Although he has his weaknesses, John Proctor also has a lot of courage throughout the play. When more and more people became accused of witchcraft, Hale went to all of the accused people’s homes to get some more knowledge of the people before they appeared in court. Proctor asks if he is there for the court and Hale says, “No-no, I come of my own, without the court’s authority. Hear me. I know not if you are aware, but your wife’s name is- mentioned in the court” (Miller 60). He starts to ask the Proctors questions about their religion and how often they go to church. Proctor openly admits as to why they don’t always go to church and why only two of his three sons are baptized. He says, “I like it not that Mr. Parris should lay his hand upon my baby. I see no light of God in that man. I’ll not conceal it” (Miller 62). Hale likes the Proctors and wants to help them as much as he can. Proctor is honest with Hale and says that he doesn’t like or trust Parris. This shows courageousness in Proctor because he admits to his wrongs. He does this to save his wife’s life. The author uses indirect characterization by having Proctor admit to multiple things he doesn’t do, but is expected. He is indirectly characterized as an honest man. Later in the story, Proctor shows another sign of courage. While he is at court and about to confess to witchcraft and save his life, he does something unexpected. Proctor signs his name on a paper to confess, but then immediately tears it apart. Hale says to Proctor, “Man, you will hang! You cannot!” (Miller 133). Proctor then says, “I can. And there’s your first marvel, that I can. You have made your magic now, for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but white enough to keep it from such dogs. Give them no tear! Tears pleasure them! Show honor now, show a stony heart and sink them with it” (Miller 133). Hale wants Proctor to lie and confess to witchcraft so that he is not hanged. Proctor does not want to lie and sign a paper for the town to see. The setting helps to support the theme of courage because he tells the truth to the judges in the court and accepts that he will hang. Proctor could have let judge Danforth hang the paper on the church door and lived, but he did not want to lie anymore. He did what he thought was right, and ripped his confession. Thus, John Proctor chooses death so he doesn’t have to live the rest of his life with a lie. 

Not to mention, truth is used heavily in this story. Miller emphasizes it by basing people living or not from the trials on truth. Would you confess to save yourself? John is a good example to use for this kind of theme. “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” (Arthur Miller, The Crucible). Arthur Miller uses repetition in this quote to emphasize the theme of truth. John will not let the court put his confession on the church, because he will not be damned to hell for lying about doing witchcraft. He uses diction and tone to help us understand the pain John is going through after he rips up the confession, he realises he is going to be hung, but he wants to keep his name from being soiled. Thus continuing the theme of truth. 

Throughout the story Abigail Williams tries to coerce John with her manipulated ways, to abandon his wife. John has to be strong during these times or he will fall into the trap of adultery once again. In act three he is pleading to the court because he feels guilty and he wants to save his wife. Proctor says, “She thinks to dance with me on my wife’s grave! And well she might, for  i thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such a sweat.”(Miller 102) The author uses diction to emphasize how hard it is for him to not be tempted by the young Abigail. He decides to stay with his wife Elizabeth because he loves her dearly. Proctor has his strength and he is courageous when he is asked to sign the confession. The author describes Proctor as, “His breast heaving, his eyes staring, Proctor tears the paper and crumples it, and he is weeping in fury, but erect.” Then Hale exclaims, “ Man you will hang! You cannot!(Miller 133) This shows the courage Proctor has because he is risking his life to save his name. The author uses imagery to describe his emotions and actions to this courageous act. The readers can get a full picture in their heads about his mood. Through his acts in these parts of the play readers can conclude that one of the themes in this play is courage.

Ways in which the author emits his take on weakness is through the teenage girl characters’ actions. Put quote in as evidence of theme The girls are controlled by Abigail and follow her every action. Wen Abigail claims to have seen a yellow bird in the courtroom, the other girls agree and take after her due to their weakness and lack of courage. (Miller 106)

Another theme used in The Crucible is weakness. Many characters show weakness at least once in the play, but more than anyone else, Mary Warren is a great example of this theme. She falters when telling the judges the truth about Abigail and the girls, and she gives in to her weakness and accuses Proctor of bewitching her. Mary Warren says “No, I love God; I go your way no more. I love God, I bless God… Abby, Abby, I’ll never hurt you more!” (Miller 71). This quote shows that Mary Warren was very weak and easily manipulated; when Abby and the girls start to turn against her, she goes against everything she was just claiming and accuses another person of witchcraft. The people’s chance of ending the court’s nonsense was lost because of Mary Warren’s weakness.

