John Proctor:Salem's Redeemer
Christopher Bigsby asserts in his introduction to The Crucible: " A climatic scene....comes when John Proctor,on the point of trading his integrity for his life,finally refuses to pay the price,which is to offer the names of others to buy his life." (Pg.xiii). Thus The Crucible is the story of one man's sacrifice to save his community from the deterioration of its social structure which brings about the murders of many innocent people. The Crucible, Arthur Miller's depiction of the Salem witch trials, deals with a tight-knit, church-loving community that must overcome hysteria and hidden agendas that break down its social structure. One man , John Proctor, must protect himself and his wife against the accusations of a young woman with whom he has made a mistake. Proctor must fight the irrationality and madness created by this young woman and her followers by choosing between saving himself or saving his community. How does Proctor find himself in this predicament? There ar!e many theories of why the trials come about: the girls' suppressed childhoo
m he refuses to accuse. In this way, Proctor saves the community from the continued irrationality and madness of the witch hunts. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From a historical viewpoint, young girls in Colonial Massachusetts are given little or no freedom to act like children. To rebel, they dance in the woods, listen to the tales of slaves, and pretend other villagers are bewitching them. Although he would like to deny his family's involvement in forbidden activities, Reverend Paris cannot because he sees his own family involved in the forbidden. Paris asks, "And what shall I say to them? That my daughter and my niece I discovered dancing like heathen in the forest?" (Pg. 9) Getting caught doing the forbidden, the children lie in an attempt to protect themselves and their families from embarrassment. They have a choice to make when they are caught: take a whipping or make up a tale of being bewitched. They claim the devil took them over and influenced them to dance. ds, the secret grudges that the neighbors hold against each other, and Abigail Williams' affair with John Proctor. One of
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Approximate Word count = 778
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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