Why Do We Need Morals In The Crucible

“To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society” -Theodore Roosevelt. When one has no morals it is dangerous to live in a society. Why? Because morals are the rules that help you differentiate between the good doings and the bad doings. But what if one has morals that are dangerous? They can harm society without even thinking twice. Someone who is smart, but has no proper morals can lead a society to disaster such as the society in The Crucible, by American playwright, Arthur Miller, is about a Puritan village in Massachusetts Bay during the Salem witch trials. The puritans are people who had very censored moral beliefs. People in the village get accused of being witches or coming in contact with the devil, which is immoral and has to be punished, consequently ending with the hangings or imprisonment of the accused. Three characters in The Crucible each reflect one moral stage in “Kohlberg’s

Moral Stages”. “Kohlberg’s Moral Stages” are separated into three different levels of morality, which specify each level. Morals are the character’s thoughts, actions or reactions to things in a certain way, which are demonstrated by Abigail, who reflects stage two, Judge John, who reflects stage four, and John Proctor, who reflects stage six.
To begin with, the second moral stage of “Kohlberg’s Moral Stages”, in level one as “preconventional”, is described as naively egotistic orientation. Basically, a person will only care about themselves and will be naive about the others as long as they’re happy. In stage two of the moral stages, it is stated that, “The individual does what is necessary, makes concessions only as necessary to satisfy his own needs” (1). This stage is the “I’ll help you if you help me” morality. A person in this stage will not do things for others just because they want to be kind. Correspondingly, Abigail fits in the description. Abigail did not reflect a normal Puritan teenager with the strictly censored morals that everyone else had. If Abigail saw an opportunity to get what she wanted, she would do anything to get it. For example, Abigail convinced Tituba, a slave, to take all the girls in the forest and chant love spells. Although that was the only reason Tituba was going, Abigail saw an opportunity and she took it. Abigail had always wanted to be with an older man, John Proctor, but he was married. Abigail wanted to get rid of Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor. Betty Parris, her young cousin, realized she wanted to get rid of Elizabeth and exclaimed to Abigail, “You drank blood, Abby, you didn’t tell him that!...You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife!” (13). Abigail was too wrapped around her plan to get rid of Goody Proctor that she was able to go to the degree of wanting to kill someone.
Secondly, level two of “Kohlberg’s Moral Stages” is the conventional level. In this level is stage four, which is an authority and social-order-maintaining orientation. At this stage people do things based on rules that have already been set up or come from a place of high importance, for example, the government. Kohlberg said this was “...based on fixed rules, maintaining order and obeying authority” (2). He also said that there is “...a respect for rules [and] laws” (2). A person reflecting this stage will not make up rules to replace ones that already were there, or disobey rules that were already made to be followed. They are the ones that are truthful to their system. This stage perfectly describes Judge John Danforth. He is part of the court and, not even if he thinks that something is unjust, will he disobey the “justice” of his court. When Reverend Hale tries to convince Judge Danforth to listen to Mary Warren’s words, he rejects him by saying, “We “must” do nothing but what justice bids us to do” (59). Nothing will change a mind under the set of rules that they think is right and just. Danforth’s justice is anything that the court has written down and he doesn't base off of anything else.
Lastly, the final level in “Kohlberg’s Moral Stages” is postconventional.

Describing it is stage six, the morality of individual principles of conscience. This stage falls under anything a person follows to be right and just. Kohlberg’s way of describing this is, “...equality of all human beings” (2), which can also be described as “the “Golden Rule” model” (2). Everyone likes to be treated equally, nothing makes anyone different and that is what this person thinks about everyone. Likewise, John Proctor expresses this stage. He thinks about how people act and connects it to how they should be treated. For example when Elizabeth got accused of something she didn't do, he wanted to make sure to get his wife back, “No, sir. I have come only to save my innocent wife…” (60). Proctor knows his wife is innocent of everything and that she doesn’t deserve to be in jail for something she didn't do. Proctor also states that “[Elizabeth] will never lie..”(61). If she has never lied than she should be able to get out of the mess quickly, is what John

thinks.
Due to “Kohlberg’s Moral Stages”, we are able to pick out three characters and dig deeper into their personality. Abigail was the egotistical person who only thought about helping herself in life. This lead her to getting into many problems and even the deaths of many innocent people. Judge John Danforth was the one to always follow the laws and nothing aside from them. He was a hard person to persuade because he had a set mind on following the rules, it was his job. Lastly, John Proctor was the one to follow the “Golden Rule”, which not everyone else followed. The moral stages are not only to describe characters, but also the people around us. There are also many more stages, not only three. Also, one can either transition through the levels or stay in one for a long time, but what moral stage is correct to stay in?