John Proctor and Giles Corey are both ethical characters who refuse to sacrifice their ethics to stay alive during the witch trials. For example, rather than admit to being guilty of witchcraft, Giles Corey merely says, "more weight," asking for more stones to put on the pile crushing him. John Proctor, like Giles Corey, refuses to make a false confession at the end of the play, as he knows the false confession would contravene his...
John Proctor and Giles Corey are both ethical characters who refuse to sacrifice their ethics to stay alive during the witch trials. For example, rather than admit to being guilty of witchcraft, Giles Corey merely says, "more weight," asking for more stones to put on the pile crushing him. John Proctor, like Giles Corey, refuses to make a false confession at the end of the play, as he knows the false confession would contravene his principles of integrity and honesty, and, in going to the gallows, he finally achieves the moral perfection and integrity he has long sought.
While both men have integrity and oppose the power-hungry Reverend Parris, they are marked by flaws, particularly those related to women. Giles Corey unwittingly implicates his wife in the witchcraft scandals by telling the authorities that his wife reads books. He later tries by backpedal by saying, “It is my third wife, sir; I never had no wife that be so taken with books, and I thought to find the cause of it d’y’see, but it were no witch I blamed her for” (86). John Proctor has had an adulterous affair with Abigail Williams, for which his wife, Elizabeth, will not forgive him. These flaws complicate the lives of these otherwise decent characters.
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