The Crucible- Proctor’s Redemption

Proctor’s Redemption

Why does John Proctor identify most with the audience? This tragic hero experienced a three-staged internal struggle of unable to be redeemed from his sins, trying to wash away his sins, and figuring out how he could be ultimately redeemed from his sins. The whole story is a journey of the pursuit of forgiveness and redemption. Miller used strong appeals on the three stages of Proctor’s redemption in order to gain the reader’s heart. By establishing the stages of Proctor’s redemption, Miller successfully manipulated the reader into feeling sympathy for Proctor. Thus the author successfully injected his thoughts of the washing away of sins to the audience. So how can we dissolve our sins and be truly forgiven? The answer is in the play – redemption is an issue between men and God.

Like every tragic hero, John Proctor goes into this play with a fatal flaw – the adultery he committed with Abigail. Starting off with breaking one of the Ten Commandments, Proctor was unable to be redeemed in the beginning of the play because he was too focused on saving his good name in the community. This is why he tried to stay away from Abigail in order to hide his ugly secret. At this point, he values more on his reputation in the town but not in Heaven. An inner conflict was gradually composing inside Proctor – he realized that he could not live with his sin ruining his life and flogging his heart every second. Thus the character, in search of his redemption, turned to his wife and tried to ask for forgiveness.

Living in Salem, where “people had no ritual for the washing away of sins” (20), Proctor does not know how to get rid of his sin. First he tried to get his forgiveness from his wife, Elizabeth. Unfortunately, things did not work out well. When Proctor and Hale was talking about the Ten Commandments, Elizabeth sarcastically pointed out adultery, “Adultery, John” (67). Being another human with emotions, Elizabeth could not fully forgive him....