The Role of John Proctor in Arthur Millers The Crucible Essay

The Role of John Proctor in Arthur Miller's The Crucible Arthur Miller wrote the play 'The Crucible' to show the historical parallel between the Salem witch trials of 1692 and the McCarthy 'witch' hunt of the late 1940' and 50's. The character John Proctor seems to represent and show the viewpoint of a real man, unaffected by hysteria; a difficult thing to portray during the 1950's in the USA, due to the fear and hate of Communism and the 'witch' hunt for communists. John Proctor is the central character of the play. He a realistic character, the audience can relate to him and sympathize with him. He is a somewhat strong character and is described by Miller as "powerful of body, even-tempered and not easily led", the last comment perhaps being the most important. His character earns respect throughout the play as the audience sees the moral arguments he has and internal conflicts he has to deal with. John Proctor is a man with a guilty conscience, which makes him indecisive until it is too late, audiences can relate this to their own, maybe far less dramatic lives. John Proctor has made a mistake; he has slept with his former servant girl, teenage Abigail Williams. It is also shown in Act 1 that he still lusts after her - when she asks if he looked up at her window for her, he replies "I may have looked up", this shows his characters weakness, but he remains strong willed. He does not give into what he obviously thinks of as great temptation, again. This shows the audience that he has recognized his mistake and is not repeating it. John Proctor is an honest man, but has undermined himself with his one act of dishonesty. ... ... parallel, as he knew himself what height the communist hysteria had reached. Like the witch hysteria in Salem, he knew that he would be persecuted for writing about fear and conscience if he were to set the play in contemporary America. Miller uses John Proctor to almost play himself and to show what he would do if put in the position of being on trial. He later proved his point by not accusing any other people of being in communist parties when he really was put on trial, to get himself off the hook, like so many other people did. John Proctor plays the crucial role in 'The Crucible' of being the man that is on the brink of giving in but stands strong, even though he knew that one individual would not bring down the hysteria. Works Cited: Miller, Arthur. The Crucible: A Screenplay. New York: Penguin Books, 1996.