Of all the characters in the Crucible, John Proctor is perhaps the most admirable. He has strong personal principles and the courage to stand by them.

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                      Crucible Character Study

(Question 1)

Of all the characters in the Crucible, John Proctor is perhaps the most admirable. He has strong personal principles and the courage to stand by them.

    Proctor strives to do what is right. He tries very hard to please Elizabeth because his affair with Abigail Williams has left him with a guilty conscience. In Act 2, he compliments Elizabeth’s rabbit stew, even though much of it is his own work. “ It’s well seasoned, ” he says.

   He labors constantly, for her well being, believing that this will make their relationship successful. Proctors first appearance, in Act 1, is his arrival from chopping wood in the forest. During much of Act 1 he is working. For example, he returns from a hunting trip and from planting seeds in his garden, on a cold winters day.

   Proctor believes in discipline and can be very strict if he needs to. As is illustrated in Act 2. Mary Warren disobeys him and goes to the Salem trials as an official. On her return, he scolds her shouting, ”I’ll official you…I’ll whip the devil out of you!”

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   He is against the trials, perhaps because he was never a strong Christian. In Act 2 he is told to recite the Ten Commandments. He starts, “Thou shalt not steal… covet thy neighbours goods…make unto thee any graven image…bear false witness…make unto thee any graven image.” finally stuttering and failing.

   We get an insight to his values in Act 2, when he shows his disapproval of the Salem Witch trials, saying: “It’s a strange work…to hang old women”. This is further illustrated, later in the same act, when his wife, Elizabeth, learns that she is accused of witchcraft. ...

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