Causes Of Reputation In The Crucible By Arthur Miller
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the characters are concerned with their own positive reputations which causes them to be deceptive, hang at the gallows, and act smarter than they were.
In The Crucible the characters are very concerned about their reputation, because of this it caused some characters to lie about who they really are. This comes out in the story when characters are being accused of being witches, giving them the choice to either lie to save their lives or tell the truth and be killed. John Proctor keeps his affair with Abigail a secret from the town to protect his reputation: “He fights to defend the wife he has wronged and whose life he has placed in jeopardy because of his affair with Abigail” (Bigsby 147-171). Abigail lies
to the court about Tituba using the devil to corrupt her in her dreams: “Don’t lie! She comes to me while I sleep; she’s always making me dream corruptions” (Miller 41).
Multiple characters throughout the story chose to die rather than tell the truth and ruin their reputations. John Proctor struggled with the idea with losing is reputation and his emotions come to full strength: “with a cry of his whole soul: Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that Hang! How may I live without my Name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name” (Miller 133). Proctor refuses to sign his name on the paper claiming he was corrupted with the devil, he does this to protect his “name” in other words to protect his reputation. He chose to hang instead of ruining his reputation: “It is Arthur Miller's most frequently produced play not because it addresses affairs of state nor even because it offers us the tragic sight of a man who dies to save his conception of himself and the world.” (Bigsby 147-171) A man willing to die to save his own personal image.
In The Crucible the characters are very concerned about their reputation, because of this it caused some characters to lie about who they really are. This comes out in the story when characters are being accused of being witches, giving them the choice to either lie to save their lives or tell the truth and be killed. John Proctor keeps his affair with Abigail a secret from the town to protect his reputation: “He fights to defend the wife he has wronged and whose life he has placed in jeopardy because of his affair with Abigail” (Bigsby 147-171). Abigail lies
to the court about Tituba using the devil to corrupt her in her dreams: “Don’t lie! She comes to me while I sleep; she’s always making me dream corruptions” (Miller 41).
Multiple characters throughout the story chose to die rather than tell the truth and ruin their reputations. John Proctor struggled with the idea with losing is reputation and his emotions come to full strength: “with a cry of his whole soul: Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that Hang! How may I live without my Name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name” (Miller 133). Proctor refuses to sign his name on the paper claiming he was corrupted with the devil, he does this to protect his “name” in other words to protect his reputation. He chose to hang instead of ruining his reputation: “It is Arthur Miller's most frequently produced play not because it addresses affairs of state nor even because it offers us the tragic sight of a man who dies to save his conception of himself and the world.” (Bigsby 147-171) A man willing to die to save his own personal image.