Choose a play in which a character struggles with his / her conscience.
Outline briefly the reasons for the character’s dilemma and go on to discuss how successfully the dramatist engages your sympathy for him or her.
In your answer you must refer closely to the text and to at least two of characterisation, conflict, theme, resolution or any other appropriate feature.
In the play ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller, the character John Proctor struggles with his conscience. By use of characterisations, stage directions and conflict Miller engages me in this play and makes me feel sympathy for Proctor.
This play is based on true happenings in Salem during the mass witchhunts. It describes how Proctor has to choose between life and death, dishonesty and honesty considering all factors like how this will affect his family. By the end he has lost all his pride by admitting his affair with Abigail but still decides to choose honesty and decides not to sign to being a witch just to save his life.
Conflict is a key technique used to show Proctor’s struggle. Throughout the play Proctor suffers from an inner conflict as he does not know whether to be honest or to save his life.
Firstly he realises he cannot leave his wife as he truly does love her:
“I want my life”.
The shows how Proctor cannot admit to being a witch but will do anything to stay with his wife and children.
Being full of pride Proctor does not want to have his name engraved on the church showing that he is a witch:
“I have given you my soul! Leave me my name!”

This shows his anguish of admitting he is guilty and the inner conflict is again shown by his indecision between honesty and dishonesty. This makes me pity Proctor as he is in so much distress and is struggling to make the right decision.
The stage directions capture the moment when Proctor becomes decisive:
“He rips up the paper”
This clearly shows Proctor realising that his conscience is telling him to choose honesty. With this choice comes more pain. Proctor has to leave his wife which he struggles to do. This moment is also effectively shown in the stage directions:
“He kisses her now with great passion”
This creates sympathy not only for Proctor but for his wife Elizabeth.
Neither of them deserve what is happening to them and I wish that
Proctor would lie to keep his life even though I do not agree with dishonesty.
Conflict between other characters and Proctor also show how he struggles with his conscience. One such example is between him and
Abigail, with whom he once had an affair.
Abigail is convinced that Proctor still wants her:
“You loved me then and you do now”
Nothing Proctor says can persuade her otherwise:
“I will not be coming for you, Abi”
This affair haunts Proctor later in the play when he is forced to choose between honesty and pride.
Abigail tries to seek revenge on the Proctors, especially Elizabeth:
“She is blackening my name in the village”

Proctor knows this is untrue but does not want to lose his pride and admit their affair. Once again Proctor is split between honesty to save his wife or his own pride and once again his conscience tells him to choose honesty:
“I have known her sir!, I have known her!”
The use of exclamation marks shows how much he is struggling to admit this and the repetition is used to show the torture he is experiencing in losing his pride. I do not feel Proctor should have to admit this as it is a mistake in his life that he feels guilty about and should not have to feel tormented about the past. The way he admits this fills me with respect for him.
The clever use of characterisation developed by Miller successfully shows Proctor’s struggle and engages your sympathy for him. As a character Elizabeth is honest:
“That woman will never lie, sir”
This causes Proctor pain as he wants to lie so he will not have to die and cause his wife pain but by lying he is going against her morals. This ironically shows Proctor’s struggle and he full heartedly receives my sympathy as I know I could not make that decision.
Proctor’s conscience gets the better of him and he asks Elizabeth to decide what he should do but she is unable to do that:
“I cannot judge you”
In my opinion this is the climax to his conscious struggle but I am glad he chose honesty in the end as it is always the best answer even if it does cause suffering to others.
For me the main theme of honesty being the best way creates sympathy for Proctor as it causes him great pain in deciding his fate and those of the ones whom he loves.

In conclusion by use of conflict , characterisation and stage directions,
Arthur Miller successfully engages my sympathy for Proctor’s struggle between honesty and dishonesty, life and death, in the play ‘The
Crucible’.