Why Is John Proctor Successful In The Crucible

The Crucible Everyone in the town of Salem, MA, is the definition of credulous. Everything that happens in this community doesn’t need any proof for why it is right or wrong, if it is said it is true. No questions asked. When the girls originally blamed witchcraft for the peculiar behavior of Betty Paris, nobody wanted to believe that it was anything else. This is the core reason why so many people were killed during the witch-hunts. Abigail Williams, Elizabeth Proctor, and John Proctor were forever changed in history because of credulousness of the townspeople of Salem, MA in 1692 Abigail was enabled to do whatever she wanted in the town of Salem. Once she realized how much power she had, Dukore backs this up in his essay, “A forceful personality, Abigail is able to bend the other girls
to her will and intelligent enough to convince the pillars of society of her truthfulness.”(146). Abigail is a very cunning girl who is savvy and gets what she wants, by any means necessary. She is willing to hurt others so they might interfere with her plans, “let either of breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.”(20). She realizes that she can take all of her problems away by simply turning back onto the person that originally inflicted her with the issue. Just like in the case with Elizabeth Proctor. She stabs herself with a needle and preaches to everyone that she felt Goody Proctors spirit do that to her. With her wit, she knows that nobody will think to question her, and Goody Proctor will ‘taken care of’. Abigail Williams is the ultimate puppet master in this play. She can do anything she wants because of the credulousness of all of the other characters that form the fan club of people who believe in witchcraft. Elizabeth Proctor is one of the many victims of Abigail and her minions.
There were scores of other men, women, and children that were hung because of their ‘ties to Lucifer’. Elizabeth is a good Christian woman, at least this is what the book leads the reader to believe, that never has done a wrong thing in her life. John Proctor clearly brings this out when he says, “In her life, sir, she never lie.”(103). This shows us that he truly believes that she could not have committed any of the crimes that she is condemned with by Ms. Abigail Williams. Abby is simply able to lay the blame on her because of the people she has already sentenced to their deathbeds. People saw that she was constantly being ‘tortured’ from the inside by the spirits these people were casting out and since a few people confessed to it not wanting to die, the townsfolk believed her story. This left no choice for Goody Proctor, but to surrender to the authorities when they came asking for her. Elizabeth Proctor was then convicted to the demonic art of witchcraft because of the credulousness of the people she lived with. Nobody thought to thing that maybe, just maybe, these girls could be
lying. John Proctor was arguably the reason for all the madness to happen in the township of Salem, MA. For the love that Abigail Williams had for him drove her to the edge, leading her to the massacring of many innocent lives. Her constant ways of trying to seduce John Proctor are seen countless times in The Crucible, “John-I am waitin’ for you every night.”(21). John Proctor is physically imposing, but on the inside is timid as a mouse. As Dukore states, “He is physically but not morally strong.”(143). The statement by Dukore fits John Proctor perfectly. He is very imposing over his ideas vocally, and hardly ever stands down when it comes down to a game of physical strength, but when it is brought to the emotional side, like when he committed adultery with Abigail, he is as soft as heated up butter. John is affected by the credulousness of the people in this play in multiple ways. He loses his wife to false pretenses and he then is accused of witchcraft himself. It is only to late for him when the authorities realize what a grave mistake he had made. The people of Salem became immune to who was being accused. Whoever was said to be casting their spirit to somebody else…was killed, end of story. This left John out to dry when Mary Warren said that he had made her do horrible things whilst working for him. John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, and Abigail Williams all had their different experiences with the credulous behavior of the town. John and Elizabeth were both doomed to die, whereas Abigail was put up on pedestal above everyone else. The credulous behavior of the town was a domino effect. Once one person would believe it true, another would, and another would, and so on. The fear of the possibly of the devil making am appearnace Salem, MA made the people jump to conclusion without a proper look at the situation, for their fear of the worst. After it was too late, Judge Danforth saw what wrong had happened; yet in his mind it was irreversible. The people were scared and ran to what seemed to be the safest thing at the time, not knowing that really it was the worst thing that they could have done. It sent most of their lives, as well as John, Elizabeth, and Abigail’s, spinning out of control were the only way to stop was to not stop.