Tragic Triumph Essay, Research Paper

It barely takes a spoting oculus to recognize that life does non dwell of fairy tale terminations.

That fact is all excessively evident in Arthur Miller s The Crucible, a work which has been labeled a

calamity by many critics. Robert Heilman defines a calamity as a work of literature in which a

character divided within the ego makes picks, bears the effects of those picks, additions a

new consciousness, and suffers triumph in licking. As you will see, John Proctor is a perfect

supporter.

The chief pick which Proctor must do is simple plenty to acknowledge: prevarication about his

engagement in witchery or proclaim his artlessness and be hanged ; nevertheless, the existent procedure

of doing this determination is non as easy. Proctor vacillates between dishonesty and the upholding

of society s and his ain ethical motives. In Act IV, anxiousness permeates the air as Proctor puts his name

on the confession ; but someplace between the quill and the ether of the calamity, Proctor

has a alteration of bosom. I believe that the precise point at which he realizes the exigency of the

state of affairs is when he emits the soul-wrenching call, You will non utilize me! ( 142 ) . And so, with

these words, the first proviso of a calamity is furnished.

Miller spares us the full reverberations of Proctor s determination by stoping the drama before the

hangings. Still, it is apparent what the effect of Proctor s insistent clasp on unity will be:

decease. I find it much more fitting that Miller excludes the most derogative portion of the drama and

alternatively instills in our heads the positive side. Elizabeth workss the seed of this idea when she

proclaims of John, He hold his goodness now ( 143 ) . This statement creates perfect balance in

the conc

lusion of the drama, leting the reader to see the full psychological weight of the

Salem Witch Trials while allowing the presentation of the optimist s point of view.

Before his ill-timed decease, Proctor additions an consciousness of life possible merely to those who

keep it in deficient custodies and detect it sifting through their fingers like the Sands of Time.

His epiphany occurs merely after the devastation of the confession, when all havoc interruptions free. In

many prior cases throughout the drama Proctor s unity had been alluded to, although the

contamination of lechery prevented any verification of our intuitions. Proctor eventually admits it both to

us and to himself in stating, I do believe I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor ( 144 ) .

Although it is unsure whether characters such as Hale of all time reached this same point of

consciousness, it is promoting to cognize that Miller s end in uncovering his chief subject can be met

if our society will mind the clarion of truth.

The concluding demand of a calamity is that Proctor suffer triumph in licking. By Danforth s

footings, Proctor did so fail and was considered vanquished until the twentieth century, when

Massachusetts tribunals rescinded the exclusion and not guilty Proctor and the others. As a

consequence, triumph is achieved in the apogee of Proctor s unity, where he everlastingly engraves in

the universe s mind the award of committedness, a value which will everlastingly be baronial.

It appears the critics were right: The Crucible is a calamity. But the singularity of the drama

is what captured my bosom. In fact, I can non believe of a more appropriate consequence of a calamity than

this: that an improbable hero is found in an unworthy adult male. This traveling possibility restores my

religion in present twenty-four hours champions.