Theme of Reputation in The Crucible (Essay Sample)

When at fault, do you stay true to yourself or fib to conserve the prestige of your reputation? This is the core question of Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible. Somehow, John Proctor manages to do both through his execution of change. Specifically, John Proctor changes from a well-respected, everyday citizen and a secret wrongdoer to a devastating example for others. This turnaround in John Proctor’s character allows him to maintain a strong control of power, up until arrests of his loved ones intervene with his life because he violates accepted social norms; however, later he regains his power once he must make the difficult choice of sticking to his morals or conserving his reputation.      

Accordingly, John Proctor initially is presented as a hardworking farmer which automatically grants him power since he owns land. Throughout the beginning of the play, Proctor also has power since he knows something that no one else does, his affair with Abigail. He harnesses his power by continuing to ignore the sin he has committed rather than acknowledging it and continuing to abide by the social norms of being a good Christian when in reality, he isn’t. Although John’s wife knows about the affair, she stays subtle in an attempt to maintain their family’s good name. However, Abigail, who was a former employee of the Proctors, is not very happy that Elizabeth is still in the picture. As a result, she does everything she can to abolish what she deems an obstacle in her way, which leads to Elizabeth Proctor’s arrest. John eventually backfires at her revealing his deepest secret, the sin of adultery. Proctor states, “I wish you had some evil in you that you might know me! To Danforth: A man will not cast away his good name. You surely know that” (Miller 102). In Salem name and image is very important, Proctor’s actions and willingness to downgrade his image suggest that he truly cares about his loved ones. Furthermore, this demonstrates that power is not as important to John in comparison to conserving his relationship with his wife and family. Prior to Elizabeth’s arrest, an interrogation by Hale reveals a variety of sins that John has committed: not all of his children are baptized, he doesn’t always attend church on Sundays, and he works on Sunday. Proctor claims that he refuses to follow people who he considers to be hypocrites, like Reverend Parris who would have been responsible for baptizing his kids and Hale accepts this and legitimizes Proctor’s choice. He states, “I like it not that Mr. Parris should lay his hand upon my baby. I see no light of G-d in that man. I’ll not conceal it” (Miller 62). This proposes that not only does Proctor hate Parris but also knows that Parris is a hypocrite because he is supposed to be a man of G-d as he claims but in reality, he is only concerned with reputation. Ironically, it can be argued that Proctor is also more concerned with his reputation at this time in the play which would reveal that he and Parris are more alike than he’d like to admit. These responses to the interrogation by Hale initiate the decline of his power and once his wife is arrested, his power starts to fall rapidly. Eventually, John Proctor is arrested for engaging with the devil where he becomes completely powerless because he loses his values and his reputation is in ruins. 

Regardless of this, John Proctor does eventually regain his power once he chooses to preserve his dignity by sticking to his intuition based on his faith and makes decisions based on what he believes to be true. John has to pursue one of two options; confess to engaging with the devil or hang for not confessing. Proctor chooses to hang to avoid confessing because if he were to confess, he would have lived however with his reputation and name blackened for his entire family. Furthermore, he refuses to confess in an attempt to protect and preserve the little goodness and dignity he has left in his soul. Although he does initially confess, he rips up his signed confession, admitting that he lied about it. With a lot of expression, he states, “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” (Miller 133). This quote proves that Proctor has been pushed to the moment causing him to say this because he cannot take this ridiculously accepted nonsense any longer. When he refers to not being worth the dust on the feet of the people that hang, he is referring to his legacy and how if he confesses, he won’t be worth anything. This quote is in context to his self-respect, self-worth, reputation, and forgiveness to himself and Elizabeth, and because of this, this is the climax of the play. Proctor chooses to be hanged because it’s the honest way to leave this situation, and with this, he gains much power as he becomes an example for others to be a good Christian by keeping their values dear and not allowing the court to diminish their morals. Moreover, as Hale later begs Elizabeth to help John not pursue his decision, she tells she cannot influence him any more. She states, “He have goodness now. G-d forbid I take it from him!” (Miller 134). Essentially, Elizabeth is saying that John can finally die a man he wants to be and be satisfied with himself. This proves that Proctor can now contain both his morals as an individual and keep his reputation intact. This demonstrates a theme of pride in Proctor and how he regains power and authority over the church by making their justification for hangings of what they claim to be witches and wizards more questionable and considerably more stupid. This is important because John Proctor who is a reconizible and honorable figure within the town of Salem helped initiate the downfall of the witch trials in Salem. 

Conclusively, Proctor’s relation to power is circumstantial, starting with much of it, to practically losing it all, and then later regaining it, and based on the accepted social norms, he makes decisions where he must choose to either stay loyal to his morals, or keep up his well-known reputation. Nevertheless, with the social norms within the community, John Proctor is presented with challenges where he determines whether to stick to what he knows best, or to improvise to keep up his image and name. The roots of this problem are from a theocracy for a government which can easily be manipulated into any belief. Thankfully, our current court system is no longer a theocracy which allows for liberty and justice for all. This is crucial because it allows for a guarantee that a repetition of the Salem witch trials will very unlikely ever occur again.