The Crucible tells a story of the Salem Witch Trials, occurring in Salem, Massachusetts. It focuses on a puritan town housing many families. Some of these families have many daughters. This is where the relative twist to the story comes in. Many of these daughters are so bewildered by witchcraft and magic that they decide to dance in the forest, breaking a rule, and attempt to get other boys to like them by using magic/curses. The following events that followed revealed that the girls admitted to witchcraft but also blamed many other people they had vengeance towards in order to 'slip under the radar' and not hanged or put in prison. Somehow, John Proctor was brought into this situation by Abigail, the girl he had an affair with while he was married. Abigail blamed his wife of using a poppet or voodoo doll in order to do hurt Abigail however Mary Warren takes the blame for the poppet as she made it, but when she was being tried for witchcraft, she said that John Proctor threatened to murder her. John Proctor is then viewed as guilty. He is threatened with death. The only way that he would not hang is if he signed a paper saying that he was a witch. He would not do this however, as not to soil his good name. Because of this, John Proctor was hung. He was viewed as guilty and he paid the price of it.
John Proctor can be viewed as both a stooge or a hero. In my opinion, John Proctor was a Hero. He was one of the very few that did not admit to witchcraft, yet he had to be punished. Throughout the entire story, Proctor said everything he wanted to say, not hiding his feelings. When being faced by sudden death, Proctor kept his Puritan belief and did not lie about practicing witchcraft. However committing the sin of adultery, he tried to be the best Puritan he could be. Proctor knew he would lose his wife, his future child, his land, and his very good life if he didn't sign the admittance of witchcraft paper.
Proctor was a hero. He did not confess to witchcraft and he did not lie about others committing witchcraft. He was one of the few honest and good people that did not help the witch trials continue. This was one of the more significant and memorable things he did. He may have even helped put a stop to these trials in a way by showing the people of his community that you did not have to admit to witchcraft, and that you could die without staining your name.
He definitely took a stand- died without doing another wrong. His death had a great deal to do with the ending of the hangings. The deaths of JP and other respected people in Salem caused others to question the validity of the trials ultimately bring them to an end.
ReplyDeleteI didn't necessarily want to include this in my response due to my uncertainty of what actually occurred. I wasn't entirely convinced at the time that JP's death helped question the validity of the trials as there were certainly people prior to JP that declined signing a statement that said that they confessed to witchcraft. I wasn't sure that JP in particular helped end them, but thank you for clarifying that.
DeleteI really like your argument, we have a lot of the same points. I think that the absolute direness of the situation and the extreme consequences of his decision ("lose his wife, his future child, his land, and his very good life" as you said), made it just that much more heroic. He was really the only one in the town who put a stop to the trials by taking a risk. And that's what heroes do, they risk their well being for the greater good.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your opinion that John Proctor can either be a stooge or a hero, but leaning more to the hero side. And i also agree with your statement about how he could have possibly ended the trials by showing others that you should stand up for whats right even if that leads to your death. I believe he helped stop them also because he showed everyone kind of how ridiculous the witch trials actually were, and made them rethink what they were doing. You make some pretty valid points, good writing!!
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