Throughout the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller there are various themes throughout the novel such as hysteria, intolerance and reputation. Out of all the themes the one that sticks out the most to me is reputation. Reputation sticks out the most to me because I feel like it is the most important and shows in most of the main characters. Reputation shows what a person values and what is most important to them.
The first example of reputation in The Crucible is with John Proctor. John Proctor doesn’t want his reputation to be destroyed as he is worried that if people were to find out about his affair with Abigail Williams that they would be angry and it would ruin his name and everything that he has worked for. Throughout the book Proctor
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I will not have it said my name is soiled! Goody Proctor is a gossiping liar!” (Miller 12).
The last character that stands out to me is possibly the most powerful in Salem and that is Reverend Parris. Parris is concerned that his reputation as the town Minister will be ruined because his daughter Betty Parris was found doing witchcraft in the woods with other teenage girls and Tituba. Even as Parris’s daughter Betty is unresponsive in bed and everyone thinks that she could be dying it still seems like Parris is more worried about his reputation not getting destroyed rather than his own daughters life so you can really see how much he values his reputation and how important it is to him.
In the end people will always try to save themselves and try to not make themselves look bad. You can see from the evidence that Reputation is a major theme in The Crucible and Arthur Miller really tried to show that in characters such as John Proctor, Abigail Williams and Reverend Parris and what Arthur Miller is trying to show in 1692 Salem, MA is still happening today as people will always try to not make themselves look
In the crucible, I believe reputation and respect was interwoven in the term of the play the ‘‘crucible’’. Reputation and Respect can also be a theme or a thematic idea in the play, reputation is very essential in a town where social status is synonymously to ones competence to follow religious rules. Your standing is what enables you to live as one in a community where everyone is bound to rules and inevitable sequential instructions. Many characters for example, john proctor and reverend parris, base their action on the motive to protect their reputation which is only exclusive to them. People like reverend parris saw respect as what made them important or valuable in a town like Salem, this additionally imprinting to his character as a very conventional man.
Corruption has always existed in our society since the beginning to present time due to conspiracies such as the witch trials and the communism era. The Crucible by Arthur Miller was written during the era of communism to mere the hysteria. The Crucible is about the Salem witch trials in Salem Massachusetts in 1692. It’s a corrupt witch trial in Salem that’s due to false accusations of witchcraft for personal gains. John Proctor is the protagonist in the story The Crucible who goes through the ultimate test by choosing his reputation over integrity. He also had an affair with a young girl named Abigail who is the antagonist and is the main reason the bloodshed is occurring in Salem. Initially, Proctor hesitates to deal with his sin, but as the play progresses, he begins to understand its effects; this ultimately leads him to find goodness in himself as he stands for the truth.
Would you be willing to die to keep your reputation clean? Would you besmirch the good name of other people for your own gain? These are the questions characters from the Crucible had to ask themselves. In The crucible by Arthur Miller, Young girls went around accusing people of witchery for their own gain this caused many people to falsely be hanged on accusations of witchery, and for some people it meant tainting their name or be hanged, like in the case of John Proctor. Arthur miller shows us in the crucible that one’s reputation is one of the most important things in
In the story, “The Crucible”, John Proctor is thought to be a sinful person because he does not know all of the commandments and sometimes plows on Sundays. The author does not reveal this to the readers directly but tells them what others have been saying about him. Readers can also learn that Proctor is quite prideful. His main goal was to save Elizabeth from hanging, but when Danforth gave him a deal that would save Elizabeth he did not take it. Proctor was too proud to take the deal. Also when Proctor confessed to seeing the devil, his pride got in the way from saving his life. He did not want his name to be slandered.
The Crucible, a play written in the 1950’s by American playwright, Arthur Miller, is based on the chaotic witch hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts during the 1600’s. Abigail, a sinful protagonist in the play, is the root to the myriad problems that conspire throughout the play. She is to blame for the executions of innocent citizens, and for acts of lechery between marriages. An important reappearing theme throughout the play is one’s reputation and the extremes the characters would take in order to preserve their name. The characters in The Crucible, particularly, Parris, John Proctor, and Judge Danforth, use the sanctity of their names to prioritize how they will look in the public eye, rather than what is beneficial to them individually.
