Is John Proctor a fool or a hero?

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Sudharshine Anandaraja

 Is John Proctor a fool or a hero?        

The crucible (by Arthur Miller), is a powerful play of passion, jealousy, paranoia and betrayal. It revolves around a Salem, a place in Massachusetts in 1962 where a small puritan town collapses because of a group of girls and their “devils work”. Towards the end, more and more innocent people are accused of witchery and have to be hanged at the end. This is one of the best plays in the twentieth century.

The central character of ‘The Crucible’ poses an interesting problem. He appears to contain all the elements of a good man, and yet makes a mystifying decision at the end of the play, the mystifying decision of whether he should keep his good name and his reputation so he can pass it to his son, or the decision to lie to the world to live and be called a coward later.

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John Proctor has a strong characteristic of a good man, he is strong willed, strong hearted and not ‘fools’ as many puritans in Salem, where they believe that devil had come to get them. John is also a religious man, but he never lets himself to believe in superstition, he is a good man that keeps his words and care for his beloved family and follow what god has told him to do.

Arthur Miller set him up to be a hero in the prose section where we are first introduced to him, he is portrayed as ...

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