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    Analysis of Major Characters

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    Muhammad Irfan
    The document provides an analysis of three major characters from The Crucible: 1) John Proctor is portrayed as the tragic hero, who has an affair with Abigail Williams that sets the witch trials in motion. He refuses to give a false confession at the end to preserve his integrity. 2) Abigail Williams is presented as the primary villain who manipulates the townspeople out of jealousy over Proctor. 3) Reverend Hale initially leads the witch trials but has a change of heart when he realizes the trials have become unjust. However, his attempts to stop the trials are too late.

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    Analysis of Major Characters

    Uploaded by

    Muhammad Irfan
    20 views2 pages
    The document provides an analysis of three major characters from The Crucible: 1) John Proctor is portrayed as the tragic hero, who has an affair with Abigail Williams that sets the witch trials in motion. He refuses to give a false confession at the end to preserve his integrity. 2) Abigail Williams is presented as the primary villain who manipulates the townspeople out of jealousy over Proctor. 3) Reverend Hale initially leads the witch trials but has a change of heart when he realizes the trials have become unjust. However, his attempts to stop the trials are too late.

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    The document provides an analysis of three major characters from The Crucible: 1) John Proctor is portrayed as the tragic hero, who has an affair with Abigail Williams that sets the witch trials in motion. He refuses to give a false confession at the end to preserve his integrity. 2) Abigail Williams is presented as the primary villain who manipulates the townspeople out of jealousy over Proctor. 3) Reverend Hale initially leads the witch trials but has a change of heart when he realizes the trials have become unjust. However, his attempts to stop the trials are too late.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    20 views2 pages

    Analysis of Major Characters

    Uploaded by

    Muhammad Irfan
    The document provides an analysis of three major characters from The Crucible: 1) John Proctor is portrayed as the tragic hero, who has an affair with Abigail Williams that sets the witch trials in motion. He refuses to give a false confession at the end to preserve his integrity. 2) Abigail Williams is presented as the primary villain who manipulates the townspeople out of jealousy over Proctor. 3) Reverend Hale initially leads the witch trials but has a change of heart when he realizes the trials have become unjust. However, his attempts to stop the trials are too late.

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    Analysis of Major Characters

