Compare and Contrast the Characters of John Proctor and Randle P McMurphy as Heroes

2) John Proctor and Randle Patrick McMurphy are both characters of a flawed nature in their respective texts The Crucible and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Proctor a respected man in the town of Salem commits the fatal sin of adultery while the story's antagonist nineteen year old Abigail is under his employment. Arthur Miller uses the cliché technique of using a flawed hero as the main character of the play as the reader can easily sympathise with a character who goes through a self-revelation. Then there is McMurphy who is big, loud, sexual, dirty, and confident he is an obvious foil for the quiet and repressed Bromden and the sterile and mechanical Nurse Ratched. His loud, free laughter stuns the other patients, who have grown accustomed to repressed emotions. Milos Forman has also used the cliché flawed hero for the viewer to sympathise with the character when he meets his demise.

McMurphy is a natural leader. Forman portrays this through his camera shots when McMurphy and the other patients are together. The shot is usually a panning shot which usually shows more than one man per shot. This is emphasised especially during the second vote when the vote is conducted. The camera slowly panned including up to four men at once. Proctor a strong willed man is portrayed by Miller as leader who is willing to sacrifice his life in order to keep his good name. In John Proctor's case his name is not only the view of the people towards him but his identity. This is effectively conveyed by Arthur Miller during the fourth act of the play when Parris requests Danforth to allow him to persuade Proctor to sign his name "It is a weighty name. It will strike the village that Proctor confess."

In a sense both the character of John Proctor and Randle Patrick McMurphy can be considered martyrs as the ends of both texts show the heroes dying for what they believed in, although it was not in vain. Echoes Down the Corridor in The Crucible confirms this. Similarly in the film a scene similar to Echoes Down the Corridor is shown where the men are shown to be playing cards in a civil manner.