Abigail Williams Reputation Essay

In The Crucible by Arthur Miller many people’s own reputation have effects on the story. People are inherently concerned about how others think about them and sometimes this causes issues. When people become too concerned about their reputation things can start to go downhill and people can become more absorbed. Sometimes a person even gets to a point where they are so concerned about how they are viewed by society that they lie and compromise other people's positions. They might even end up going to drastic measures in order to make people think highly of them. Throughout the play, many different characters care too much about their reputations which leads to trouble in the story. The most obvious characters who demonstrate this are Abigail

Williams, Governor Danforth, and Samuel Parris.
Abigail Williams is overly concerned about how people view her.

She is completely full of herself and cares way too much about keeping her name clean. From the start of the play this is very clear when she goes to the drastic measure of threatening her friends in order to keep from being disliked by the Salem community. For example, when her friends want to tell the truth about what they were doing in the woods, but she does not, she says, “Now look you. All of you. We danced...And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” (Miller 1137) Abigail does not care what she has to do; she will not let her reputation be ruined, even if it compromises her so-called friends. Continuing into the trials, Abigail continues to lie and blame people in order to keep her reputation. When someone tries to accuse her she immediately denies it by getting the accuser in trouble and accused for witchcraft even though she knows, for a fact, that they are innocent. She risks people’s lives in order for her own good. For example, when Mary Warren challenges Abby, Abby immediately accuses Mary of witchcraft saying, “Why...why do you come yellow bird?...God made my face; you cannot want to tear my face. Envy is a deadly sin, Mary.” (Miller 1209) Finally, when it all gets too much for Abigail, she leaves because she

knows that eventually somebody will find out about her lying, and that will ruin her reputation forever. Abby would rather leave a place where she has spent her whole life than face the truth and have people dislike her. Parris tells the news of her leaving… “There is news, sir, that the court - the court must reckon with. My niece, sir, my niece - I believe she has vanished...Excellency. I think they be aboard a ship. My daughter tells me how she heard them speaking of ships last week, and tonight I discover my - my strongbox is broken into.” (Miller 1220) Abigail Williams is easily the most egotistical character in the whole play, she hurts many people through trying to keep her good name, and, in the end, is too cowardly to face the truth all because her reputation is on the line.
The judge of the court, Governor Danforth, also has many actions that show how concerned with his reputation he is. As an official of the court, Danforth cannot admit he is wrong even though it is evident he knows he is, because he is fearful of people not trusting him in other situations. Although this concern is valid, when people’s lives are on the line, it is best to let your pride go. The reader can see this when Hale asks Danforth to pardon the accused in the trials and Danforth responds with, “You misunderstand, sir; I cannot pardon these when twelve are already hanged for the same crime...now hear me...I will not receive a single plea for pardon or postponement. Them that will not confess will hang...Postponement now speaks a floundering on my part; reprieve or pardon must cast doubt upon the guilt of them that died till now.” (Miller 1222) Danforth’s concern for what the people of Salem think of him is also shown when he is so desperate for Proctor to confess. If Proctor does confess it means he would not necessarily be wrong in terms of what he has done in the court . He needs John Proctor to confess to dealings with the devil so that his name in the court is still pure and people continue to trust him as a judge. The way Danforth reacts when Proctor starts to become wary about signing the papers shows this, “Come, then, sign your testimony. Give it to him. Come, man, sign it...Do you sport with me? You will sign your name or it is no confession, Mister!” (Miller 1230) Danforth is once again a character in The Crucible whose obsession with obtaining and maintaining a good reputation gets other people in trouble due to not wanting to admit he was wrong and risk what people think about him he is responsible for the deaths of many innocent people.
Being fairly new to the community of Salem, Reverend Samuel Parris is particularly concerned with his reputation within the people.

From the very beginning of the play it is obvious that all Parris cares about is himself and what the people are going to think of him. When Parris’ daughter, Ruth, is sick, and they don’t know what is wrong, his concern about himself over anyone else is clearly obvious. While his daughter is laying there in bed, his only concern is that she and Abigail were not involved with witchcraft, telling Abigail, “Abigail, I have fought here three long years to bend the stiff-necked people to me, and now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my very character. I have given you a home, child. I have put clothes upon your back - now give me an upright answer. Your name in the town - it is entirely white is it not?” (Miller 1130 Reverend Parris’ care about only his reputation and nothing else, not his family, not even his morals, becomes even more apparent when Parris lies to the court. Lying to the court is a serious and immoral offense, but Parris does not care about that, all he cares about is what the people of Salem think of him, it doesn’t matter what he seems to think of himself. When confronted in court about what he witnesses in the woods the night all of this chaos began, Parris lies in order to yet again keep the rumors of witchcraft out of his family and keep his name “white”. Although Parris knows he saw the

girls naked and dancing in the woods, he says, “I can only say, sir, that I never found any of them naked, and this man is-” (Miller 1202). Parris could not care less if he is risking other people’s lives by lying, or if he is breaking his personal morals. Through the text it becomes obvious that the one and only thing he cares about is himself and people's opinions of him. His selfishness and egotistical manners cause the Salem Trials to spiral into even more chaos.
Reputation is everywhere throughout the play and it affects so many things, even if it should not. People judge others on their reputation, and they base how they think about people on rumors. This seems to be why people are so worried about their reputations, especially in The Crucible where they are dealing with things that could ruin you forever. For each of these characters, Abigail Williams, Governor Danforth, and Reverend Samuel Parris, their concern about their reputations end up sending the trials into even more chaos and tragedy then they are in the beginning. The characters in the play are way too worried about their reputations and this leads to selfishness and the demise of self and others. A lot of the horrible things that happen in the story can be easily avoided if people stop worrying about their ego’s. The Crucible teaches an important lesson of how caring too much about what people think of you can lead to social and moral downfalls.