Identify at least three external conflicts in the play. Then describe the internal conflict that Proctor faces. How could Procto
r's conflict relate to a broader conflict in the play—between public appearance and private reality? Explain your answers using specific examples from the play.
Three external conflicts in The Crucible play are:
Conflict between Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams
Conflict between of John Proctor, Giles Corey, Francis Nurse against their community and the corrupt court system.
Reverend Hale's conflict about supporting the corrupt church or helping the falsely accused citizens.
John Proctor faces an internal conflict of whether to preserve his reputation or expose Abigail as a liar by exposing his own infidelity.
Explanation:
The conflict between Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams comes about when Abigail falsely accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft. Abigail has an affair and is in love with Elizabeth's husband, John Proctor, and is angry when Elizabeth sacks her from working in their home. She falsely accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft out of vengeance and jealousy. Abigail wants Elizabeth to die so that John Proctor can be hers alone.
John Proctor, Giles Corey and Francis Nurse try to fight their community and the corrupt Salem court about the injustice being carried out in the witch trials. The three of them went to Salem in an attempt to expose Abigail and the other girls who confessed as liars. Francis Nurse makes a petition which is signed by ninety one people saying that Elizabeth Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, and Martha Corey have good characters. John Proctor goes so far as to confess to his adultery in hopes of exposing Abigail and breaking her hold over the court and the town, while Giles Corey produces a deposition accusing Thomas Putnam of using the witch trials for his own ulterior motives. The three men struggle against to prove that the accused citizens are innocent and the witch trials are nothing but a fraud.
Reverend Hale struggles with the decision to support the corrupt court or help the falsely accused citizens of the town. Reverend Hale ends up quitting the court and attempts to convince the falsely accused citizens to agree to a confession in order to be allowed to live.
John Proctor faces an internal conflict of whether to save his reputation or expose Abigail as a liar by exposing his own infidelity. He struggles internally with the decision of saving his reputation or challenging the corrupt court to end the witch trials. After his affair with Abigail Williams John Proctor admits that he "has come to regard himself as a kind of fraud." Outwardly he appears to be an upstanding Christian, farmer, and citizen, but inwardly he knows that he has broken some of the most fundamental rules of Christian doctrine injunctions against lying and adultery. He tells his wife, "Let you look sometimes for the goodness in me, and judge me not." And she replies, "The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you." It is clear that she is right, when John has decided not to confess to a crime he did not commit in order to save his life in the final act, he says, "You have made your magic now, for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor." In the end, he finally regained sight of his value and goodness which he lost along the way in his inner struggles.
