Adam Jarrell
Mrs. Quisenberry
February 23, 2023
English III Honors
The Crucible Literary Analysis Having dynamic characters in a play greatly increases your chances of attracting listeners. Characters can either be dynamic or static characters: based on how they change throughout the piece. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the main protagonist of the play, John Proctor, changes a lot throughout the play. John, at first, was not very strong and was trying to hide the affair between him and Abigail. Then, as things went down with Elizabeth, he became more strong-tempered and violent. Nearing the end of the play, Proctor tries to do everything he can for Elizabeth when she gets arrested, making him more heroic and noble. The way that John Proctor’s downfall from a weaker person to a violent, ill-tempered person played a significant role in changing him into more of a hero throughout the play, is a beneficial change for his character.
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In Act One of the play, Abigail says to Proctor “I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I come near!”(Page 470). Then, Abigail mentions “Abigail (with a bitter anger). Oh, I marvel how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife be-”, referring to Elizabeth, Proctor’s wife and the playwright writes “Proctor (angered-at himself as well). You’ll speak nothin’ of Elizabeth!”(Page 471). Proctor responds the way he did because the reader knows that Abigail is telling the truth referring to the affair, and he is denying everything she says to keep his reputation and not let the secret get out. The way that John Proctor starts weak and unfaithful, gives lots of room for him to make a change in the right direction, a positive
In “The Crucible” there are multiple examples of characters changing, while some characters also stay the same. The stark contrast between either being on the courts side or being on witchcraft are what allowed for either character development or stagnation. Maybe the biggest example of a character that changes is John Proctor. Towards the beginning of the story, Proctor was very set in his ways and was willing to live a lie in order to have a good name.
Another character that experienced a massive change in “The Crucible” is John Proctor. When we are first introduced to John Proctor he is talking to Abigail. This scene reveals that he is having an affair with Abigail, showing his disloyalty to hit wife Elizabeth. He is willingly being disloyal to his wife and selfishly choosing Abigail over her. In at 2 he discovers that his wife is being accused of witchcraft and Abigail is at the forefront of the accusation.
proctor tries to completely deny the affair he tells Abigail they “Never touched.” Abigail tried to argue and bring out the truth but Proctor keeps on denying it. Proctor will do anything to keep his affair undercover. Throughout the play Proctor realizes
Her resolve for being in a relationship with John allowed her to gain power. John Proctor is a powerful character. His good name is where his power is derived from. But Proctor knows that he is a fraud. Due to that, he suffers from a lot of guilt and self-hatred.
Due to his grit, his decisions to help Salem along with not giving up on Elizabeth caused him to change into a new man. John Proctor is motivated by determination. One example of this in the play would be when Proctor tries to show the people of Salem that the
John Proctor is a “good man” who has made mistakes in life, but he uses his sense of moral goodness being a truthful christian. He had a flaw as a well-respected member of the community, but he changed throughout the course of ACT I to ACT IV. He had a huge shift. Not just asking for forgiveness, but acting on it.
Throughout most of the play Elizabeth Proctor, the wife of the Protagonist John Proctor, is unable to forgive and communicate well with her husband because of the affair he had with their servant Abigail Williams. However, in the last scene before John dies, Elizabeth realizes the causes and effects of her actions. She then clearly states, “I counted myself so plain, so poorly made, no honest love could come to me! Suspicion kissed you when I did; I never knew how I should say my love. It were a cold house I kept!”
This affair was never fully proven, but Proctor did say, “Abby, I may think of you from time to time but I will cut off my hand before I’ll reach for you again” (Miller 1140). Abigail was madly in love with Proctor and wanted Elizabeth out of the picture so she could have Proctor all to her self. Abigail was very jealous of Elizabeth. She thought that if Elizabeth would die, she would get Proctor all to her self. She accused Elizabeth of being a “cold, sniveling woman”(Miller 1140).
In the Crucible, many of the characters go through changes because of the intensity of the situation. But there is only one character that I think changed the most, and that is John Proctor who is the protagonist of the novel The Crucible by Arthur Miller. I think that John Procotor changes the most in the Crucible because he is in every act and mostly in every scene, and throughtout the play I see more drama (Dynamic Character) in him than any other character in the Crucible and I will go through and tell you how John Proctor changes in the Crucible. In the beginning of the play (Acts 1 and 2), we focus on John Proctor and we know that he is a good puritan citizen, a hard-working farmer and who is a husband and father.
Proctor says, “In the proper place - where my beasts are bedded. On the last night of my joy, some eight months past, she used to serve me in my house sir” This act of confession shows how much he loves Elizabeth and what he’s willing to do to protect her. Abigail had told proctor that she had never seen any spirits, but she had told him when they were alone. Proctor had to confess in order to prove that abigail would want to hurt Elizabeth and she had been lying about the witches and the devil.
The Crucible - Conflict Analysis John Proctor Internal: John Proctor’s most eminent internal conflict is over the sin he has committed, adultery. Proctor cheated on his wife with Abigail Williams, and this makes Proctor feel incredibly guilty because in the town, he is “respected and even feared” (19). He tried very hard, and succeeded, with keeping this moral crime to himself. He still walked about Salem as if he was “an untroubled soul,” (21) however, avoiding the sin again would be a difficult task. Abigail flirts with him, in attempt to have him for one last night, and it’s obvious Proctor has an arduous time pushing her away.
Another reason why John Proctor is such a Flawed man is because he is so quick to anger. He get mad very easily and he goes off on people to make them feel like a bad person when they didnt do anything wrong. Like Elizabeth every night he tries to talk to him and he yells at her because she ask to many questions or she doesn 't do it the right
How john Proctor was a dynamic character in The Crucible and changed throughout the play. He confessed to adultry to try to save his wife. He turned against Abigail even though he didnt want to turn her in at first. He almost confessed to Witchcraft but then changed his mind because he didnt want his family name ruined. Therefore, How john Proctor was a dynamic character in The Crucible and changed throughout the play.
John Proctor's main flaw was his excessive pride which sealed his fate. I myself felt his death transformed Salem’s ways of thinking and increased their own knowledge. Proctor's life completely started going downhill when Abigail accused John’s loved ones who then were sent to jail, or executed. John Proctor was a man of goodness and pride which cleansed his soul after he suffered a tragic death, and became a symbol of purity and greatness for others to
“Character Analysis over The Crucible” Arthur Miller is a commonly-known playwright, most famous for his 1953 play, The Crucible. The basis for The Crucible came from the witch trials which occurred in Salem, Massachusetts during the puritan era. Miller even uses some of the same characters in his dramatized play that were a part of the original witch trials in Salem. However, Miller made a few alterations to the historical members of the Salem society in order to suit his dramatic purpose in The Crucible, particularly Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Reverend Samuel Parris.