Reputation in The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter Literature Essay Sample

It is human nature to assign a bias to a person or a group of people. A society's core is built on people trusting the reputation of someone to do the right thing. However, as seen countless times throughout the historically based books The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and The Crucible by Arthur Miller, not everyone with a golden reputation is indeed a good person. A person's character, or their moral goodness, will always show their true colors. One person with a sterling character, Abraham Lincoln, proclaimed, “Perhaps a man's character is like a tree, and his reputation its shadow; the shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." In their works, both Hawthorne and Miller exert the fact that a person's value in society is judged by their character and not their reputation.

One example in which a person’s value in society is judged by their character and not their reputation is in The Scarlet Letter. In this book, the main character Hester Prynne is labeled as an adulteress, and because of this, is immediately looked down upon and shamed. However, her value to a society based on her character stood out, and over the years, and as she kept contributing her hard work, the people of the town changed their minds over her reputation. Hawthorne suggests this notion when discussing Hesters “A”, or her mark of adultery, “The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her,—so much power to do, and power to sympathize,—that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength.”(Hawthorne 146). This quote shows how although a bad or unjust reputation can damage a person, the work that a person does to their community is valued more. The scarlet letter, once a crucial part of how Hester is remembered, has its original meaning largely forgotten, and she is seen as a valuable contributor to the town. Her character in the story does not fluctuate with her reputation, and her true colors as a quiet, hardworking member of society shone through her embroiled past.  Another example of this is the polar opposite case of Reverend Dimmesdale. Loved by the townspeople, and seen as one of the most saintly figures in society, he shocks everyone by revealing that his reputation as a person who always follows god is a lie, and he was the adulterer in the case of Hester. More than all, Dimmesdale projects to the town that his credibility was not as glimmering as once seen in Chapter 23, “People of New England!” cried he, with a voice that rose over them, high, solemn, and majestic,—yet had always a tremor through it, and sometimes a shriek, struggling up out of a fathomless depth of remorse and woe,—“ye, that have loved me!—ye, that have deemed me holy!—behold me here, the one sinner of the world! At last!—at last!—I stand upon the spot where, seven years since, I should have stood; here, with this woman, whose arm, more than the little strength wherewith I have crept hitherward, sustains me, at this dreadful moment, from grovelling down upon my face! Lo, the scarlet letter which Hester wears! Ye have all shuddered at it! Wherever her walk hath been,—wherever, so miserably burdened, she may have hoped to find repose,—it hath cast a lurid gleam of awe and horrible repugnance round about her. But there stood one in the midst of you, at whose brand of sin and infamy ye have not shuddered!”(Hawthorne 227). Dimmesdale proclaims in this scene to an awe-stricken town the enormity of his sin, and the crowds realize that their image of Dimmesdale was all a lie. Without this revelation, the townspeople would have continued thinking that Dimmesdale was a figure free from sins and saintly when in reality he had committed adultery with Hester. Reputation, as seen in Hester’s case, can also be detrimental to a person, and changing it can spell well for a person. However, in both examples, the person's character masked their reputation, and this allowed for their true value to society to be shown.

Another example in which a person’s value in society is judged by their character, and not their reputation is in the novel The Crucible. In the novel, there is a lot of evidence riding on reputation, to begin with, as the use of spectral evidence and ministers to prove guilt requires the reputation of a person to determine the truth. One such person was Abigail, who hid her affair with John Proctor and used her “white” name in the town to mount false evidence against the defendants. Miller implies that Abigail is very self-conscious about her personal reputation in the town in Act 1, “Abigail, in a temper: My name is good in the village! I will not have it said my name is soiled! Goody Proctor is a gossiping liar!” (Miller 12). It is revealed that Abigail wants to be with John, and uses this motive to justify persecuting Elizabeth in the witch court. Judge Danforth, the presiding officer, softened up to Abigail once hearing about her accusals and their fate. In the end, however, she was exposed as a thief, having run away from town while stealing from Reverend Parris. Although Abigail had wanted her name to be “good” in the village, her true colors and cunning characters caused irreversible damage to people's livelihoods and wellbeing, and her character proved to be the undoing of her. The person with whom Abigail had an affair, John Proctor, was also suffering from his character and reputation in the town. When discussing with his wife Elizabeth as to whether he should save his life and lie to the judges, he recants his past sins compared to those scheduled to hang with him. “Proctor: I cannot mount the gibbet like a saint. It is a fraud. I am not that man. My honesty is broke, Elizabeth; I am no good ,am. Nothings spoiled by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before.”(Miller 136). In this scene, Proctor understands that the people in the village consider him to be a good man, and realizes that he is a fraud if he hangs with people thinking he has done nothing wrong in his life. In the end, Proctor does to honorable thing for the village and shows his true character by not damning his friends by accepting the lie.  Both examples show how character judges someone's value in society, and not reputation because the real impact that each person made on the story was determined by how their character shone through in the heat of the moment.

Although a person's character is sometimes hidden by overblown comments on their past standing in the town, it truly carries weight because of their impacts on the town. Reputation cannot achieve real work or progress alone and needs a character behind it to fulfill the duties of society. Both Miller and Hawthorne’s texts reveal this message, and how character means more than the person's reputation to society. The actions of brave people such as Hester, who break the social stigma by proving their worthiness, to weak people such as Abigail, who mislead entire communities and contribute nothing to the town, show how character glistens through the fog of speculation and gossip. The power of a person's will and strength shows in their character, and this impacts society more than a facade of an individual.