The Theme Of Reputation In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

In my opinion the theme of The Crucible is to not jump to conclusions. There are many instances in the play where people jump to conclusions and very bad things happen in return. Another theme that the author is trying to portray is that reputation doesn't matter. For example, in the play many people would not have gotten convicted, had Rev. Parris not cared so much about his reputation he would have come clean about the girls and the trials would probably have stopped.An example of Rev. Parris only caring about his reputation is when he say “Abigail, I have fought here three long years to bend these stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my very character.” and he didn't care about whether the girls were okay and only cared about his reputation. Also the judges did not want to stop the trials even when they were presented evidence that would have stopped the trials and they didn't even want to see the evidence just because it would have ruined their reputation. Even Rev. Hale realized he was wrong after he gets over the fact that he will ruin his reputation he even says “Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my own. I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I brought, and what I touched
Arthur Miller was around during the Hollywood Blacklist which was when the government hunted down communists in hollywood and they falsely accused some people and he was accused and even said “I have lost the dead weight of fear I had then” which shows how scared he was when the blacklist was going on, so I think he would connect the two incidents. Also the reason he wrote The Crucible was because he thought it was like a witch hunt was going on so I think he would think the two were somewhat the