Crucible
Jordana Nicholas
Ms. Bredhold
English III
1-11-11
Tragic Hero
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. John Proctor was a well-respected, highly influential man in society. He was considered to be part of the high-class civilians in Salem, Massachusetts. One part of the play where we see that John is highly influential is when Betty Parris has fallen into a coma and the doctors can not tell what is wrong with her. Her father, Reverend Parris says that no one is to enter the room ,but then allows the Putnam’s, whose daughter was also sick and John Proctor in the room. Also, during the 17th century your wealth and class in society was based upon how much land you owned, and since John Proctor owned a lot of land, this also gave him reasons to be considered
Nicholas 2 one of Salem’s high-class members of society. During
Ms. Bredhold
English III
1-11-11
Tragic Hero
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. John Proctor was a well-respected, highly influential man in society. He was considered to be part of the high-class civilians in Salem, Massachusetts. One part of the play where we see that John is highly influential is when Betty Parris has fallen into a coma and the doctors can not tell what is wrong with her. Her father, Reverend Parris says that no one is to enter the room ,but then allows the Putnam’s, whose daughter was also sick and John Proctor in the room. Also, during the 17th century your wealth and class in society was based upon how much land you owned, and since John Proctor owned a lot of land, this also gave him reasons to be considered
Nicholas 2 one of Salem’s high-class members of society. During