Reputation In The Crucible

Reputations are an enormous factor of one’s life in today’s society. They can affect one’s future, past, and present. In the novel, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the characters John Proctor, Abigail Williams, and Reverend John Hale are the characters most concerned about their reputations. Because they are attempting to protect their prominence, each of them tend to act abnormally in the Puritan society. All of the characters tend to continuously lie about their sins. However, they do contrast when it comes to the reasoning for each of them "protecting" their reputation. In a Puritan society during the witch hunting era, protecting one's name was more important than telling the truth. If one were to confess to a witch related crime, they …show more content…
In a Puritan society, a sin was punishable by jail or death. If he were to get caught for lechery and adultery because of Abigail, his life would be on the line. Abigail is protecting her prominence because she has lied in court, seduced an older man, and was kicked out of Proctor's house. Hale's job was to accuse the suspects of witchcraft. He had accused about seventy-to people of the crime. Proctor wanted to protect his wife from being hung. So, he decided to prove that the girls were lying in court. This would prove the Reverend Hale's ministry provided false accusations on the …show more content…
Proctor uses slight remarks that make others question his situation. Hale was asking Proctor and Elizabeth questions to verify that there was nothing questionable about the couple. When doing so, Proctor could not recite the last commandment- "thou shalt not commit adultery". Abigail lies and casts a spell on Elizabeth to protect her name. She uses fear to control their village. When Elizabeth went against her by removing her from the Proctor house, Abigail proceeded to dance and tell Tituba to cast a spell. Hale begins to act different when Proctor goes to court with Mary. Hale insisted that Danforth "send him home and let him come again with a lawyer-" (Arthur Miller 92). Proctor, Abigail, and Hale continuously lie to keep their reputations intact. They are similar in this way. They never miss a step in covering up their tracks. However, they are also different. Proctor and Abigail lie because they don't want to be seen by the public as adulterers and they do not want to serve jail time or be sentenced to death. Hale lies because he doesn't want to lose his reputation as a "great" minister or lose being a minister all