When the Greeks began writing tragic plays, they used bigger-than-life heroes, and their downfall was always hubris. As the tragic genre progressed, regular men were characterized instead of extravagant heroes, and different sins were substituted for hubris. However, in all tragedies a tragic hero exists. In Arthur Miller's The Crucible the tragic hero is an average, everyday man with too much pride. Because he commits the sin of hubris, suffers and finally receives salvation, John Proctor is the tragic hero of The Crucible.
             Throughout the play, John's sins cause him several internal struggles. Because he has lusted for Abby and committed adultery, she distorts the relationship she thinks exists with John.
             "...he is making himself ready prey to the devil's wiles, because he is denying, on a conscious level, the original sin and human fallenness- the evil-which are in fact a part of his nature, and for which, subconsciously, he is already punishing himself. He is, in other words, being dishonest with himself, and with Abby, and with Elizabeth. "...Proctor thus tries to wipe clean the slate of history and thereby denies to his own consciousness the necessary lessons of his own experience, of his own history, he excludes the possibility for integrated consciousness of his goodness as coexistent with his sinfulness, of his salvation despite his evil" (Budick 142).
             Abigail's desire for John to desire her inadvertently begins the witch trials. John knows the truth about Abigail's lies but refuses to come forth to the public. Even though Abby is blamed for starting the witch trials, John is at fault for letting the fire of hysteria spread because he holds the truth from everyone's knowledge to save himself. When Elizabeth pleads with John to go to the courts to expose Abigail he says, "I have good reason to think before I charge fraud on Abigail, and I will think on it" (28). Elizabeth thinks John's reasoning for keeping the inf...