John Proctor
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John Proctor (1632 – 1692) was a Puritan who was victimized during the Salem Witch Trials.
John Proctor was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts where he and his father before worked a farm. In 1666 John moved to Salem, Massachusetts where he worked as hired labor on a farm. He later bought a portion of the land. Proctor was tall, and outspoken in his opinions. During the witchcraft hysteria he denounced the whole proceedings and the afflicted girls as a scam. When his wife was accused and questioned, he stood by her and defended her innocence. It was during her questioning that he was named a witch. Proctor was the first man to be named as a witch. Later all of his children would be accused. His wife Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's sister and sister-in-law, were also accused of witchcraft. Elizabeth was tried and sentenced to death, but the execution was delayed until she gave birth. Mary Warren, the twenty-year-old maid servant in the Proctor house, who herself would later be named as a witch, accused Proctor of practicing witchcraft. Proctor was tried on August 5, 1692 and hanged on the August 19, 1692. While in prison on July 23, 1692, Proctor wrote a letter to the clergy of Boston, who were known to be uneasy with the witchcraft proceedings. In his letter he asked them to intervene to either have the trials moved to Boston or have new judges appointed. After the trial and execution of Rebecca Nurse, the prospects of those still in prison waiting trial were grim. If a person with a reputation as untarnished as hers could be executed, there was little hope for any of the other accused, which is why Proctor made his request. With the present judges, who were already convinced of guilt, the trial would just be a formality. In response to Proctor's letter, in which he describes certain torture that was used to elicit confessions, eight ministers, including Increase Mather, met at Cambridge, Massachusetts on August 1, 1692. No records survive of the meeting, but when they emerged, they had drastically changed their position on spectral evidence. The ministers decided in the meeting that the Devil could take on the form of innocent people. Unfortunately for Proctor, their decision would not have widespread impact until after his execution.
Proctor pleaded at his execution for a little respite of time. He claimed he was not fit to die. His plea was, of course, unsuccessful. In seventeenth-century society, it would not have been uncommon for a man so violently tempered as Proctor to feel that he had not yet made peace with his fellow man or his God. In addition, it is thought that he died inadequately reconciled to his wife, since he left her out of the will that he drew up in prison. Proctor's family was given 150 pounds in 1711 for his execution and his wife's imprisonment.
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Fiction
In The Crucible, John Proctor was engaged in an affair with Abigail Williams, a servant to the Proctors. Elizabeth (his wife) had cast Abigail out of their household when she found out about John's lustful relations with her. The townspeople do not know of this relationship until later in the play. This relationship between John Proctor and Abigail causes Proctor many times in the play to hesitate taking action in clearing the good names of the many townspeople that Abigail pointed to as diciples of the Devil. He knew the truth from the start, but chose to remain silent to try and protect his own good name. When Abigail tried to send Elizabeth to the gallows by claiming she was possessed by the Devil, John brought one of the girls, Mary Warren, to testify against Abigail.
The situation was not advantageous for him during the trial, as the court was awe-struck by Abigail's performance. In a moment of desperation, John confessed to having relations with Abigail, in order to give the court an explanation as to why Abigail was accusing Elizabeth of witchcraft. This confession thus casted away his good reputation forever. Abigail denied the claim, and so Elizabeth Proctor was called in to testify. Trying to protect her husband's name, as well as convincing herself that her husband's actions were her fault, she did not confess to her husband's acts of lechery.
Reverend John Hale, as a court official, described Elizabeth's words as a "natural lie," and that Abigail and her supporting friends were truly lying. However, Abigail then pretended to be afflicted by Mary Warren. Judge Danforth was convinced by this act, and when Mary Warren saw no way out, she, in a last ditch effort, blamed John Proctor, calling him the devil's man.
John was then convicted of witchcraft. Not being able to control his anger, John cried out, "I say God is Dead!". This of course adds as a detriment to the already egregious outcome. After being detained in prison, he is given the opportunity to sign a confession stating that he made a pact with the Devil. By signing, he would be free to walk and live normally with his wife. By refusing, he would be hanged. Reverend Hale encourages him to lie and sign the confession as guidance to other victims, so that less victims would follow the several that have already been hanged due to Abigail's drama. He signed the confession so as not to hang. However, as Judge Danforth tells Proctor that the confession will be nailed to the church doors for others to see, he refused to let the paper be shown to the public, since doing so would tarnish his name further. As the climax of the final Act (Act IV), he tears up the confession after Judge Danforth's ultimatum. Therefore, he is carted to the gallows and is hanged, because he refused to lie for his life. John realized that had he lied, then he would have desecrated the brave, truthful lives that have already been extinguished.
Although the confession he wrote to the judges would help out many other souls, it would be too late for him. The only reason that his wife wasn't killed was because she was thought to be bearing a child. Reverend Hale points out that the innocent child can not be killed, so Elizabeth would have to live and give birth before being executed. She was later let go, freed, and eventually remarried to another man.
To make the relationship scenario in The Crucible more realistic, the fictional John Proctor's age was reduced to 30 from 60 years old, and Abigail was raised to 17 from 11. Failure to change this may have resulted in less sympathy for Proctor as the tragic hero since readers might be distracted by the mental image of a pedophile. It is a popular consensus among readers of The Crucible that the real John Proctor would never have engaged in a relationship with Abigail Williams, due to the age difference.
Proctor and Arthur Miller
A loose comparison to the character of the fictional John Proctor and Arthur Miller himself can be drawn. On May 31, 1957, Miller was found guilty of contempt of Congress for refusing to reveal the names of members of a literary circle suspected of Communist affiliation. Like John Proctor and witchcraft, Miller refused to acquiesce to the irrational fear of Communism during an age of McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare. This is especially notable because many of Miller's peers chose to disclose the names of their associates under pressure from the House Un-American Activities Committee. His conviction was reversed on August 8, 1958 by the U.S. Court of Appeals.
See also
- Arthur Miller, author of The Crucible
- The Crucible