Importance Of Reputation In The Crucible By Arthur Miller
The Crucible story lands in a village called Salem where people believe that the devil resonates there. People in Salem were prosecuted even when they were all probably innocent and their deaths were all due to false accusations to people’s ridiculous belief in superstition not questioning if there is a cause behind it. The people of Salem believed in the devil and witches should be hunted out. The Crucible faces a tough decision to protect their reputation some of the characters are Parris, Abigail, Proctor, and Rebbeca Nurse.
John Proctor is a sensible, honest, and hardworking man who made the mistake of the lust of Abigail, which sets off a chain of events that leads to the witch trials, and to his own death. John Proctor proves to be a flawed human being who struggles to make sense of his past relationship with Abigail, his love for his wife, and his name. Later in the story when he was called to the court he said, ¨My dear good wife took this good after…she thinks to dance with my wife’s grave! I lusted, and while she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is promise in such sweat. But it was a whore vengence, and you must see it¨ (Proctor 850-868). Protector tried to see that he can save his wife by showing the past relationship he even abandons his reputation to say admit his sins to try to save his wife, but his wife did not know and tried to protect his name by saying he would never chase for another woman even though she knew the truth. It was too late to do anything and he has sentenced to a liar later on to a witch and this is where his demise begins to happen.
One other way of showing reputation was Danthforth he tries to show that since he was part of supreme government that he should not be questioned and that he should be worshipped. Danforth even says, ¨ Mr.hale, you surely do not doubt my justice¨(Danthforth520-521). What is happening is Mr.Hale is arguing with Danthforth about the sentencing of people but Mr.Hale believe what he is doing is wrong and that should be able to defend themselves with a layer but then he tries to show off that he has more experience by telling Mr.Hale that he has been sentencing people for 32 years. He even says ¨near to four hundred are in jails…and upon my signature…and seventy-two condemned to hang by that signature¨ (Danthforth 530-550). He is showing his power to condemn people to death by just saying the word if they are sentence or not.
There are many different people with different reputations and in the story of the Crucible it meant everything, Reputation was extremely important in the story because everyone in the story tries to see who you are. Like when Mr.Proctor and Rebecca Nurse were sentenced everyone knew that something was wrong their reputation was really bg everyone knows that he was a good man and a person who did not lie and Rebecca Nurse was a person who helped others. When people heard about this it was getting chaotic and they believe anyone in Salem can be called a witch.
