How does Miller establish Proctor as an admirable character?

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How does Miller establish Proctor as an admirable character?

During the play, there are many things revealed about the character of John Proctor. It appears, overall, that he is admirable, as the question suggests, but Proctor displays a good deal of qualities and shows signs of weakness and anger. He seems a very passionate man, though occasionally his admirable actions could be misinterpreted as him being stubborn. For example at the end of the play when, Proctor refuses to sign his confession.

Arthur miller creates depth in Proctor’s character by building him up slowly. When Proctor first appears in the play the words he speaks are foreboding, therefore making him seem an unpleasant character. Though as a result of the actions throughout the course of the rest of the play his admirability slowly increases and towards the end, he is almost the play’s tragic hero.

Proctor makes many mistakes in the play, the most evident of them being his affair with Abigail Williams, the niece of reverend Parris and the former servant of the Proctor household. In the play John’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor, dismissed Abigail, when John confessed his affair. In act two John and Elizabeth are arguing, when John cries

“No more…Let you look sometimes for the goodness in me, and judge me not.”

I think Proctor is to be admired for the way in which he handles this argument, and his responses to what his wife says. He is encouraging her to see the good in him, and therefore the audience searches for it as well. Proctor also reminds Elizabeth that no one is perfect and admits that this was a mistake. He tells her

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“…I wilted, and, like a Christian, I confessed…”

Proctor shows he had the courage to tell Elizabeth and he was willing to accept the consequences of his actions. Proctor’s bravery in admitting his affair is admirable, though in the seventeenth century, when the play is set, adultery was a much more serious crime. People were a great deal more religious and, breaking one of the Ten Commandments would be punished more heavily than it is nowadays. Therefore a modern day audience would view this from a much different, less judgmental perspective than the seventeenth century characters of the play.

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