The Crucible: The Tragic Hero Essay, Research Paper

The Tragic Hero

A tragedy should bring fear and pity to the reader. A man in this tragedy not

should be exceptionally righteous, but his faults should come about because of a certain

irreversible error on his part. This man should find a bad or fatal ending to add to the

tragedy of the story, for this man in the tragic hero. The protagonist John Proctor

portrays a tragic hero in The Crucible; his hamartia of adultery causes great internal

struggles, he displays hubris by challenging authority, and he encounters catastrophe

through recognition and reversal.

John Proctor?s decision to betray his wife causes internal struggles and ultimately

leads to his catastrophe at the end of the drama. Hamartia is the primary error of the

tragic hero which provokes part of his misfortune. Proctor?s serious mistake of adultery

delivers problems with Abigail Williams and indirectly causes his jailing. Abigail is a

grown young woman, and yet she is an orphan who mistakes John Proctor?s sex for true

love. When Proctor tells Abigail that the relationship can no longer continue, the girl

becomes angry and sorrowful (1098). In order to prove Abigail?s sinfulness and to

discredit her in front of the court, Proctor proclaims that he had an affair with this evil

child. The outraged court officials summon Elizabeth Proctor to find the truth. When

asked about her husband, Elizabeth?s soul is twisted, for reporting the truth could destroy

her husband?s reputation, but lying means breaking her solemn oath to God. Because she

is selfless, Elizabeth chooses to lie and save her husband, but perhaps condemn herself to

hell for such a sin. This scene indicates dramatic irony, for Proctor knows that which

Elizabeth is not aware of, and this is that he has already ?confessed it? (1148). The court

jails Proctor; Elizabeth Proctor?s selfless act backfires. Proctor?s hamartia of adultery

indirectly causes his jailing and gives him the reputation of a liar. The court views his real

truth as a lie and believes he defies authority. Although John Proctor does not truly defy

authority in this scene of the play, for he tells the truth and his wife lies, he challenges

control in many other instances.

John Proctor exposes hubris through his hate of Reverend Parris. Hubris is placing

ones self equal to authority or to God, and it is a necessary trait of the tragic hero. John

Proctor proclaims that he does not go to Church, an act the court and townspeople view

as a revolt on the supremacy of God, because the Reverend Parris is corrupt. Parris is

greedy and cares more about the sake of his reputation that the health of his own

daughter. Proctor resents the Church because Parris runs it. In the eyes of officials, this

casual negligence of God turns Proctor into an unchristian, sinful rebel. Though Proctor?s

reasons for disregarding the Church are quite reasonable, people do not accept them in

this time of devils and evil. The tragic hero not only places himself as an equal of God,

but as an equal of court authority as well.

John Proctor insults the court by tearing up a search warrant, and officials later

accuse him of trying to overthrow the court because of his controversial evidence against

Abigail and the girls. When Herrick and Cheever appear at the Proctor home to capture

and take away Elizabeth Proctor for witchcraft, Proctor vigorously protests, for he knows

that Abigail Williams created a scheme in order to get rid of his wife. John Proctor does

not tolerate this; because he is a tragic hero, he does not allow another soul to suffer for

his mistake. As a challenge to court authority, he tears up the search warrant (1127).

This act escalates the war between Proctor and the court. Proctor will go to the extreme,

even if it means punishment by death, in order to save his wife. Proctor delivers to the

court his statement that Abigail and the other girls are frauds. He has no desire to bring

forth this information because he knows it will simply anger Abigail and most likely ruin

him because of Abigail?s power. His statement is necessary, though, to the salvation of his

wife. When Danforth hears John Proctor?s shocking revelation that the girls are frauds, he

is outraged and so dismisses this evidence as an attempt to overthrow the court (1134).

Danforth feels he must choose Abigail?s argument over that of Proctor?s, for otherwise the

townspeople might view Danforth as a murderer because of his orders to execute those

people accused of witchcraft by Abigail and the girls. In this case, Danforth bestows upon

John Proctor the image of a man of hubris in order to protect his own reputation. Proctor

knows that Danforth will never accept his evidence of the girls as frauds, and this in part

causes his resolution.

Near the end of The Crucible, Proctor believes that he has lost the battle of

witchcraft. He feels there is no hope that the court will free him from execution, and he

panics. A person can be strong for his entire life, but when the moment of death comes,

he will crack. If given a choice between life, but by lying, or death, but through honor, the

decision is made more difficult through the hysteria experienced. John Proctor chooses

life, though he knows this means a life of regret and dishonesty. Proctor does, however,

realize his mistake in choosing this sort of life over an honorable death before it is too late.

Proctor?s decision to ultimately choose a death of honor over a life of shame is the

major reversal of the play. Reversal is the change of fortune that results from recognition,

or learned knowledge that results in a change of action in a character, of any tragic hero.

John Proctor?s recognition is his discovery that he contains goodness. ?For now I do

think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor? (1166). When Proctor believes that

he is a man of no decency, he chooses to live by confessing witchcraft, since this lie fits his

personality. Through Elizabeth?s support, this tragic hero sees the goodness he holds and

acts on it by reversal and by choosing an honorable death. He realizes that this action is

one that would bring about Elizabeth?s forgiveness, and her mercy is what he searches for

throughout the play. John Proctor?s sudden change through recognition and reversal is a

major crisis in the play, and from this stems his catastrophe.

Proctor?s catastrophe is that he will hang. The catastrophe is the closing part of a

drama that results from the crisis. Because John Proctor decides to deny witchcraft

through his recognition and reversal, he finds catastrophe by his sentence to hang. The

catastrophe also ties up the drama and gives a greater emphasis that John Proctor is a

tragic hero, for he accepts his death with silence and shows a capacity for suffering.

Another quality of the tragic man is belief in his own freedom, show by John Proctor in

the catastrophe. Proctor?s freedom is death; death is his escape from the Puritan world

which persecutes and punishes him with cries of witchcraft. Overall, the catastrophe

reveals the tragedy and integrity of John Proctor, making this character a tragic hero.

John Proctor shows that he is a tragic hero through his struggles within the play.

He struggles with his sin of adultery, for it causes breaks in his bonds between his wife and

Abigail. He grapples with authority, for Proctor is not one who listens to authority simply

because it is the excepted thing to do. He also faces death because he chooses to be a

noble man and denies all charges of witchcraft. Though John Proctor is not a perfect man,

his beliefs and values are in the right place; he listens to his heart. When his head tells him

to listen to the court because it is the law, and when Hale tells him to choose to live as an

accused witch, Proctor does not listen because he knows that these acts are not in his best

interest. He follows his soul, a lesson the whole world should learn to follow.

Bibliography

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. Literature, Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes. Ed. Ellen

Bowler, et al. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1999.