In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, John Proctor, our main character tore up a piece of paper called a confession. The confession would have saved his life but sell out his innocent friends, Instead he chose to die with them. This act is believable because Proctor had a good name in Salem before he admitted to Lechery in the court. Proctor threw away his sense of goodness when he had sexual relations with Abigail Williams. The guilt he was feeling was literally eating at him, he felt he was going to Hell.…
In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, John Proctor tearing up his confession is believable. Proctor is a flawed character, but he is a good man. Proctor tries to do what he believes is right. Proctor can’t stand the idea that innocent people are being condemned. He can’t accept that the girls are falsely accusing people of witchcraft, and the court is believing them.…
For many reasons, John Proctor is an honest man. By no means is Proctor afraid to tell what is on his mind. In the beginning John truthfully tells Parris why he has not be at church recently, "I have trouble enough without I come five mile to hear him preach only hellfire and bloody damnation. Take it to heart, Mr. Parris. There are many others who stay away from church these days because hardly ever mention God any more." John realizes that he must confess his sin of…
In arthur miller’s “The Crucible,” Proctor says "Oh, Francis, I wish you had some evil in you that you might know me. A man will not cast away his good name. You surely know that." This quote explains the danger proctor faces as he told the church that he had an affair with Abigail, not only risking his reputation but also his relationship. Proctor is able to get away free if he agrees to sign a paper saying he was an ally of the devil. He struggles to lie that he did work with the devil. When he is asked to sign a paper saying this, he can’t. The document would be hung on the church door for all to see. His reputation wouldn’t just be ruined but people would start doubting his work over the years and his honesty. Everyone sees him as the good guy who wouldn't intentionally hurt others. For example, Proctor had an affair with Abigail Williams. He can use this evidence in court to show that she is guilty, but he is reluctant to. He tries to find other ways to prove her guilty without losing his…
Proctor had good morals and stood for what he believed. He always tried to do the right thing, and he protected the innocent citizens. Proctor had an affair with Abigail, but he had the opportunity to sign a paper confessing in order to help the innocents. Signing this paper would be hung up on the church doors for everyone to see, so he chose to sign it, but tore it up right afterwards. “I have confessed myself! Is there no good penitence but be public? God does not need my name nailed upon the church! God sees my name; God knows how black my sins are! It is enough!” (1332). He was able to confess his sins without the whole town finding out about the affair, therefore saving his good…
He told them that he wanted to confess so then he live with his wife. "I want my life" (pg 884). They told him if I he confesses he will be safe and not be sentenced to hang. They asked him questions to get more information from him but he did not blame anyone else. "Mr. Proctor, have you seen the Devil in your life? Come man, there is light in the sky; the town waits at the scaffold; I would give out this news. Did you see the Devil?' I did."(885). He is only confessing so then he can be with his and children again not to help them in the witch hunt. He is ashamed that he is lying to live when all of his friends have stuck to the truth and accepted death. "Man, you will hang! You cannot!' I can. And there's your first marvel, that I can. You have made your magic now, for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor." (884). He knows that if does sign this that his name will be plagued in the community for the rest of his life and he will not be able to raise his kids being known in the town as a coward. John accepts death with honor and meets a tragic…
He becomes selfless and sacrifices his reputation and his life to save everyone else in the court by the end of the Crucible. John Proctor said "You will not 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 your own husband anymore. I have forget Abigail" (pg. 918.) In the beginning of the book, he knew he was going to hurt his neighbors from hiding what he did with Abigail, but he was so afraid about the citizens of Salem find out about his affair. John was afraid to tell the judges about his affair with Abigail because Abigail is going to ruin his reputation by charge lechery. John proctor said " I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another." (Pg. 968.) John Proctor tried to speak his own sins, confess he saw the witches to survive, and ask forgiveness for Elizabeth because it will save the others. John Proctor signed a written confession that will be hung on the courthouse door. He knew that will ruin his name and reputation in the society, but he sacrificed himself to save people who are in the prison.…
