethics, superiority, and a hamartia, and eventually has an epiphany that allows him or her to accept their death with honor. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible certainly elicits a feeling of pity or terror in the reader through its hysterical setting, dramatic plot turns, and horrific deaths. So it’s no surprise that the main protagonist in The Crucible is the quintessential tragic hero. By doing the right thing,…

damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together!” said Arthur Miller. John Proctor learned the toll sinning takes on a person the hard way in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Although John is an honest man and has a personal code of conduct he is human and makes mistakes. Throughout the play John goes through his own personal crucible and in the end is judged for his actions. In the Crucible, Arthur Miller suggests that when people sin, they sometimes hurt themselves more than…

John Proctor is the tragic hero in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The downfall of John in the play is due to a human flaw, which largely qualifies him as a tragic hero. John is a respectable farmer, who has a high social status .The tragic flaw was the physical attraction he had towards Abigail Williams, yet he had a wife. His wife realizes his husband’s acts of adultery and gets jealous. Proctor knows that he has the option to confess the deed. However, his pride comes in his way and he is…

John Proctor, the protagonist of the crucible, he qualifies as a tragic hero because he has a tragic flaw. Tragic hero is a man of noble stature. He is not an ordinary man but a man with outstanding qualities and greatness about him. His own destruction is for a greater cause or principle. Like in the play John Proctor will not give up his name because he believes his name is his pride and joy. In the play Rebecca Nurse says, “No, you cannot break charity with your…

A hero can be defined as someone who possesses upstanding qualities or has accomplished impressive feats. Similarly, a tragic hero in a piece of literature possesses upstanding qualities, yet also has a tragic flaw that eventually leads to his demise. For these reasons, the character John Proctor in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a tragic hero. Due to how John Proctor can be characterized as having goodness and a superior reputation, a tragic flaw, and an epiphany moment, he is the…

people in the story are fit to be the tragic hero. John Proctor was a good husband who made one mistake and this mistake leads to a witch hunt which eventually gets him hung. He had a choice in death and he decided to die with pride instead of live with another sin. This is why John Proctor is the tragic hero of Arthur Miller’s: The Crucible. First, John Proctor was a good husband because he took care of the farm and he took care of his wife. While Goody Proctor was sick, he took care of her,…

Tragic Heroes have either a character flaw or a situation that causes a situation that causes the character’s downfall and suffering, and John Proctor fits this definition perfectly. John Proctor is a main character from the book The Crucible written by Arthur Miller, which is a play about a town with people that accuse each other for being involved with witchcraft. The consequence is hanging which sadly is the outcome for many. There are a few tragic heroes in the play, but the one that stands…