Preservation Of Reputation In Arthur Miller’S The Crucible

People worry about their reputation all time. People worry that their reputation is in jeopardy. There were so many people that were worrying about their reputation not the act “The Crucible”. There are many examples of this. There was John Proctor when he was accused of being a witch. Then there is Reverend Parris who was so worried about what people thought about the church and what he was doing with it all. And finally there was Abigail he was saying “She’s blackening my name around the town”.

First is the point I made about John Proctor. When he was charged with witchcraft Reverend Parris wanted to post the signed confession on the door of the church. John obviously didn’t want him to do that because it was embarrassing that he would have confessed to witchcraft. He was saying “It is my name! I cannot have another in my life!” and “How my I live without my name? I have given you my soul, leave me my name!” John was charged with witchcraft by Mary Warren. Mary charged him because she was scared of what the girls might have done to her because of her confessing that they were all faking. So she said “You’re the Devil’s man!” Basically saying that he has worked with the devil and that she has seen him with the devil and that she accepts God and confesses herself even though she didn’t do anything. John Proctor wanted to just sign the confessing and just the important people see it so that it didn’t have to be posted on the church door because it’s embarrassing. This affected how he acted because when they wanted to post the signed confessing on the church door he hesitated because he didn’t want his name posted like that. So when they said that they wanted to put his name up on the church door he got really mad because that’s embarrassing and he didn’t want that signed confession there for everyone to see. He just didn’t understand what the court officials seeing him sign it wasn’t enough.

Now I brought up how Parris was really concerned with the way that John was defying everything else that everyone said. So Parris got scared that John was going to try to overthrow the court or even try to take his spot or just blackening his name. For example “Excellency, since I came to Salem this man is blackening my name. He…”. So Parris has thought that John ha sheen spreading rumors about him. He is so worried that John is trying to get rid of him he doesn’t even see the stupidity going on around him in the village of people just blaming people to get revenge on each other. Parris was so worried that people were talking about him and it’s just sad to see him so self centered because he is so worried about what people think about him. When Parris realized what was actually on he was so worried that people would be mad because of “witchcraft” going on in his house or all of the corruption that was going on. So he got so scared that the people would think that he doesn’t see the things going on so he lies to keep his reputation up. This defined who he was because he is someone who obviously cares what people think about him so he’ll do everything to make sure that people think he’s a good person. He tried to take the blame off of him and put the attention upon someone else. This is relatable to John’s situation because it was both of them worrying about how people saw them. Parris was worried that there was a faction in the village going against him and John was worried that his name would be shamed along with his future relatives. But they differ because Parris was worried that he was going to be viewed as a corrupt man because of the lies coming from Abigail. John was worried about his family in the future not just himself and was genuinely worried for his family.

Lastly, Abigail. She lied, was corrupt, selfish, vengeful, the list goes on. She wasn’t really worried about her reputation but had brought it up before. She said “She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me!” She was referring to John Proctor's wife Elizabeth. She is saying this because she wants to be with John and literally has an obsession with him. She is doing anything to get what she wants by lying and blackening other people’s name. This is relatively close to the situation with Parris because they are scared that secrets will get out and that there will people mad at them. It not really relatable with John because John was worried about his family and Abigail was worried about being exposed as a liar; that’s why she ran from the village. She ran away because she was scared of being seen as the liar that she is.

In conclusion, people preserving their reputation throughout The Crucible are very prevalent. We had John worried about the way that the people would view his family after he confessed to witchcraft that he was never involved in. But he definitely had a good reason to worry about his reputation and his name because he was falsely accused and didn’t deserve to be hanged. Then there is Parris who was so selfish and worried about how people saw him. He was just so worried about being the perfect preacher and the “holy man”. And then there was Abigail who was just trying to get what she wanted out of the “relationship” she had with John.