Themes of the Crucible
The Danger of Ideology
An ideology is a rigid set of beliefs that defines what an individual or community thinks. In the Puritan theocracy of Massachusetts, the main ideology held was the Puritans were a chosen people that the devil would do anything to destroy. Since religious men ran their government, the Puritans considered all government actions to be sanctioned by Heaven. This meant that any attempt to resist any of the government's actions, was considered an attempt to overthrow God. Governments fueled by such rigid convictions often fall into corruption without even realizing it. In The Crucible, Deputy Governor Danforth and Judge Hathorne believe that they're messengers of God, and therefore that everything they believe must be true and everything they do must be right. They never see a reason to reassess their thoughts and actions, which makes them easy targets for cynical liars like Abigail Williams. Characters like Abigail recognize the court's narrow-minded worldview and manipulate it to their own selfish advantage resulting in the destruction of Salem.
Reputation and Integrity
Reputation is the way that other people perceive you. Integrity is the way you perceive yourself. Several characters in The Crucible face a tough decision: to protect their reputation or their integrity. Parris, Abigail, and others protect their reputations. Rebecca Nurse and, eventually, John Proctor, choose to protect their integrity. The reputation of each individual within the Salem community largely dictated his or her fate. The witch trials featured significant subversions of the dominant social structure by elevating to a position of power individuals whose reputation and status were otherwise lowly. John Proctor is the appropriate protagonist for this story especially because he falls in the center of Salem's spectrum of reputation. The Crucible argues that those most concerned with reputation, like Parris, are dangerous to society: to protect themselves, they're
An ideology is a rigid set of beliefs that defines what an individual or community thinks. In the Puritan theocracy of Massachusetts, the main ideology held was the Puritans were a chosen people that the devil would do anything to destroy. Since religious men ran their government, the Puritans considered all government actions to be sanctioned by Heaven. This meant that any attempt to resist any of the government's actions, was considered an attempt to overthrow God. Governments fueled by such rigid convictions often fall into corruption without even realizing it. In The Crucible, Deputy Governor Danforth and Judge Hathorne believe that they're messengers of God, and therefore that everything they believe must be true and everything they do must be right. They never see a reason to reassess their thoughts and actions, which makes them easy targets for cynical liars like Abigail Williams. Characters like Abigail recognize the court's narrow-minded worldview and manipulate it to their own selfish advantage resulting in the destruction of Salem.
Reputation and Integrity
Reputation is the way that other people perceive you. Integrity is the way you perceive yourself. Several characters in The Crucible face a tough decision: to protect their reputation or their integrity. Parris, Abigail, and others protect their reputations. Rebecca Nurse and, eventually, John Proctor, choose to protect their integrity. The reputation of each individual within the Salem community largely dictated his or her fate. The witch trials featured significant subversions of the dominant social structure by elevating to a position of power individuals whose reputation and status were otherwise lowly. John Proctor is the appropriate protagonist for this story especially because he falls in the center of Salem's spectrum of reputation. The Crucible argues that those most concerned with reputation, like Parris, are dangerous to society: to protect themselves, they're