 Courage, courage is something that Abigail has a lot of. The readers can tell that Abigail has a lot of courage in many ways. One way that you can tell she has a lot of courage is because she gets in front of the court and lies to their face telling them that Mary Warren is guilty of witchcraft. That is only one way that we can tell. Another way we can tell is because Abigail doesn’t care who she convicts, whether it's the important rich people of Salem or the poor lower class. One example of this is she convicted Giles Corey’s wife of witchcraft, and he just a farmer and on the other side of the spectrum she has convicted Goody Proctor, John Proctor's wife a well know and rich family.

Weakness it the second theme of this play. Miller uses plot to show Johns weakness throughout the play. John shows weakness by committing adultery and in this quote he admits to it, “Excellency, forgive me, forgive me. She thinks to dance with me on my wife‘s grave! And well she might!—for I thought of her softly, God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat! But it is a whore‘s vengeance, and you must see it; I set myself entirely in your hands, I know you must see it now. My wife is innocent, except she know a whore when she see one.”(Miller 102) In this quote John says that he had an affair with Abigail and that is ultimately the reason for his wife being accused. Miller uses the plot of the play to build onto Johns character giving the reader a different side of John Proctor.

In the ending of act 4 of The Crucible the theme courage is shown by John Proctor.“Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” (Miller 133) In this quote I think John is saying he has already given up enough to the court at least let him have his name for respect and honor of his kids and family so everyone doesn’t know he lied about speaking with the devil. He feels he’s a part of the reason all these innocent people have been hung and he is not worthy of them. Likewise this quote “I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another. I have no tongue for it.” (Miller 131)  is showing courage torwars what he believes in. I think this quote means that he speaks and believes in what he thinks. As, he will not say anything  to judge or shame someone for believing different than what he does. Since it's none of his business and that everyone has the right to believe differently. Overall, this theme of courage shown by John proctor is a huge key factor for our story and how his acts of courage help everything play out in the story.

Once, again towards the end of The Crucible we see our second theme of weakness being brought into the story.  Here in this quote we see the weakness start to come settle into the village of salem."Now Hell and Heaven grapple on our backs, and all our old pretense is ripped away make your peace! It is a providence, and no great change; we are only what we always were, but naked now.(Miller 76) I think the meaning of this quote is that Proctor is finally starting to lose his faith and believe in the village. Everyone is turning on one another saying that they were with the devil or they did some witchcraft like stuff  and others are lying about it so they won’t be hung. Likewise, this quote that shows weakness is somewhat relating to the same situation as the first one. “ You are pulling down heaven and raising up a whore!” (Miller 111) This quote said by John proctor is meaning that Mary Warren is giving into the power of abigail instead of confessing and saying the truth about what's been going on. The court believes whatever the girls say and proctor has no more belief inside him due to all of the lies and people accused of nothing. This theme of weakness put a big twist to the story showing how strong abigail is and how effortlessly the court is about actually finding out what's going on.

This again shows how important it is to live a Godly life.  The color white is used to symbolize purity.  Parris is hoping that Abigail has not ruined their family name in the town in which he has worked hard to become a leader in.  He does not want to be embarrassed by her actions.  Had Abigail not been a puritan living in Salem, she would not have been criticized as harshly for her actions.

Eventually we find out that Abigail has had an affair with John Proctor, a farmer in the colony.  John and his wife Elizabeth have a servant named Mary, who has been involved in the witch trials.  Upon returning from Salem, John confronts Mary about where she has been.  When she explains that she has been to the trials, John says, “It’s strange work for a Christian girl to hang old women” (Miller 56).  This once again eludes to the authors plan to point out the puritan ways of thinking and living.  When Mr. Hale comes to the Proctor home, he points out that Mr. Parris has been keeping record of Proctor.  “I note that you are rarely in the church on Sabbath Day” (Miller 61).  This is Arthur Miller’s attempt to again show that religion is a vital part of the Puritan beliefs. 

