Human Integrity in The Crucible Essay Example

It is nobler to die with integrity than to live without respect. Human integrity is the quality of having strong ethical or moral principles and following them. A person with integrity acts with honesty, honor, and truthfulness. Integrity can be shown through all stages of human life. Someone’s age does not determine whether they are a person of true integrity or not. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, he shows that human integrity is found in the moral characteristics of Rebecca Nurse, Elizabeth Proctor, and John Proctor.

Rebecca Nurse demonstrates the meaning of integrity throughout the play with her strong morals and actions. She refuses to abandon her moral code after being accused as a witch and having to be killed for it. Burt has argued that “The Crucible…claims it’s audience by it’s psychological and moral questioning of what is worth dying for and living to protect”(The Crucible 5). The play showed many characters like Rebecca who weren’t willing to give up their identity and morals to live. Rebecca Nurse’s character was pure and she was known as a wise and sensible woman in the town. It has been stated that, “...If Rebecca Nurse be tainted, then nothing’s left to stop the whole green world from burning”(Bloom 9). This article proves that Rebecca Nurse was of high character in the town and that if she was going to be accused of witchcraft then there would be no hope for the rest of them. Rebecca Nurse went against the norm and refused to lie about her identity. Goody Nurse is one of the older characters in the play but she still has human integrity which further proves that integrity comes at all stages of life. She decided that her morals were worth dying for and displayed a fair share of human integrity throughout the duration of the play. Similarly, Elizabeth Proctor shows strong morals and high human integrity as well.

Elizabeth Proctor displays human integrity when trying to save herself and her husband’s life. People in the town know her as a woman of high moral, christian values and someone who has high human integrity. Elizabeth learnt throughout the way of the play the magnitude of moral integrity through agony. Huftel expressed that, “Elizabeth…has learnt through suffering that ‘God’s most precious gift’ is not life at any price, but the life of spiritual freedom and moral integrity”(311). Goody Proctor had to experience the lowest of lows to see that her own morals and freedoms were what was most predominant. She showed a substantial amount of integrity when she tried to protect her husband, John Proctor. Abbotson mentions that she lies for the first time to save him. Then continues to write that, “We see Elizabeth declare her love and her willingness to sacrifice that love by allowing Proctor to die rather than relinquish his integrity”(4). She loved John enough to let him go because it was what was best for his integrity and morals. Elizabeth tries to show her husband that before you ask for forgiveness, you must morally be able to forgive yourself. When Goody Proctor expressed her forgiveness to John it showed a shift in him and ultimately led him to die for what he thought was right. She was somewhere in her late twenties in the play and still was able to gain integrity just like seventy year old Rebecca nurse. Elizabeth learnt the importance of human integrity and was able to show her husband how he could as well even during the most burdensome times. Moreover, John Proctor is also able to display acts of integrity throughout the play.

John Proctor shows the most significant amount of human integrity in the play. He demonstrates this in the face of death, when sacrificing his entire reputation and by trying to protect his wife. Burt proves that, “John’s assertion of personal integrity in the face of death becomes the play’s great tragic turning point”(Miller, Arthur 3). Proctor finally shows he is going to stay true to his morals and integrity. This created questioning in the town if they had been wrongfully accusing people of witchcraft. This point of the play ultimately shook up the entire town all because of John’s declaration of human integrity. Burt also states in another article that, “The play's final irony is that John is able to regain his life-his identity and integrity-by sacrificing his life”(The Crucible 5). Even though John got back his identity and integrity he had to lose his life for it. Pearson demonstrates how John “shows to his society, through the archetypes represented by other characters in the play, finally to the self, reached when he decides to die an honorable death”(2). When John sacrifices his reputation he not only gains his own integrity back but also gets back the identity of the wrongfully accused in his town as well. He shows this with bravery and by standing up for his moral beliefs no matter the consequences. Burt shows how the author of the play felt when writing this moment of sacrifice, “ It is ‘that moment of commitment…that moment when, in my eyes, a man differentiates himself from every other man…the less capable a man is of walking away from the central conflict of the play, the closer he approaches a tragic existence”(Miller, Arthur 3). He is showing how John Proctor was a tragic hero and how he went against the norm. It shows how John’s death was because he stood up for his own integrity and identity which he refused to let go of. Abbotson shows us how John sacrifices his reputation for his wife, “Proctor tries to free Elizabeth by blackening his own name with a public confession of adultery”(4). We see here the amount of love he has for his wife when he decides he rather let her live than himself. We see John trying to protect his wife a couple of more times throughout the play. He is willing to give up his own integrity and identity for Elizabeth. Douglass states that, “Proctor then reconsiders his decision and signs a confession…his love for his wife convinces him to surrender his integrity for her”(313). John was going to do whatever it took to protect his wife, no matter what the consequences were. He shows a loss of human integrity in this part of the play by giving up everything to protect the one he loves. He shows this loss of integrity at the young adulthood stage of his life like his wife, Elizabeth does. John showed the most integrity out of all of the characters because he showed true honesty at the end of the play and died a very honorable death. With all considered, these characters showed human integrity in all different forms.

Arthur Miller exhibited great depths of human integrity in The Crucible through the characters of Rebecca Nurse, Elizabeth Proctor, and John Proctor. All of these characters had to learn the principles and values of moral integrity along the way. They had to stand up for their identities in the face of death. Rebecca and Elizabeth tried to stay pure in a town of wicked people. John ultimately sacrificed himself and his integrity out of love for his wife and doing whatever it takes to protect her. They all faced some type of suffering and hardships that affected their morals and ways of life. All of them showed true honor, honesty, and truthfulness at one point or another in the play. It is shown how human integrity can be found in all stages of life because Goody Nurse is shown experiencing it at an older age and then the Proctor’s in their young adulthood. The age of a person does not determine the goodness of their heart. All three of these characters embodied the virtues of human integrity and that was what ultimately made their moral characteristics so significant.