John Proctors Three Struggles Essay, Research Paper

"John Proctor’s Struggles"

In the drama, "The Crucible" the reader witnesses several

characters that undergo different struggles. John Proctor goes through three

different struggles in the drama. The three struggles that John goes through

are; the stopping of his affair with Abigail, does john go to court, and johns

decision to live and tell the truth or to die and to tell a lie.

The first struggles that the reader sees is John trying to stop his love

affair with Abigail. John had a secrete love affair with a young girl named

Abigail Williams, after a period of time his wife began to suspect relations

were happening between her husband and Abigail. Elizabeth, in every effort to

stop the relationship dismissed Abigail from her duties and order John to stop

seeing Abigail. John met Abigail once more in the wood where Abigail tried to

convince Proctor that he really loved her and not his wife, Elizabeth. During

the meeting in the woods with Abigail John tells Abigail, "Abby, I may

think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I’ll

ever reach for you again." This quote is from the drama, "The

Crucible" by Miller on page 23. In this quote Proctor implies that he does

still think about Abigail but he will almost any thing to never touch her again.

This is an example of Proctors first struggle he shows his wife Elizabeth that

the love affair is over with but he still does think about seeing Abigail again.

John struggles with this because he knows he loves his wife and the children

they had together but he also is still in very much lust of Abigail. Another

source that shows how John struggled was, "John has the will power to

resist Abigail now, even while part of him still desires her." This quote

is from secondary source, " Arthur Miller Dramatist" by Murray on page

63. This is another great example of how John is struggling with the letting of

his affair with Abigail. In the quote is tells how John is now physically able

to resist Abigail and to stay away from her but in his mind John still thinks

secretly of Abigail, John still desires Abigail.

The second struggle that Proctor shows in the drama is whether he will go to

court or not and expose Abigail. Because of John’s affair with Abigail he knows

that she is lying to the courts about Elizabeth being a witch. Abigail calls out

witch craft on Elizabeth Proctor because Abigail want so be with John so she is

doing any thing she can to get rid of Elizabeth. Elizabeth urges John to go to

the courts and tell them what Abigail is doing but then John replies, "You

will now judge me more, Elizabeth. I have good reason to think before I charge

fraud on Abigail, and I will think on it. Let you look to your own improvement

before you go to judge you husband and more. I have forgot Abigail and-"

this quote was taken from the drama, "The Crucible" written by, Arthur

Miller, on page 54. This quote shows the second struggle of whether John should

just run to the courts and charge fraud on Abigail, but if John does this then

everyone will know that John committed adultery. This is showing how he doesn’t

really want to go to the courts right away he kind of just wants to think on it

before he lets all of Salem know he committed adultery. Another quote that gives

an example of Proctors second struggle is, "When Elizabeth urges him to go

to court and expose Abigail, he is afraid that his relations with the girl will

be brought to light." This quote was taken from a secondary source,

"Arthur Miller Dramatist" written by Murray on page, 63. This quote is

telling the reader how John is scared that if he does go to court and tell that

Abigail is saying fraud that his adultery will come out. In Salem and in their

religion Adultery is a big sin so he defiantly didn’t want this secret to come

out. But on the other hand he wanted to prove to Elizabeth that he was done with

Abigail. This is where it shows what John is torn between.

John Proctors third and final struggle was to tell the truth and live or to

not tell the truth and to die. John is in jail and the court come to him asking

if he will write down his confession and then he will not be hung. John writes

the confession and says he want his life then when Proctor is asked to choose,

in anger he rips up the confession and says, "Because it is my name!

Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies!

Because I am not worth the dust on feet of them that hang! How may I live

without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!" This quote

was taken from the drama, "The crucible" written by Arthur Miller

quoted through out Act four. This shows how john struggles with his life he

wants to keep his name but he isn’t sure whether to live or not. "John

doesn’t know if he wants to live or die, then makes the decision that he wants

his life and he sighed the confession." This quote was taken from

"Arthur Miller Dramatist" written by Murray, a second source. This

also shows how Proctor struggles on what to do.

The reader can see how John Proctor goes through three major struggles

throughout the drama. Proctor isn’t the only character who undergoes struggles

"The Crucible" is full of character’s struggles during the Salem Witch

Trials. Proctors three struggles, his stopping his love affair with Abigail

William, the decision to go to court or not, and the decision to tell the truth

and keep his life or to lie and be hung, were serious struggles to be facing

during that particular time period. How would society treat people today if they

were facing the struggles that John Proctor faced during the Salem Witch Trials?