John Proctor Tragic Hero Essay
John Proctor: Tragic Hero or Pompous Malefactor?
According to Aristotle, a classic tragic hero must meet the following six criteria: nobility (of noble birth) or (wisdom by virtue of birth), hamartia (a flaw or error of judgment), peripeteia (a reversal of fortune, brought on by the hero’s hamartia), anagnorisis (the discovery or recognition that the reversal was brought about by the hero’s own actions), the audience must feel dramatic irony for the character, and the character’s fate must be greater than deserved.
The first aspect of Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero, nobility, is one where the hero is in a high social or political standing. John Proctor, however, is a farmer living outside of town with very little contact with those living in Salem Village. While the aspects of Proctor’s life negate Artistotle’s for requirement to be a “tragic hero”, Miller himself wrote an article entitles “Tragedy and the …show more content…
When he was faced with the decision- sign a false confession and save his own life to care for his family or allow himself to be executed, his decision to choose self-sacrifice allows him to both recover the sense of goodness that he lost when he committed with adultery with Abigail and also to rise above the tragedy of politics. However, by sacrificing himself, he left behind his family and everything he had worked toward. John had always seemed pretentious and extremely self-righteous to me, and I believe that is how he wanted to be known/remembered. The dramatics with signing the paper, but then ripping it? “Let me keep my name!” You still signed the paper and slept with Abigail, John, your name is already tarnished. Nobody in Salem is going to think of him as a “hero” because, for me, its low that John would rather be hanged and leave his family than be embarrassed and have his name hanging on the church door (which he claims to disagree with
According to Aristotle, a classic tragic hero must meet the following six criteria: nobility (of noble birth) or (wisdom by virtue of birth), hamartia (a flaw or error of judgment), peripeteia (a reversal of fortune, brought on by the hero’s hamartia), anagnorisis (the discovery or recognition that the reversal was brought about by the hero’s own actions), the audience must feel dramatic irony for the character, and the character’s fate must be greater than deserved.
The first aspect of Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero, nobility, is one where the hero is in a high social or political standing. John Proctor, however, is a farmer living outside of town with very little contact with those living in Salem Village. While the aspects of Proctor’s life negate Artistotle’s for requirement to be a “tragic hero”, Miller himself wrote an article entitles “Tragedy and the …show more content…
When he was faced with the decision- sign a false confession and save his own life to care for his family or allow himself to be executed, his decision to choose self-sacrifice allows him to both recover the sense of goodness that he lost when he committed with adultery with Abigail and also to rise above the tragedy of politics. However, by sacrificing himself, he left behind his family and everything he had worked toward. John had always seemed pretentious and extremely self-righteous to me, and I believe that is how he wanted to be known/remembered. The dramatics with signing the paper, but then ripping it? “Let me keep my name!” You still signed the paper and slept with Abigail, John, your name is already tarnished. Nobody in Salem is going to think of him as a “hero” because, for me, its low that John would rather be hanged and leave his family than be embarrassed and have his name hanging on the church door (which he claims to disagree with