Proctor And Conflicts

Introduction

The crucible covers a time in history in which witchcraft played a big part in people’s life. Theocracy reigns in The Crucible, along with conflicts, fear, betrayal and hysteria. John Proctor is a well- respected farmer who characterizes common-sense, honesty, dignity and loyalty. Unfortunately, John Proctor is only human and when we first meet him, we know he has fallen under the charms of his young maid Abigail and committed the crimes of adultery and lechery, which made him a hypocrite - with his crimes he betrayed his wife and lost his self-respect. Although John proctor is not really active in the first two acts of the play, by the third act he appears as the central character. As the third act develops he is up in arms as he wants his wife to be cleared of the false accusations she fell a victim of because of Abigail’s false allegations. He will actually regain his integrity as he falls into the core of the witch trial and sacrifices himself in order to save his wife, get his own redemption and try to save the town from hysteria and chaos that had been triggered by the witch hunt. Throughout the play Proctor experiences conflicts with many characters as well as inner conflict. The first conflict which is going to triggers hysteria and fear among the characters in Salem is his conflict with Abigail. Because of his betraying Elizabeth, he is also directly in conflict with her. Another conflict which Proctor experiences is with the authorities of Salem – mainly with Parris and Danforth who represents the (divine) law. For these reasons, John Proctor he is a central character in the play

As soon as we meet Proctor at the end the act one, we know that he has had an affair with Abigail, the young maid who used to serve the Proctor couple. As a result, Abigail, who is also the niece of Parris, was dismissed by Proctor’s wife Elizabeth.

Abigail, who is a manipulative young woman seeks revenge from Elizabeth and would like her to disappear from Proctor’s life so that she can take her place by Proctor’s side as his new wife. Proctor decides not to see her again: ‘Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time, but I will cut off my hand before I reach for you again.’

So at that stage, Proctor is in conflict with Abigail and also with his own wife whom he hurt deeply by deceiving her. As the couple has heard of several arrests relative to the witch hunt taking places in their town of Salem, Elizabeth who seems to know to what extent Abigail can go to seek revenge and gain a husband, urges Proctor to tell the court about Abigail having admitted to him that she had made up the witch story. Elizabeth senses Abigail will give her name to get rid of her. Proctor refuses to do so at the time as he prefers his reputation to remain unstained and fears his wife will have to face gossip .

He also experiences conflict with the authorities of the town – he challenges authority constantly during the play. We must not forget that Salem is governed by a theocracy; According to Parris, whoever contradicts a minister, contradicts God as well: ’there is either obedience or the church will burn in hell’ says Parris as Proctor refuses to believe in witchcraft. He and his wife are non-conformists who speak their mind. We also learn that they are not regular church-goers. They will be ready targets for those who use witch

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