How_Does_Miller_Present_the_Character_of_John_Proctor_in_the_Crucible_

Proctor is a man in his own world; two women of very different personalities at his peril but potentially this could be the recipe for disaster. He has his hard working and honest wife Elizabeth at home, but she does not offer him the sexual needs and energy of life that young Abigail does. Abigail is a girl who has fallen for Proctor and will do anything to get her man. This is what Proctor wants as Abigail’s character is one of a young women who will cater for him and provide everything he wants but morally, she is broken. Members of the audience, most likely of the male sex will empathise with Proctor as they will understand the temptation that Proctor is going through. Proctor means no harm but the pull of Abigail is just too hard to resist. In this part of history in Salem this would be totally unacceptable as it was an extremely religious community. As you can see Proctor is skating on thin ice and sooner or later these two relationships could bring significant consequences. Act one is a great way to show us Proctor’s real character. It shows us a great deal about him in such a short space of time. Miller writes to make our own judgement of Proctor. ‘What’s this mischief here'’ shows us an audience that Proctor does not like to admit to his own mistakes and will do anything to forget about his and Abigail’s long term affair. It could also be looked at in a different way. Proctor could be asking what has been happening in Salem lately as he had not been off his farm for 7 months. This indicates to us that Proctor is trying his utmost to forget about Abigail as he is trying to regain loyalty for his wife, Elizabeth. Abigail replies to this ‘nervously’ this shows that Abigail has a certain degree of respect for Proctor as she most likely thinks that he will be able to catch her out. This shows us as an audience that Proctor is a man who Is well respected and is a natural leader who is held in high regard by his community. Many people in the audience will now be convinced that something has now gone on between them due to their body language. ‘Winningly she comes a little closer, with a confidential wicked air’. From the word ‘confidential’ interprets that something is being hidden and is wanted to be kept that way which is very true in this case as Abigail does not want anybody to find out about the ‘witchcraft’ that’s she has had a major involvement in. Abigail is doing everything she can to try and tempt Proctor but Proctor is trying to do everything he can to ignore Abigail’s taunts and tricks. ‘Setting her firmly out of his path’ Miller writes like this to show us that Proctor does have some goodness in his character and does have the will to fight the temptation. He has started to realise that he has a wife and kids at home and what he has done is beyond wrong. Proctor then realises that he may have been too harsh on her and ‘gently presses her from him, with great sympathy but firmly’. This shows us as an audience that Proctor has a lighter side to his character and although he is not impressed by Abigail’s antics he does feel for her and her depressing past. In general at the end of the first act the audiences perspective of Proctor is of somebody who has realised that his family is more important than a little stupid affair that will never go anywhere and he is somebody that is trying his hardest to resist the temptation of a young a beautiful Abigail. In Act two Proctor is having a conversation with hi wife. Proctor and his wife have not had the best of relationships as Elizabeth is a typical 17th century wife who just does the cooking and washing and Proctor is not satisfied by her doings. Proctor creeps around as if everything is fine in their relationship but really to him nothing has lightened his life up since Abigail. ‘ He is not quite pleased. He reaches to a cupboard, takes a pinch of salt, and drops it into the pot’. This shows us that Miller is still trying to show us the real person that Proctor is. Miller is trying to show us that after a while marraiges can fall to pieces if not dealt with properly. Proctor and Eliabeth used to be a very happy couple but since Proctor has gone to Abigail he has been a changed mum who is not interested in his family anymore. Even his own children haven’t make him rethink his strategy of life. Proctor and his wife Elizabeth have been together for a long time but the loyalty and trust that was once there seems to have faded. Miller is creating an atmosphere to show that Proctor is a man with too many distractions in his head. It always seems just as something finishes happening another problem comes along e.g. from the affair with Abigail to the witchcraft in Salem. When Elizabeth asks Proctor how the food is he says’ Its well seasoned’ this is an invalid comment because he was the person who added more salt to the dish. Proctor has told so many lies that Elizabeth and us as an audience can never ever really trust him again. This backs up many of the previous examples of Proctors discontenet for Elizabeth. Elizabeth also asks John if he was alone with Abigail. John ’stubbornly’ says ’for a moment alone, aye’. The wors ’stubbornly’ shows us as an audience that he is reluctant to let Elizabeth know that they were alone. One of the reasons is that Elizabeth has already voiced her concern about the influence of young Abigail on John. We can see that this is quite true as she sacked Abigail from her job as their house maid. At this point in the play you can see that Proctor has pretty much gone from being a family man who cared about his wife and two sons, to a cheating liar who is discontenet with everything that Elizabeth has to offer. But there does become a point in act two where Proctor does become angry at Elizabeth for judging him. ’Let you look your own improvement before you go to judge your husband anymore’. This shows us that Proctor has lost his patience with Elizabeth and does not feel she is the angel that she is making out to be. At this point in society a lot of things Proctor had been doing would have been frowned upon and if he was found out would get a very harsh jail sentence. Finally in Act Four Miller presents Proctor in a very different way. This is a man who normally got what he wanted when he wanted it but the tables have turned in this act. Proctor is now a man who has gone from a good man in the community to a man ripped between many dilemmas. Elizabeth is now being pulled into the whole controversy and things are starting to get out of hand. Miller presents Proctor as a little boy now having lost grip of his mothers hand. Proctor can not do anything but make a decision on what is more important his name or his life and family.If I was in this situation I would certainly choose life but Proctor feels otherwise. When John is talking to Elizabeth about life in general due to the fact that they had been separated John found out that Giles had died. John responds to this in a very upset reaction. ‘He looks at her incredulously’ John can not believe that they had killed one of the trialists. This shows a change in John’s character as now he is more sympathetic than earlier in the play. John realises that he is the cause of Giles death and is mentally disabled and all over the place at this point. In respect of society at the time things would have still been bad as he was most likely going to get hanged as he had admitted to witchcraft. Nowdays many people go through middle aged crisis and the idea im getting is that Proctor is currently going through this. Proctor is now a man with dirt all over his name. In my opinion his name is already bad enough so why put yourself through unnecessary pain.