John Proctor picked death in order to keep his name from being smeared after his death. While a noble thought, it was in vain that he died. His name had already been blackened by his now publicly known affair with Abigail while he was married. This means that his dying proclamation had been for naught, despite his best efforts he still failed to die with a clean name. With this in mind, Proctor should have chosen to lie and spend the rest of his natural life trying to restore his name so his dying wish would be true.…
After his affair he wanted to be a more truthful man than he was. Towards the end of the play Proctor is confessing to witchcraft, but refuses to involve anyone else. He discovered that the church was going to post his confession on the church door so he ripped the document in pieces. Proctor says, “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another lie in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave my name!” (Act IV pg.1333) This quote shows that all he has left it his name.…
As a character, John Proctor values his reputation and stays honest with himself through the play. He undergoes lots of internal and external struggles but yet, never changes his character. At the end he gets accused for witchcraft. In the story, if you confess to being a witch, you live and if you don’t, you die. Proctor values the Puritan faith and in the end, the “court” makes him admit to being a witch and sign saying he confessed. He doesn’t sign because he unwilling to sign his name to something he doesn’t believe in. He would rather die than to tell more lies. "Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign…
John Proctor wasn't against lying itself, he was against allowing the dead to be robbed of their due respect. While it pains him, he wants his life more than he wants to save his soul, he’d “let Rebecca go like a saint; for me [John Proctor] it is fraud!” (138, Miller). Proctor had accepted that he wouldn’t die for his values and was ready to live his life as a liar since by Puritan standards, he can not get into Heaven given his affair. He's not as morally valued as people like Rebecca Nurse, so the idea of signing a confession that would confirm them as witches to the village is something he can’t do.Some may say, that his hanging will not change who hangs, making it…
John Proctor lost his integrity a couple of times throughout the play. He first lost it by cheating on his wife with Abigail. He also lost his integrity by letting the witch trials go on even thou he knew that the girls were lying. By doing so, and not stopping them while he could, he allowed many innocent people to die. John Proctor tried to regain his integrity back by going to the courts and telling the truth about his affair and by also telling the courts that the girls are lying and there were no witches. In the end he gains his integrity back by choosing to die rather than having his name attached to a lie. “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies!... I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”(Miller, The Crucible IV. 1. 910-917). John Hale also began to lose his integrity throughout the play. He lost his integrity by going along with the witch trials and signing accused witches to death, even though he wasn’t 100% sure they were truly witches. But once Rev. Hale noticed that that the girls were lying he gained his integrity back by quitting the courts. “I denounce these proceedings, I quit this court!”(Miller, The Crucible III. 1.…
When John Proctor is faced with the decision of either falsely confessing to witchcraft and living, or staying honest and dying, he is unsure which choice is the right one. “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 the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” (Miller 133). Proctor is saying that if he confesses to witchcraft, he will forever be known as a witch. He will never be able to remove that label from his name. He may be living, but he would be living a lie. When Proctor chose death, he chose both honesty, and to protect his name. To some, protecting one’s name may seem selfish, but, sometimes, your name is all you have left.…
The main point that most readers would make is that lying is alright if the result is life. In The Crucible, John Proctor did not lie. Proctor had the choice to say that he had used witchcraft, which would result in life, or be hung because he did not confess to using witchcraft. Hale was very disappointed that Proctor ripped the…
In the play The Crucible, the tragic hero John Proctor, is caught between his flaws that stop him from helping his community and that the ones that lead him to his down fall. Throughout the play, John Proctor has two choices, he can either save his life by tarnishing his name, or he can choose to die while preserving his integrity. He becomes the tragic hero by trying to help his community after a group of teenage girls start to accuse community members of witchcraft. By trying to do so, he ends up tarnishing his name after admitting to having an affair with the leader of the group, Abigail Williams. The main reason as to why he is the tragic hero is because although he was trying to do the right thing in order to save those accused of witchcraft, he refused to sacrifice his reputation, which he felt was the only thing he had left. In order to save everyone, he would have had to sign a written confession stating that he had in fact performed witchcraft, and by doing so, this would have most definitely destroyed his name in the town. He had too much pride in him to sign something that wasn’t true, and by doing so; it therefore lead to his arrest and eventually his death.…