Character Analysis

1. I view John as one of the protagonist throughout the story. He is brought up in every seen and has played a huge role in this story so far. People view him as someone they look up to cause he is that caring guy and shows it later on in the act. In this point in the story I view him as dynamic character. John has two personalities. He changes characters from act one to act 2. He went from this nice guy who seemed laid back to this aggressive trying to figure out something type of guy. I can also classify John as a round character. He has more than one facet to his personality. Him changing from act one to act two classifies him as that round character. John has a key role in the this act, and it seems like everything is coming down on him and he tires his best to get out of the situation.


2. John Proctors personal qualities consist of him being an aggressive man, but he has that caring side as well. Throughout act one John was a calm and nice guy but when it got to act two things started to change for John. At the beginning, Johns wife Elizabeth kept bringing up Johns incident with Abby. I believe this started his aggressive side, because he was trying to put it in the past but she kept bring it up and he got frustrated  with her. All the arguing and lying make their relationship a bit shaky. As the trials continued, more and more people started to get accused of witchcraft. One name that came up was Elizabeth Proctor. John was furious and appalled that his wife's name came up. He did everything in his power to keep Elizabeth safe. When Mr. Cheever arrived to pick up Elizabeth, Johns aggressive side started to kick in again. He was screaming and fighting them off. He couldn't do much more than that. He said he would rather die than have Elizabeth rot in jail. This shows Elizabeth that he actually cares about her and would do anything and everything for her. John still has that caring side after what all has happened in the first two acts. All the things leading up to the incident where Elizabeth got taken away motivate Johns qualities.


3. The type of external conflict that John faces is man v.s. society. This is when the character is facing societal norms. There is this big epidemic going on about witchcraft and anybody could get accused at anytime. Your friend of 10 years could turn you in if they have any suspicion against you. This is complicating Johns life because his wife was accused by Abigail Williams. At any moment someone could be taken away from you. He cant really do too much about this either because once you get accused your either going to jail or getting hanged. He puts a fight at the end of act two to try and get Elizabeth to stay. The type of internal conflict that he faces is man v.s. himself. He is in sort of a predicament, his wife has been taken and he needs to find away to help her and fend for his children. Along with this he lies to his wife about going to Salem and going to see Abigail. I believe he will find away to fend for his children, but helping Elizabeth is a different story.