The Crucible: John Proctor (Character Analysis Essay)

A villain is an antagonist who’s motives lead them to do evil, sometimes unknowingly. In The Crucible, John Proctor is the villain, and it is seen throughout the play. In fear of ruining his reputation, he didn’t sign a written confession saying he was an adulterer and a witch to protect himself and lots of other people. However, because of this he made himself the villain, and didn’t live up to the character everyone perceived him as. 

John Proctor became the villain of The Crucible, but a lot of it was unknowingly. When he had an affair with Abigail Williams, a 17 year old girl, he told his wife Elizabeth about it, but thought it would be better not to address it again. However, John Proctor was setting his wife up for danger without even knowing. Abigail fell in love with Proctor and wanted him all to herself. So this led Abigail to framing and accusing Elizabeth of witchcraft. Abigail was trying to get rid of Elizabeth in any way, and this was the quickest way to do that. Even though Proctor didn’t know his wife would be put in danger, he still committed a sin that was proved he was unfaithful to his wife.That shows that he is not the good man everyone thinks he is. So because of John Proctor having an affair with Abigail, he put his own wife in danger unknowingly. 

Another reason why John Proctor is the villain is because he could’ve stopped the witch trials sooner and stopped Abigail from acting like she does. If Proctor had confessed to adultery earlier, then he could’ve saved so many innocent lives that were taken because of Abigail. Instead, he made Mary Warren, a work girl, go against all of the girls and what they were saying. He made the case worse, and made it go longer than it really should’ve been. Since he was so afraid of ruining his reputation he didn’t want to confess anything, which made Abigail go further with her manipulation. John Proctor could have solved a lot but instead made one of his work girls go against her own friends to get rid of somebody he didn’t like. If he confessed sooner, the case would strayed stray away from the witch aspect of it, and direct the attention towards Abigail and Proctor. So now innocent people wouldn’t be questioned for something they didn’t do. Everyone sees John Proctor as a good man, but a good man wouldn’t let innocent lives be taken away, knowing it could’ve been stopped. 

All in all, John Proctor is the villain in The Crucible, and didn’t live up to the character everyone perceived him as. Proctor put his wife in danger by having an affair with Abigail. Even though he didn’t know that his wife would be in danger, he still proved to be unfaithful to her, when everyone saw him as a good man. He also knew that he could have stopped the witch trials sooner, and saved so many innocent lives. But since he was withholding the truth from everyone, Abigail started acting worse than she already does, and many people were hanged. He did all of this in fear of ruining his good reputation. He thought he was protecting everyone, but in reality he did the exact opposite. A villain can be led by evil motives, and sometimes it can be unknowingly, and John Proctor is a prime example of it.