Seth Zamora

Mrs. Claycomb

English 11

May 2nd, 2013

The Crucible

Tragic hero and tragic flaw

In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible there is two tragic heroes, John Proctor and Reverend Hale.

John Proctor is one of the tragic hero’s because of his protectiveness and care for his wife. He wants to

please his wife which shows that he cares for her. When Elizabeth is arrested and Proctor is in the court,

he confesses to his lechery with Abigail in order to save his wife. There is also proof of his protectiveness

over Elizabeth.

Reverend Hale is the other tragic hero because of his compassion. When Abigail accuses Tituba

of witchcraft, Reverend Parris began beating her. Hale stops him and offers Tituba salvation with God.

Another example of his compassion is when he goes to the houses of each of the people accused or

mentioned in court to get a rational understanding of them. Like Procter, Hale is a rational thinker. He

tries to ask as many questions as possible in order to get the whole truth. He is also well-educated

person, as shown by the many books he brings with him to Salem.

One of the major tragic flaws John Proctor possesses is his pride. In certain occurrences in the

play, Proctor does what is right to keep his pride but also to keep his conscience free of guilt. Proctor

does this when he confesses to the court lechery with Abigail. However, nearing the end of the play, it

seems Proctor is fiving up on his pride and confesses to witchcraft. But he regains his self-esteem by

admitting to lying about witchcraft, and then he ripped the paper on which he’d written his testimony.

Proctor learned that if he lied of told the truth, his pride or his life would be at risk.

Reverend Hale’s major tragic flaw is his rational thinking. Hale is a religious man, yet he always

analyzed his thinking. When he believes there is something other than religion that is a cause for all the

events in the play, he tries to get to the bottom of it. Also in the play, Hale’s ideas contradict the ideas of

the court, so this made the court question Hale’s authority. Hale began to be fed up with this and quit

the court. Hale learned that sometimes rationality doesn’t over come religious thinking.

Proctor’s big enlightenment is that he cannot be saved by lying. If he lies about being a witch,

then his name would be “blackened.” If he said he wasn’t a witch, he would be hung because of the

court’s disbelief. Another example John Proctor cannot lie would be his lechery. When his wife lies for

Proctor to save his name, she ended up risking his life. However, if she did say Abigail was a harlot then

Proctor’s and his wife’s life would’ve been spared, but not his name. Proctor realizes that either way he

could not be saved because of his arrogant pride.

Hale’s big enlightenment is that rationality doesn’t always win. Even when he himself tries to

make sense of the events that are happening, the courts wrote his efforts off to lack of experience. Also,

when Hale rationalizes the “witchcraft” cases, he begins to get attacked by Abigail, who says his wife

attacked her. From this he realizes that rationality might be at risk if religion is strong with the people.