wife is shown when the Court officials come to take Elizabeth away. Proctor is so infuriated by
this assault on his house that he rips the warrant and tells them to leave rather forcefully saying,
“Damn the Deputy Governor! Out of my house!”(77), demonstrating his intense love for his
wife. Proctor shows signs of being a tragic hero when he attempts to go into court to save his
wife and prove the girls liars. However, he ends up being accused himself. Mary Warren is in
court testifying when she suddenly breaks down “ hysterically, pointing at Proctor, fearful of
him: My name, he want my name. ‘I’ll murder you,’ he says, ‘if my wife hands! We must go and
over throw the court,’ he says”... “ [Proctor] wake me every night, his eyes were like coals and
his fingers claw my neck and I sign, I sign…”(119). Thus John Proctor fails in trying to rescue
his wife from the clutches of the false accusers; instead he falls prey to them.
Proctor establishes that the children are lying in court with respect to their accusations of the
townspeople. Proctor first learns of this through his household servant, Mary Warren who is one
of the accusers. Proctor deducts from the events that Mary Warren and Abigail, the lead
conspirator, are in cahoots in trying to kill Proctor’s wife by accusing her of witchcraft. They
come up with the idea of what is basically a voodoo doll that Mary Warren constructs in court
and gives to Elizabeth. When Marry Warren is summoned to the room where all the commotion
is and is asked if she has any knowledge of the doll and conjuring she says “Conjures me? Why,
no, sir, I am entirely myself, I think. Let you ask Susanna Walcott—she saw me sewin’ it in
court. Or better still: Ask Abby, Abby sat beside me when I made it” (76). Proctor puts two and
two together and deduces that it is all a hoax. Proctor decides to go to court and expose the girls.
Tragically they turn on him and he is accused of being the chief devil helper (114-120). Once
again, Proctor tries to do well but is falsely accused and is represented as a tragic hero.
Proctor denies being a witch until the day of his death. He comes close to confessing to
witchcraft but realises that it disgraces his good name and it’s all that he will leave his children.
Proctor says, “ I have three children—how may I teach them to walk like men in the world”
when he has sold his friends and his good name (143). Proctor also explains to the judge
“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”(143)! With this plea Proctor dashes all
hopes of living and has established himself as a tragic hero.
It is evident, that John Proctor is the tragic hero. This is demonstrated by his relentless crusade to
free his wife; expose the children as frauds, and not confessing to witchcraft. Arthur Miller
chooses John Proctor to be the tragic hero of the story because Proctor had so much too lose.