Characters in The Crucible Essay

The Crucible is a classic piece of literature written by Arthur Miller. The main goal of this book was to show how the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 compared to the Communist hunt in the '50s. Therefore, this book lacks historical accuracy and adds small details and changes to enhance the story. In The Crucible, the characters John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, and Reverend Hale are dynamic characters that undergo important and life-changing experiences.

John Proctor starts out as a quite, intelligent, charismatic man with secrets yet tries to keep his life under control. But underneath the sangfroid, he is hiding an affair with Abigail Williams and has a breaking relationship with his wife Elizabeth Proctor. As the vengeance throughout Salem becomes prominent, Proctor is forced to stop Abby in the tracks of her reign of terror, and says, "You are pulling down Heaven down and raising up a whore!" (Act III, p.120) He continues his path toward righteousness by admitting his faults and making sure others do the same. " you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud- God damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together!" (Act III, p.120) In the end, Proctor chooses to do what is right, not lie, and accept his punishment given by the ones who do not believe him even though he would pay with his life. "God knows how black my sins are! It is enough!" (Act IV, p.142)

Elizabeth Proctor starts out as a cold, hurt, unforgiving, and non-communicating wife who knows about her husband's affair. His decision hurts her self-esteem and makes her feel like she is not good enough. Towards the end of the book, she forgets her pride and self-esteem and joins John in the fight against vengeance and wrongful accusations. "It were a cold house I kept!" (Act IV, p.137) "I cannot judge you, John, I cannot!" (Act IV, p.138). When John decided not to carry out his full confession to save his life, Elizabeth knew he was right and simply said, "He have his goodness now, God forbid I take it from him!" (Act IV, p.145)

Reverend Hale is the third most prevalent character that undergoes change in The Crucible. Arthur Miller introduces him as a self-labeled intellectual in Act I, p.32,33." he felt the pride of the specialist whose unique knowledge has at last been publicly called for." (Act I, p.33) He was brought from Beverly to Salem to do one thing: find witches and reinforce accusations. But after he witnesses all the injustices and madness of the trials, he quits the court at the end of Act III. He knows about the lies that have been told and devotes himself to ridding people of their "pride, vanity!" (Act IV, p.145) by coming back and getting people to confess and save their lives. But he still tries to get the judges to change their minds through the following quotes: "It is a lie! They are innocent!", "Woman, before the laws of God we are swine! We cannot read His will!", "Life, woman, life is God's most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it let you, woman prevail upon your husband to confess less than he throws his life away for pride." (Act IV, p.132)

To boil down the character-related contents of The Crucible, three main characters go through prevalent changes. They go from cold, set-in-their-ways adults to warm, strong, righteous individuals. The mayhem of Salem in 1692 may cause one to turn harsh, cold, and drastically negatively different. But these three characters changed for the better. They were tested and all had to endure crucibles. A crucible is a vessel made to resist fire and also an extreme test. All characters except girls like Susanna Walcott and Mercy Lewis had to resist the 'fire' of Abigail and all accused had to either choose pride and hang because they were obviously innocent or choose life and falsely confess because they were obviously innocent. These crucibles can be applied to any play, movie, book, game, or life.