John Proctor From the Crucible

¶ … John Proctor from the Crucible by Arthur Miller

The Crucible is a dramatic play written by Arthur Miller. The action takes place in a small Puritan town, at the end of the 17th century. The setting of the play is real, being based on the events surrounding the 1692 witch trails that took place in Salem, Massachusetts.

The plot evolves around one character, John Proctor -- "a farmer in his middle thirties" -- who commits the sin of cheating on his wife once with Abigail, a girl of seventeen, "strikingly beautiful, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling." (Arthur Miller, The Crucible, 8) Jealous and resentful of being rejected, Abigail accuses Proctor's wife of witchcraft, of murderous thoughts, manipulating others to take sides with her and spreading witchcraft panic through the village. Proctor, who has more or less indirectly caused his wife to be accused, has now a moral obligation to save her. In trying to do so, though, he himself is charged with witchcraft.

Throughout the four acts of the play, we see John Proctor grow and mature. All the moral and psychological changes that he undergoes -- from admitting publicly that he has committed adultery to choosing death instead of life to cleanse his soul -- redeem him.

If at the beginning of the play John Proctor does not want to get involved in the witchcraft trails, wanting to keep his distance, not so much because of his indifference, his lack of interest in the happenings of the community of which he is part of, but for fear of his secret of adultery being exposed, soon he takes sides with the unjustly accused ones, pleading not only for his wife's innocence but also for his friends'. When one of the members of the General Court tells him his wife will be set free and asks him to drop the charges, Proctor refuses to do so, preferring to fight along his friends, whose wives have also been imprisoned and accused of witchcraft on no reasonable grounds. In taking this decision, he puts all the significant others above him, deeming it more important to do what is morally just than protecting himself from having his secret exposed. He realizes that he cannot betray his friends, or himself for that matter, with a false confession and he at once completes his progression towards integrity. This goes to show that good always prevails over evil, eventually.

From the very beginning of the play, John Procter is described as a man with a strong personality. The fact that Abigail is willing to murder in order to possess him gives John a certain sense of importance, a certain stature. The act of his adultery with the girl in the past, an act which is against the law of God, reveals a certain daring, rebellious aspect of John's character and nature. On the other hand, John's powerful will to resist Abigail's advances now, shows strong determination on his side. All these instances contribute to the complex personality of the character. John is an important man in his community, he has a good reputations among the townspeople. Reverend Parris himself admits that John has "great weight yet in the town" (The Crucible, 127) and fears that the mob will start a rebellion as a protest for all the innocent people imprisoned. It is only natural and expected of him to stand up for the truth in this fight with the absurd and blind authorities.

Proctor's relationship with Elizabeth, his wife, can be seen as a progressive one. Act Two of the play beautifully depicts an intimate family scene from the Proctors' home. From the very beginning, the atmosphere is very tense. It is quite obvious that ever since the committed adultery, which both husband and wife are fully aware of, Elizabeth finds it extremely difficult to come to terms with it and to forgive John, and makes it hard for the latter to feel at ease in her presence. We see John making a determined effort to please Elizabeth -- he kisses her perfunctorily, he praises her cooking -- all this being done in a desperate effort to compensate for his guilty feelings. Elizabeth's coldness, however, augments his failure. Once her love has been betrayed, she lives in a continuous suspicion and doubts John's reasons as to why he would not testify against his former lover, Abigail, when Elizabeth urges him to. She is proud, slow to forgive and very accusatory: "I cannot speak but I am doubted," John defends himself, "every moment judged for lies, as though I come into a court when I come into this house!" (The Crucible, 54) Nevertheless, in spite of her self-righteous and her seemingly intolerant posture, Elizabeth loves John. She proves her endless love for him in Act Three when she lies to the committee of the court, against her principles, denying her husband's deed of adultery to save his reputation and life. At the end, Elizabeth overcomes her pride, becomes more open-minded and is able to forgive John. She even goes as far as taking part of the guilt upon herself, admitting that she was not as good a wife as she could have: "I have read my heart this three-month, John... I have sins of my own to count. It needs a cold wife to prompt lechery," (The Crucible, 137) Elizabeth confesses to her husband. We see her, thus, at the end of the play fully developed.

John Proctor grows in stature, as well, throughout the play. Although at the beginning John seems to play indifferent to the town's problems and to refuse to be involved in these absurd charges of witchcraft, when Abigail denounces his wife to be a witch, he gets involved without a hint of hesitation and takes immediate action, attempting legally to rescue the accused even if that would imply public exposure: "My wife will never die for me!... that goodness will not die for me!" (The Crucible, 80) he tells her servant, Mary Warren, whom he convinces to confess the truth and testify against Abigail.