The Crucible Essay, Research Paper

The Crucible? was written by Arthur Miller, a famous playwright of his

time. Some of his other works include ?Death of a Salesman? and ?A View

From the Bridge.? Miller has received such awards as The Gold Medal Award for

Drama and the Pulitzer Prize. The character from ?The Crucible? whom I

analyzed is John Proctor. He is a father, husband and a respected, land owning

member of the community. He nailed the church roof and hung the church door. He

is a Puritain and is very religious. In the story, John is thrown into a

situation where he has to decide whether or not he should sacrifice his good

name to save the lives of his falsely accused wife and friends. This conflict is

known as his crucible. I think that John Proctor did the right thing when he

confessed in court to save his wife and friends.

John Proctor had many significant actions in the story. When he realized that

the town of Salem had gone mad with accusations of witchcraft he decided to take

Mary Warren to court the next day to dismiss the false accusations. Even more

significant of an action, was when John confessed to having an affair with

Abigail. These events are important because they change the direction on the

entire trial. For the first time, the actions and creditability of the girls was

being questioned. This eventually lead to Mary Warren turning on John and

accusing him of working with the devil so he was arrested and sentenced to be

hanged.

John Proctor, being one of the main characters in ?The Crucible?, has

some very important statements. Towards the end of the play John Proctor finally

decides to confess so that he can live and be with his wife. He makes this

decision known by yelling, ?I want me life!? Another important quote is when

Elizabeth was being arrested on charges of witch craft. John said on page 74,

??vengeance is walking Salem?vengeance writes the law?I?ll not lose my

wife to vengeance!? At this point of the story it seems as though John is the

only person that realized that the town has gone mad and is hysterically

accusing eachother of witchcraft in order to save themselves.

Like many characters in the story, John went through a change. His major

change occurred when he was signing his confession. He was prepaired to confess

to witchcraft in order to save his life but after signing his name and finding

out that his confession was to be nailed to the church door, he changes his

mind. He decided that saving his good name was more important than saving his

life. At the end of the story, when john was being carried away to be executed,

Elizebeth said that he has his goodness now, something that he lacked durring

the first part of the story.

John showed an example of an ironic situation when he was asked by Mr. Hale

to recite the 10 commandmentsand he forgot Adultry. This is ironic because John

commited adultry when he slept with Abigail.

John Proctor seemed to be an example of what guilt can do to a person and

society. John felt guilty about his affair with Abigail and he kept it secret

even though it meant that many of the townspeople would be accused because no

one could prove that the girls were lieing. After telling the truth about the

affair, the church officals questioned his devotion to the church and God.

There are many things that we can learn from John Proctor. For example,

vengeance and greed took Salem over and made the townspeople turn on eachother

inorder to get their land or save their own lives. John was the only one that

saw this happening and acctually did something about it. John also realized that

telling the truth was the only way to save his wife and friends even though it

ment throwing away his good name. Another lesson that John taught was that if

you believe in something you should do whatever is nessecary to stand up for it.

John believed in his good name so much that he died for it.