John Proctor and John Hale - Good Person vs. Good Citizen

        In The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrays the two main characters, John Proctor and Reverend John Hale as "good men". The term "good men" in this play is ambiguous. Reverend John Hale was a good man in the sense of being the perfect and good citizen of Massachusetts in the 1600's. He was pious, adherent to the laws and beliefs, and a good Puritan Christian. John Proctor, on the contrary would not be considered the greatest …

…the witch problems. He causes Abigail and the girls to blurt out the witches, which causes the whole mess with the Proctors getting in trouble with the law. He gets Rebecca Nurse in trouble by taking Francis's suspicions of reading books into account. He causes many false witches in the community to die, causing them and their husbands their downfall. His downfall is losing the respect and being hated by almost everyone in the community.