The stage directions used in the first act also help us to visualise his flirty ways. At one stage when he is speaking to her he looks at her with the faintest suggestion of a knowing smile on his face to which he says “What’s the mischief here?” She replies with laugh. By adding in the stage directions it has changed the way Proctor addresses her while saying his line, it also affects the way Abigail reacts back when told to do so. Stage directions are important to the actor playing the part of Proctor as it tells them him how to say a line, how to react to something that has been said and how to move and interact in general. The stage directions are also to the audience reading the play as it helps them to imagine and visualise what is actually going on and reactions that are made.
In act 2 Proctor changes from very flirtatious to very protective over his wife but he also gets very sharp with her and becomes irrational. When Elizabeth says something to her husband about or concerning Abigail he will instantly bite back at her and make sure what he is saying is heard. One example of this is when Elizabeth says to Proctor (with a smile, trying to keep her dignity) “John, if it were not Abigail that you must go to hurt, would you falter now? I think not.” To which Proctor replies (With solemn warning) “You will not judge me more, Elizabeth. I have good reason to think before I charge fraud on Abigail, and I will think on it. Let you look to your own improvement before you go to judge your husband anymore.” In a way it gives the impression that he doesn’t like the truth and sometimes can’t take it very well, so his reaction would be to bite back. As the plot goes on you can see Proctors good side starting to come through, even though he still gets aggressive and ill-tempered and easily provoked, the rest of the village are starting to understand why he retaliates so much and are starting to respect him more for that.
In this act, to really get the feeling of Proctors anger and biting nature, the dramatic devices aid you extremely well in getting the full picture in your mind of how he is reacting to the things she is saying. By just reading through the play there is no indication of how the character says what he/she is saying. With Proctor this indication are very useful as his mood changes in different situations and helps you to understand when he is angry like he is in the part of the act.
In act 3 Proctor changes dramatically to the way he is with certain characters. In this act you see him becoming very horrible and nasty towards Abigail. There are many ways in which his attitude changes towards her. In the stage directions it states that “Proctor leaps at Abigail and, grabbing her by the hair pulls her to her feet. She screams in pain.” This shows a change in the way Proctor addresses Abigail. He becomes aggressive towards her and uses forceful actions against her. I think he is fed up with putting up with all of Abigail’s lies against his wife and Mary Warren and the only way she is likely to listen to him and take in what he is saying is by using such drastic action as to leap at her and grab her by her hair. This, I would assume hurt, so he wants to cause her pain in hoping it will make her listen to what he is trying to tell her. This description being wrote as a stage directions acts as a visual aid for the reader, it helps them to visualise what is going on at that time in the scene and may give you as a reader more of an understanding what the author is trying to get across.
Another way in which the author portrays Proctor’s turn against Abigail is through language. For example, “It is not a child. Now hear me, sir. In the sight of the congregation she were twice this year put out of this meetin’ house for laughter during prayer.” Proctor is trying to convince everyone that Abigail isn’t as innocent as she makes out to be. The town of Salem is extremely religious and frowns upon anyone going against god or behaving in an unacceptable manner towards the religion. On account of them hearing this they would all immediately agree that it is unacceptable to laugh during prayer in the church and their views of her will turn from good to bad. Along with hearing this they may also believe that she hasn’t been telling the truth from the start and that if she has in fact been lying god will see this and provide her with the suitable punishment instead of going about it themselves.
In this act proctor also becomes very motivated to try and prove his wife’s innocence and also the innocence of his friends. When Danforth takes an interest in Mary Warren and asks what she has to tell, Proctor looks at her to see that she cannot speak so he jumps in to defend her. “She never saw no spirits, sir.” Proctor does this because he notices that Mary Warren is unable to answer this question by herself therefore intervenes to help her. I think that Proctor has also seen the error of his ways, being the way he acted towards people earlier on in the play, and is trying to make amends for the bad things he has done. The last thing he wants to see happen is his wife and all of his friends being hung for things they have not done therefore does his best to defend them. Proctor also gives evidence against Abigail to change it around so she is the one being asked the questions instead and tries to make her the new subject. “Abigail leads the girls to the woods, Your Honour, and they have danced there naked –“
In act 4 John Proctor becomes silent and won’t speak to anyone except his wife, once she is aloud in to try and talk to him, he would only take food and would stay chained to the wall. One way in which we know this is when Herrick says to Danforth, “He sits like some great bird; you’d not know he’d lived except he will take some food from time to time.”And again when Herrick also says “He cannot, sir, he is chained to the wall now.” This is one of the biggest changes Proctor makes throughout the play. From the beginning we got the impression that John Proctor has always been well spoken and likes to have his views heard. Now we are seeing a completely different side to him by him staying silent. It is my personal opinion that Proctor is taking a stand against everything that has gone on in the town of Salem. He doesn’t think its right all these judges coming in and accusing people of witchcraft without enough evidence and believing story’s of little girls over people of superior like himself. He doesn’t think he should have to justify himself when he has done nothing wrong and while no one else has done anything wrong.
Later on this act Proctor decides to confess to accounts of witchcraft. While being addressed about this Proctor brakes down into tears and lowers himself for everyone to see. “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” This shows Proctors delicate side. He feels that he himself should confess to charges of witchcraft in effort to save everyone who has been up for it. This short monologue really hits you hard as a reader. You realise that Proctor isn’t all he is made out to be from the start. He is changed man by the end of the play. I think they writer of the play, Arthur Miller, wanted to produce a character who was tough on the outside yet very deep on insecure on the inside, and that is exactly what you see change throughout the course of the play. At the start he tries to make out that everyone in Salem fears him and that he is superior to everyone else, whereas he is just using this to cover up how insecure and fragile he is deep down.
I think that Proctor is one of the best and complex characters I have seen in a book. He has a lot of depth to him that you wouldn’t be able to tell from just a little section of the book. Right from the start to the end Proctor progressively changes for the better even thought at the end he sadly dies. He gives himself to the court to save others from the tragic fate that would have awaited them, and therefore I think that would make him a hero in the eyes of the people of Salem, putting himself forward for a fate he didn’t deserve but still took without complaint.