In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the theme of weakness is shown in the play. Witchcraft is what everyone in the town of Salem feared. “The Devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as stone.” This quote is referring to every christian in The Crucible. The Devil is a sign of weakness and the only way to become strong and prosper is to worship the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This quote supports the the theme of weakness. Witchcraft is the only sign of weakness in the play and causes harsh consequences to people who are and are not accused. “A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face!...God damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together!” In this quote, the fear of witchcraft is everywhere and if you are involved in the devil’s workings, God will punish you for what you have done. This quote supports the theme of weakness in a harsh and threatening way. The devil’s works are so threatening it can cause people of Salem to turn on each other, break relationships, and even causes people to become hateful. If you worship God you are strong and will be saved when you crossover. In conclusion, witchcraft is a sign of weakness and you will not be saved if you are involved in any sort of the devil’s workings. You will be punished by God and see fire burning. 

Slowly through the play, we see that courage is seen being used. John proctor is another good example, along with Giles Corey. For Proctor, he musters up the incredible courage to confront the courts on Abigail’s lies and the affair that had gone on between them, risking his pride and his name for the sake of the others accused and his wife. Giles on the other hand, tragically died. He refused to lie, and he was pressed because of this, “More weight…” (Miller 125). He had the courage to stand up to the courts who wanted him to tell a lie and betray his friends, and he refused, dieing with those last words upon his lips. That takes real bravery and contempt with one’s fate to do something like that and he had his courage and heart in the right place when it counted most.

Another aspect John shows us he is a very courageous man in many parts of the story. John knows he did wrong to have a relationship with Abby and stands up to her. John does this by saying “ I may think of you softly time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I reach for you again. “ ( Miller 23). John is telling Abigail he doesn't want to be with her and he wants her to stop thinking there's a future between them. The author uses diction in the quote above to get his point across he could have  just said abigail I don't want to be with you. By using this word choice we see John wants to make things right again even if it will end up hurting him too. Another example comes later in the story when John is in court and has the courage to admit about his affair with Abigail. “ Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies!” ( ) . This quote is saying he wants to keep his name good in the village, he has already gave them everything. It also shows he is willing to die even though the witchcraft trials is based on lies once again showing his courage doing what's best for the town not just himself.

Not only does John show courage, he also has a fault as he exerts weakness as well. One part of the play where this is exposed is when Proctor states, “I gave that girl a promise that a stallion gives a mare, (Miller 59)” referring to his affair with Abigail. This affair shows that he had a great moment of weakness, and ended up being unfaithful to his wife, and went to Abigail. This shows that weakness is something you want to overcome, as because John hid his affair, Abigail later went on to drink charms in the woods and start the accusations of the witch trials. His weakness is also exposed within the lines, “I want my life. I will have my life. (Miller 127)” These lines show that after being begged by the court to confess, he finally does, by which will justify the hangings, leading to Rebecca & Martha Corey’s deaths being pointless, as well as paving the way for many others to hang after him. This shows a great moment of weakness for Proctor, as he for a moment gives up his good name, but does later on redeem himself using his courage as stated in the last paragraph. But these two examples do need help conveying their message. Through the use of tone during both of these quotes manage to convey the weakness of John Proctor. 

 Courage. Courage Is the ability to do something and to frighten someone in the process of doing it. In the Crucible Giles Corey Said “More weight.”(Miller 125) this shows courage from Giles showing he will not give the names out of other people and he’s not afraid of death as well as frightening the people that are pressing him. John Proctor shows courage as well at the end of the book he says “I have confessed myself! Is there no good penitence but it be public? God 

does not need my name nailed upon the church! God Sees my name ; God knows how black my sins are! It is enough!” Proctor shows the courage to accept what he’s done and also the courage to stand up for what he believes in even in the face of death 

Although many characters have weaknesses, some characters overcome their weaknesses. The characters that overcome their weakness can be seen as courageous. In Act III, Proctor cries to the court, “I thought of her softly, I lusted, and there is promise in such sweat.” Proctor’s courageous confession showed that he would rather have justice for those who are to hang, than to save himself. As proctor cries out is sins in front of the court, it creates a mood with the reader. Another character that shows great courage in “The Crucible” is Reverend Hale. In Act 4 Reverend Hale states “it may well be God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride.” (Miller 122) This quote from Hale takes place in a very important place of the story. Hale has returned to Salem to try to convince the accused to confess rather than die over a lie. Proctor knows that by coming back to Salem, there is great risk of being accused himself, by the girls or by the court. Hale’s diction and tone makes this statement come across with spite towards the judges of the court. Many characters show courage in different ways