“We all face storms in life. Some are more difficult than others, but we all go through trials and tribulation. That’s why we have the gift of faith.” (Joyce Meyer) In The Crucible, a prevalent theme is having a good reputation. Miller has three characters that don’t want their reputation to be bad. The three characters that can’t lose their reputation are John Proctor, Reverend Parris, and Judge Danforth. The Crucible has a long lasting theme of having a good reputation. Miller provides three characters that can’t lose their reputation.
Honor, dignity, and integrity are traits that are becoming more and more rare in our society. The Crucible, a play written in 1952 by Arthur Miller, is based on the Salem witch hunts of 1692 and parallels the Red Scare and McCarthyism in the 1950s. In the play, Miller attempts to focus his themes around traits such as honor, dignity, and integrity, and as a result, the theme "is it better to die honorably or live dishonorably" becomes vital to the story and well conveyed throughout it. The characters that exemplify this idea are John Proctor and Giles Corey, both of whom die by the end of the play, and Reverend John Hale and Abigail Williams, who live through the trials.
The inhabitants of Salem live in a Theocratic Society and are all considered to be Puritans. This causes the church to have immense power because they all live by the way God and believe that they must do his work. The church has so much power and authority because they are God’s ‘messengers’. This gives them the power to say what is God’s will and how people should live. The Church is able to stay in power through out the play, because who can question Gods ways, without been condemned? In the society God is seen as the most powerful being since God is so powerful the people of Salem follow the Christian religion very closely and do not questions Gods ways.
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, various characters, whether it is from physical trials or unseen personal struggles, experience some kind of major conflict. There are those who spend every day in fear, wondering whether or not they will be falsely accused of witchcraft. There are others who struggle with more internal trials, such as forgiving those who have hurt them. The protagonist, John Proctor, was a man of strong moral constitution, and held himself to a high standard for the sake of his good name and family. As a result of this, he struggled with a major internal conflict throughout the play.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller raises many thought provoking issues throughout the play, including the importance of personal integrity, injustice in society and the rights of the community versus the rights of the individual.
Danforth tells Proctor “Courage man, courage-let not her witness your good example that she may come to God herself. Now hear it, Goody Nurse! Say on, Mr. Proctor. Did you bind yourself to the Devil’s service?” (Miller 128).
Reputation is the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something. A famous American poet once said: “Oh reputation dearer far than life”. James Russell Lowell highlights the importance of reputation by declaring it more important than even human life itself. This idea is also found in ‘The Crucible’ as many characters will be challenged between telling the truth and dying, or saving their reputation. In ‘The Crucible’, this theme beholds a key position in the unrolling of the story as an impression of control over the outcome of people’s lives is created by its importance.
As Arthur Miller tells us in the introduction to Act 1 'no one can really know what their lives were like.' We would never be able to imagine a life with 'no novelists' and 'their creed forbade anything resembling a theatre or vain entertainment.' ' They didn't celebrate Christmas, and a holiday from work meant only that they must concentrate even more upon prayer.' They led a very austere and bleak life. The people of Salem - from which the audience derive their "good" and "evil" characters - were superstitious and highly religious, and their Theocratic form of government offered them security and unity.
The Crucible is a play which brings to our attention many timeless issues. The nature of good and evil, power and its corruption, honour and integrity and our tendency to create scapegoats for all manner of problems are all brought up through the course of the play - sometimes in very dramatic fashion.
The theme of reputation and quest for people is also portrayed clearly in The Crucible. In the old days, children were considered unimportant. They weren't allowed to speak until given permission to, and they didn't make important decisions at all. However, during the witch court trials, Abigail and other girls had the power to say who was innocent and who was guilty. Probably, for the first time in their lives, they had power over Salem and they wanted to maintain it. Moreover, the authorities of Salem were afraid of losing authorities and power. For example, the judges, Governor Danforth and Ezekiel Cheever didn't want to admit that they were being fooled by a bunch of girls so they insisted that witchcraft existed in the town of Salem.