I have given you my soul. Leave me my name: What kind of character is John Procter?

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I have given you my soul. Leave me my name.

In my opinion Proctor is a very strong character. He is sure of himself and his opinions. He is an honest man with a very good reputation in Salem. He is a single-minded man and is not the very easily persuaded. He believes what he believes and sticks to his thoughts and principles. He is a sinner because he did have an affair with Abigail but h feels guilty about that. At the end of the play he is a brave man who is willing to die rather than to condemn his friends.

We are first introduced to Proctor in Act 1 and he seems like a man that you wouldn’t want to cross. We get this feeling from the description given of him-“ he was the kind of man powerful of body, even tempered and not easily led” and also “In Proctors presence a fool felt his foolishness instantly”. Both of these quotes make us feel weary about Proctor. It seems to me as if there is another side to Proctor that we have not yet seen. We can tell he is a very important and powerful character. He separates himself from the other characters in some ways like his strength and dignity.

As the act continues we find out that John Proctor had an affair with Abigail. This is a great sin especially in the time that the play is set and it makes it feels quite different because of the impression we get of Proctor. It makes it quite the opposite of what we have just found out about him. It makes us feel distant from Proctors character. He is a true man who is so such a strong character yet he has committed such a great sin. “Abby I may think of you softly from time to time, but I will cut off my hand before I ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of your mind, we never touched Abby”.

In this part of the play he seems quite nervous and doesn’t want to attract any attention to this behaviour of Abigail’s towards him. He’s ashamed and angered at what he has done and knows it is not what God would approve of. He wants to forget all about it but Abby is constantly reminding him about it. After Proctor says the quote which I have copied just above Abigail is very angry at being rejected by him. She fought he had stronger feelings towards her because of there affair an doesn’t like the idea of him rejecting her. She thought that it would be more than what it was and doesn’t like it when Proctor turns her away and rejects her. There is this quote from page 16 it is just a short description of Proctor.

He need not have been a partisan of any faction in the town, but there is evidence to suggest he had a sharp and biting way with hypocrites. He is a man not easily led- who cannot refuse support from partisans without drawing their deepest resentment.

As the Act continues we see a number of differences between Parris and Proctor. They are two different characters with different views and different beliefs. They also live their live sin different ways. There is a lot of tension between the two of them. Proctor doesn’t like the way Parris does things and is open about his negative opinion of the authority. He’s not afraid to let everyone know what he thinks of them and I think this is a brave way to live but some of the time his opinion is unnecessary and does not always need to be said.

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In Act 2 it starts with Proctor and his wife. His wife is Elizabeth and it is the first time we see Elizabeth. We get introduced to Elizabeth and we can see that Proctor has nothing but the utmost respect for her and he tries to be a good husband even though he has committed a great sin. It seems to me that Elizabeth feels she has to prove to Proctor that she is a good wife. I feel she knows that John wont commit the sin of adultery again but she blames herself her him doing it ...

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