After reading "The Crucible" I found myself having a lot of mixed feelings about John Proctor. John was definitely a very dynamic character in the story because he shows one of the most drastic changes from beginning to end. In the beginning, I saw John in a pretty bad light for committing adultery with a young girl, Abigail, and not seeming to want to take the entire blame for it. But later in the play, the way I saw Proctor changed quite a bit when it came time for taking the blame for witchcraft.
At first we find out that Proctor had a scandalous affair with Abigail which is a terrible sin and if anybody had found out in the town, he would've had an awful reputation. Not to mention, Abigail was very young and John shouldn't have had any kind of relationship like that with a girl of her age in the first place. Soon, we read that John and Abigail were also alone together talking even after their affair was broken off. This probably wouldn't been a huge issue, as long as nothing happened between the two of them, but he neglects to tell his wife Elizabeth at first, which is just plain shady. And through these actions, I can definitely say that John Proctor acted as somewhat a stooge.
However, later in the play, John Proctor's wife is taken away by the authorities because she was accused of witchcraft. This is when we finally see that change in John's character. He tries to reassure his wife by telling her that he will make things better and save her. This shows that John really does love his wife, even though his previous actions hadn't really lead us to believe this. He is there for her when she really needs him which is very important. Also, when he is put in court he finally admits that he did cheat on Elizabeth, and that proves the change in John. He then decided to not confess to witch craft because he didn't want to ruin the family name. And so he just takes the punishment of being hung instead of blaming the accusations of witchcraft on anyone else witch was the common thing to do at the time. This in my opinion proves that although John Proctor had made some mistakes in his life, acting as a stooge, he ultimately died a hero.
I find it interesting how you say its hard to name Proctor as either a hero or a stooge, and I agree. his actions and opinions changed so much over the course of the book that one of these terms can't really define him. I agree also that in the end he shows that he loves Elizabeth, but I think that he takes her for granted at the beginning of the book. I also think that John would've been even more of a hero if he had come clean earlier and not tried to keep his reputation intact.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in that in the beginning you would have never thought John as a hero and more like a stooge, but then gradually he does show to be more a hero. It got to the point were you even felt for the characters that decided to die as heroes.
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