The Crucible Reputation Analysis

Words: 1076
Pages: 5

In The Crucible, author Arthur Miller cleverly builds and shows the reader the desire of the characters to protect their own reputation or the reputation of those close to them often at the expense of their own integrity. Firstly, Miller shows how characters may protect their reputation over their own integrity. Then Miller illustrates the cost of keeping one’s reputation up at the cost of their integrity or even more. Lastly, Miller shows the breaking point of characters who decide to save their personal integrity over reputation, breaking the cycle. The politics and media of the modern day especially value reputation towards over integrity towards self.
Firstly, Miller begins to show the characters that will protect their reputation over
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This is most likely because the court had already made convictions and to go back now would mean to destroy the legitimacy of the religious court across Massachusetts. Then, we see the lengths that Abigail is willing to go to so that she be an innocent little girl who was being afflicted by the devil and his worshippers: “…Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.” (Miller 20). She threatens the girls like this in order to appear innocent to the townspeople and the witch-hunt court so she can exact her revenge on Elizabeth Proctor. Lastly, Mary Warren, the servant girl of the Proctors, turns of John Proctor in the court as to remain in good standing with Abigail: “My name, he want my name. “I’ll murder you,” he says, “if my wife hangs! We must go and overthrow the court,” he says! … Abby, Abby, I’ll never hurt you more!” (Miller 119). In this scene, she denounces John Proctor and the defense he provided, returning to Abigail as to not face her wrath. She valued her reputation with Abigail over her own