Deceitfulness and Reputation: Themes in The Crucible

The Crucible is about senator Joseph McCarthy and his "communist witch- hunts" that were attempting to root out subversives in government and the entertainment industry. The play itself is about the 1692 Salem witch trials in which a group of girls accused others of being witches. Arthur Miller draws parallels between this event and his own trial for supposedly being a communist agent. This essay will speak of two themes I noticed throughout the book: deceitfulness and reputation. These themes will be presented through text references and characters within the play.
The first character to display a little of both deceitfulness and reputation would be John Proctor. In the beginning, John Proctor was a well respected man who valued his image and reputation. He was a man for exposing hypocrisy and was respected for this and actually made a reputation of this and his good family. He was a man with a great farm, three sons, and a beautiful wife who made him the ideal Puritan man, well before his "fall." John committed adultery with a young girl by the name of Abigail, age 17, who was working for John and his wife as a housekeeper. This was not only a matter of adultery it was also Lechery. Lechery was enough to destroy any man's character and respect, and John knew this, which is why he decided to hide it.

No one had yet to find out, so he didn’t lose the respect of others, yet he destroyed his own self-respect, and became the thing he hated the most; a hypocrite. John's wife was actually sick around this time implying he may or may not have been receiving much attention from her. Once he was tempted by Abigail he just couldn’t resist. He had not only lied or deceived his family and others, he also had done the same to himself.

Deceitfulness can be displayed best by the next character Abigail Williams.

Abigail lies about her ability to see "spirits" and tries to blame Tituba for everything when she is almost caught for playing with witchcraft, yet she is the one who persuaded Tituba to cast the spells. There is also proof of this deceitfulness in her actually accusing others of witchcraft just to save herself. In Act II she is again being deceitful when she blames Elizabeth Proctor; John Proctor's wife, for witchcraft. After her affair with John Proctor, she was after Elizabeth's position at John's side. A good reference of Abigail being deceitful could be found in Act I. pgs. 113-

132.
In their town of Salem, Massachusetts reputation is really important. Your reputation or social standing is mainly linked to your religious ties, teachings or beliefs. A good name was everything there in Salem. A good name can be compared to your credit score of today. If you don’t have a good name here, you're prevented from a lot of things such as a fair trial or even doing business with people. All of this disappears when you are accused of witchcraft even once. After a while the Reverend of the town, Reverend Hale began to think about whether or not certain individuals were actually guilty of the accusation. John Proctor I believe, in the end began to redeem himself, and I say this because he refused to sign a fake confession. He did not want to shame his family, his God or hurt his own . All of this is evident in Act IV, Scene 4.

In my conclusion, after John Proctor almost destroyed his own image and reputation, he actually came to redeem himself in the end. He refused to sign his fake confession, and stated he would much rather die. Abigail can be considered the most evasive character I have read about. She not only got away with her crimes for witchcraft, she also played a role as the main antagonist throughout the story. She deceived everyone about being able to see spirits, and taking Mrs. Proctors position beside John. In the end she didn’t get John, so instead she damned him and skipped town. This story was full of twists, turns, and unexpected events. There are many characters full of interesting backgrounds and social standings, but in the town of Salem it's your character and reputation that matters most. To escape the noose, the only logical thing to do would be to blame others in the little town of Salem.