“I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” Do you consider John Proctor to be Heroic?
"I have given you my soul; leave me my name!" Do you consider John Proctor to be Heroic?
"The Crucible" as a tragedy should bring fear and pity to the reader, or spectator. The protagonist should not be exceptionally righteous, but his faults should come about because of a certain irreversible error on his part. This man will suffer a fatal ending; integral to the tragedy of the story, for this man is the tragic hero.
A hero has been defined as a person of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his or her brave deeds and noble qualities. He or she is a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed an heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal. The hero is often thought to have been born with these outstanding qualities, although many acts are believed to be heroic.
The character of John Proctor, the protagonist, is developed greatly through the course of the story. In the play, Proctor changes from a confident farmer to a desperate man trying to free his wife from accusations of witchcraft and is ultimately accused himself. He is a respectable man but as the town of Salem is enveloped in insanity, Proctor is drawn into it and his escape is his destruction. He may have been wronged by society but it is more likely that he was not strong enough to protect himself and his family from the surrounding hysteria.
Through the course of the play, Proctor faces many internal struggles. Amongst them is the guilt about his affair with Abigail Williams.
"...The steady manner he displays does not spring from an untroubled soul. He is a sinner, a sinner not only against the moral fashion of the time, but against his own vision of decent conduct...[he] has come to regard himself as a kind of fraud."
Before his wife, Elizabeth, to whom he had confessed, Proctor is afraid. He is not a timid man, but he knows that he should go "tiptoe in the house". What he feels for her is some kind of obligation; he has done something wrong and he owes her something, although he is unsure what. He is a loving husband though, and wishes to please Elizabeth, perhaps even more so after his affair, for the feeling of guilt. However, he is aware of his wife's "judgement", her righteousness, and it frustrates him.
"I have not moved from here to there without I think to please you and still an everlasting funeral marches around your heart...I'll plead my honesty no more...I should have roared you down when first you told me your suspicion. But I wilted, and like a Christian, I confessed. Confessed!...Let you look sometimes for the goodness in me, and judge me not."
Although Proctor may appear weak before his wife, he is strong and perhaps even hard at times. When the rumours of witchcraft and rebellion start, he attempts to continue with his life, refusing to ...
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"I have not moved from here to there without I think to please you and still an everlasting funeral marches around your heart...I'll plead my honesty no more...I should have roared you down when first you told me your suspicion. But I wilted, and like a Christian, I confessed. Confessed!...Let you look sometimes for the goodness in me, and judge me not."
Although Proctor may appear weak before his wife, he is strong and perhaps even hard at times. When the rumours of witchcraft and rebellion start, he attempts to continue with his life, refusing to pay attention to the events he considers foolish, and against his principles. His words can be biting, even hurtful, but he spares them only for those that he has no use for.
PARRIS: There is a party in this church...there is a faction and a party.
PROCTOR: Against you?...Why, then I must find it and join it...I like not the smell of this "authority"...I have a crop to sow and lumber to drag home. He goes angrily to the door.
However, although he is almost oblivious to the hints of witchcraft at first, he is forced to take notice when his wife, Elizabeth is accused of witchcraft. At this time, another problem is present. He knows that Abigail is behind the witch-hunt and he can attempt to expose her as a fraud, but to do so, he will have to admit to lechery. In the court proceedings, he admits to committing adultery with Abigail in order to discredit her reputation. Proctor's reputation becomes decidedly questionable.
At this time, John Proctor is a desperate man. He has to save his wife, out of loyalty, even though he has to sacrifice himself. However, when his wife is allowed to live because of her pregnancy, he refuses to drop the charges against Abigail and the girls. His purpose has become somewhat larger; he wishes to clear the names of as many as possible.
He displays hubris by challenging authority. Hubris is placing one's self equal to authority or to God, and it is a necessary trait of the tragic hero. Although John Proctor does not truly defy authority in this scene of the play, for he tells the truth and his wife lies, he challenges control in many other instances. He displays hubris through his hatred of Reverend Parris. John Proctor proclaims that he does not go to Church, an act the court and townspeople view as a revolt against the supremacy of God, because the Reverend Parris is corrupt. Proctor resents the Church because Parris controls it. In the eye of the officials, this casual negligence of God turns Proctor into an un-Christian, sinful rebel. The tragic hero not only places himself as an equal of God, but as an equal of court authority as well. As a challenge to authority he tears up the warrant for arrest presented for Elizabeth. This act escalates the war between Proctor and the court. Proctor will go to the extreme, even if it means punishment by death, in order to save his wife. This loyalty is one of his best qualities, and is often demonstrated.
