Tylen Webb

9-12-10

Crucible Essay

Mrs. Baio

English 11 Honors

Individual vs. Society

Are you sick of reading stories about characters that only struggle with just the society or just with themselves personally? In the story, The Crucible, author Arthur Miller creates the character John Proctor who often found his self struggling with both crucial tests of society and severe individual trials. The character John Proctor struggles mostly with relentless society issues, however as the story of The Crucible develops he also encounters individual conflict which shapes his character throughout the story.

One of John Proctor’s first struggles with society was with his love for Abigail. During this era everything that was not of the bible was consider unholy and you’ll be accused of being a witch. If you are accused of being a witch the judge would sentence you too death or you will have to sign a contract which would ruin you and your family’s good name for eternity. John Proctor love for Abigail was a struggle with society because he did not want people to know about Abigail. John Proctor was married to Elizabeth Proctor and worked as a minister. He had an affair with Abigail the same time he was married and he did not want people to know about his affair because he did not want society to judge him on this unholy action which would destroy him and his family. While keeping this secret John Proctor wife was later accused of being a witch, however when the jury found she was pregnant they decided to spare her life until the baby was born. John loved his wife so he decided to take the focus off of his wife Elizabeth by admitting that he had an affair with Abigail. The society accused John of being a witch because this unlawful act of cheating on his wife was considered unholy and thus it took the focus off of his wife so she wouldn’t die. John was sentenced to jail until the jury could decide on what they would do with his life.

While John was in jail he still continued to struggle with society. He had an opportunity to escape from jail but he came to realize that the society outside of the jail walls was hell itself. He would rather die in jail knowing he was holy then living outside of the jail walls with people pretending like they were holy while doing unholy actions like falsely accusing innocent people and unjust killing.

Later John was struggling with himself individually when he was giving the opportunity to either live by signing a contract, Deputy