    John Proctor
    In a sense, The Crucible has the structure of a classical tragedy, with John Proctor as the
    plays tragic hero. Honest, upright, and blunt-spoken, Proctor is a good man, but one with
    a secret, fatal flaw. His lust for Abigail illiams led to their affair !which occurs before
    the play begins", and created Abigails #ealousy of his wife, $li%abeth, which sets the
    entire witch hysteria in motion. &nce the trials begin, Proctor reali%es that he can stop
    Abigails rampage through 'alem but only if he confesses to his adultery. 'uch an
    admission would ruin his good name, and Proctor is, abo(e all, a proud man who places
    great emphasis on his reputation. He e(entually makes an attempt, through )ary
    arrens testimony, to name Abigail as a fraud without re(ealing the crucial information.
    hen this attempt fails, he finally bursts out with a confession, calling Abigail a *whore+
    and proclaiming his guilt publicly. &nly then does he reali%e that it is too late, that
    matters ha(e gone too far, and that not e(en the truth can break the powerful fren%y that
    he has allowed Abigail to whip up. Proctors confession succeeds only in leading to his
    arrest and con(iction as a witch, and though he lambastes the court and its proceedings,
    he is also aware of his terrible role in allowing this fer(or to grow unchecked.
    Proctor redeems himself and pro(ides a final denunciation of the witch trials in his final
    act. &ffered the opportunity to make a public confession of his guilt and li(e, he almost
    succumbs, e(en signing a written confession. His immense pride and fear of public
    opinion compelled him to withhold his adultery from the court, but by the end of the play
    he is more concerned with his personal integrity than his public reputation. He still wants
    to sa(e his name, but for personal and religious, rather than public, reasons. Proctors
    refusal to pro(ide a false confession is a true religious and personal stand. 'uch a
    confession would dishonor his fellow prisoners, who are bra(e enough to die as
    testimony to the truth. Perhaps more rele(antly, a false admission would also dishonor
    him, staining not #ust his public reputation, but also his soul. ,y refusing to gi(e up his
    personal integrity Proctor implicitly proclaims his con(iction that such integrity will
    bring him to hea(en. He goes to the gallows redeemed for his earlier sins. As $li%abeth
    says to end the play, responding to Hales plea that she con(ince Proctor to publicly
    confess- *He ha(e his goodness now. .od forbid I take it from him/+
    Abigail Williams
    &f the ma#or characters, Abigail is the least comple0. 'he is clearly the (illain of the play,
    more so than Parris or 1anforth- she tells lies, manipulates her friends and the entire
    town, and e(entually sends nineteen innocent people to their deaths. 2hroughout the
    hysteria, Abigails moti(ations ne(er seem more comple0 than simple #ealousy and a
    desire to ha(e re(enge on $li%abeth Proctor. 2he language of the play is almost biblical,
    and Abigail seems like a biblical character3a Je%ebel figure, dri(en only by se0ual desire
    and a lust for power. 4e(ertheless, it is worth pointing out a few background details that,
    though they dont mitigate Abigails guilt, make her actions more understandable.
    Abigail is an orphan and an unmarried girl5 she thus occupies a low rung on the Puritan
    'alem social ladder !the only people below her are the sla(es, like 2ituba, and social
    outcasts". 6or young girls in 'alem, the minister and the other male adults are .ods
    earthly representati(es, their authority deri(ed from on high. 2he trials, then, in which the
    girls are allowed to act as though they ha(e a direct connection to .od, empower the
    pre(iously powerless Abigail. &nce shunned and scorned by the respectable townsfolk
    who had heard rumors of her affair with John Proctor, Abigail now finds that she has
    clout, and she takes full ad(antage of it. A mere accusation from one of Abigails troop is
    enough to incarcerate and con(ict e(en the most well-respected inhabitant of 'alem.
    hereas others once reproached her for her adultery, she now has the opportunity to
    accuse them of the worst sin of all- de(il-worship.
    Reverend Hale
    John Hale, the intellectual, na7(e witch-hunter, enters the play in Act I when Parris
    summons him to e0amine his daughter, ,etty. In an e0tended commentary on Hale in Act
    I, )iller describes him as *a tight-skinned, eager-eyed intellectual. 2his is a belo(ed
    errand for him5 on being called here to ascertain witchcraft he has felt the pride of the
    specialist whose uni8ue knowledge has at last been publicly called for.+ Hale enters in a
    flurry of acti(ity, carrying large books and pro#ecting an air of great knowledge. In the
    early going, he is the force behind the witch trials, probing for confessions and
    encouraging people to testify. &(er the course of the play, howe(er, he e0periences a
    transformation, one more remarkable than that of any other character. 9istening to John
    Proctor and )ary arren, he becomes con(inced that they, not Abigail, are telling the
    truth. In the climactic scene in the court in Act III, he throws his lot in with those
    opposing the witch trials. In tragic fashion, his about-face comes too late3the trials are
    no longer in his hands but rather in those of 1anforth and the theocracy, which has no
    interest in seeing its proceedings e0posed as a sham.
    2he failure of his attempts to turn the tide renders the once-confident Hale a broken man.
    As his belief in witchcraft falters, so does his faith in the law. In Act I:, it is he who
    counsels the accused witches to lie, to confess their supposed sins in order to sa(e their
    own li(es. In his change of heart and subse8uent despair, Hale gains the audiences
    sympathy but not its respect, since he lacks the moral fiber of ;ebecca 4urse or, as it
    turns out, John Proctor. Although Hale recogni%es the e(il of the witch trials, his response
    is not defiance but surrender. He insists that sur(i(al is the highest good, e(en if it means
    accommodating oneself to in#ustice3something that the truly heroic characters can ne(er
    accept.

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