When he himself is accused, by Mary Warren, of witchcraft, he loses himself. He is unable to control himself or his emotions - he becomes mad and denounces God. He blames himself and the people for being drawn into the hysteria of the witch-hunt.
"A fire, a fire is burning...-For them that quail to bring men out of ignorance as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud- God damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together! "
As the play comes to a close, Proctor is torn between saving his life and saving his name. He feels that he has lost the battle against witchcraft. He considers his name to be the one thing he has left. "I have given you my soul; leave me my name!" He does sign the document in which he admits to witchcraft, which makes him seem selfish, but he will not accuse others of witchcraft, which preserves his heroic qualities, nor will he allow himself to be made into an example. To Proctor himself, he is nothing but a fraud. He is consumed with self-doubt, and sees himself as stripped of all dignity. When he tears up his confession, he is somewhat redeemed. However, his escape from the accusations leads to his destruction.
As Proctor is drawn into the court proceedings, his reputation is questioned. By the end of the story, Proctor is but a shell of a man and although he attempts to redeem himself through his death, it is only a slight redemption. This is demonstrated when Proctor announces:
"I can [hang]. And there is your first marvel, that I can. You have made your magic now, for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but white enough to keep it from such dogs."
Proctor believes that he has lost the battle against witchcraft. He feels there is no hope that the court will free him from execution, and he panics. A person can be strong for his entire life, but when the moment of death comes, he will crack. When given the choice between life, saved by lying, and death, retaining honour, the decision is made more difficult by the hysteria experienced. John Proctor chooses life, though he knows this means a life of regret and dishonesty. Proctor does, however, realise his mistake in choosing this sort of life over an honourable death before it is too late. Proctor's decision ultimately to choose a death of honour over a life of shame is the major reversal of the play. Reversal is the change of fortune that results from recognition, or learned knowledge that results in a change of action in a character, of any tragic hero. John Proctor's recognition is his discovery that he contains goodness. "For now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor". Proctor sees himself as a good man through his death; however, it may be his pride and vanity that made him choose death. He would not let his name be nailed to the church door; he could not stay alive while his friends hanged "like saints". Proctor believed that his name was yet untarnished and he would protect it. When Proctor believes that he is a man of no decency, he chooses to live by confessing witchcraft, since this lie fits his personality. With Elizabeth's support, this tragic hero sees the goodness he holds and acts on it by reversal and by choosing an honourable death. He realises that this action is one that would bring about Elizabeth's forgiveness, and her mercy is what he searches for throughout the play. John Proctor's sudden change through recognition and reversal is a major crisis in the play, and from this stems his catastrophe. Proctor's cataclysm is that he will hang.
The misfortune also concludes the drama and emphasises that John Proctor is a tragic hero, for he accepts his death with silence and shows a capacity for suffering. Another quality of the tragic man is belief in his own freedom, shown by John Proctor in his destruction. Proctor's freedom is death; death is his escape from the Puritan world, which persecutes and punishes him with cries of witchcraft. Overall, the catastrophe reveals the integrity of John Proctor, making this character a tragic hero. John Proctor shows that he is a tragic hero through his struggles within the play. He struggles with his sin of adultery, for it causes a break in his bond with his wife and Abigail. He grapples with authority, for Proctor is not one who listens to authority simply because it is the accepted thing to do, or if it's arguments are against his principles. He also faces death because he chooses to be a noble man and denies all charges of witchcraft. Though John Proctor is not a perfect man, his beliefs and values are in the right place; he listens to his heart. When his head tells him to listen to the court because it is the law, and when Hale tells him to choose to live as an accused witch, Proctor does not listen because he knows that these acts are not in his, or his family's best interest.
Vivienne Salmon 10 BH
4th February
