He is not the traditional tragic hero because he is at no high stature. From the very beginning he crawls under the burden of his guilt. On the contrary of a tragic hero, Proctor, through the crucible of testing he finds his real stature (Otten 69). Porctor, however, is an example of Miller's definition of a tragic hero as " the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing, his sense of personal dignity" (Miller, tragedy 4). Proctor embodies this definition because his anger leads him to be free. He has the courage to reveal his anger at Salem and the courage to reveal his affair with Abigail when he tells judge Danforth that he is raising "a whore" over heaven ( II iv 110). His wrath at this evil Salem makes him believe that God has abandoned this place "I
He is not the traditional tragic hero because he is at no high stature. From the very beginning he crawls under the burden of his guilt. On the contrary of a tragic hero, Proctor, through the crucible of testing he finds his real stature (Otten 69). Porctor, however, is an example of Miller's definition of a tragic hero as " the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing, his sense of personal dignity" (Miller, tragedy 4). Proctor embodies this definition because his anger leads him to be free. He has the courage to reveal his anger at Salem and the courage to reveal his affair with Abigail when he tells judge Danforth that he is raising "a whore" over heaven ( II iv 110). His wrath at this evil Salem makes him believe that God has abandoned this place "I