Arthur Miller defines the tragic flaw as a “crack in the character that is really nothing- and need be nothing” (Tragedy and the Common Man, 306). The tragic hero is irked by a small blemish that would be easily dismissed by a lesser man. This flaw in the hero leads hi

Arthur Miller gives the most accurate description of tragedy as “the consequence of a man’s total compulsion to evaluate himself justly” (Tragedy and the Common Man, 306). The tragic hero starts out in despair of a lack of self-respect. In his struggle to regain his dignity and his name, he makes the ultimate sacrifice and is then left as a complete man. The concept of the tragic mood is based around the theme of courage. It takes courage for John Proctor to recognize his guilt and to struggle with it. It takes courage for John Proctor to commit the tragic action and make the ultimate sacrifice. Proctor is the tragic hero in The Crucible, among the other innocent people of Salem who were hanged in defiance of their false accusation of practicing witchcraft.

As the hero is constantly fighting within himself to dismiss his tragic flaw, he ultimately reaches the point where he cannot keep his guilt inside himself any longer. He commits the ultimate sacrifice, defined by Arthur Miller as the tragic action. The tragic action is when the hero sacrifices the one thing that was holding him back throughout his inner struggle. This sacrifice is made by the hero out of the fear of being displaced, a “disaster inherent in being torn away from our chosen image of what and who we are in this world” (Tragedy and the Common Man, 307). In The Crucible, John Proctor feels so much discontent for the injustice of the wi

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