Deceitfulness and Reputation: Themes in The Crucible

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The Crucible is about senator Joseph McCarthy and his "communist witch- hunts" that were attempting to root out subversives in government and the entertainment industry. The play itself is about the 1692 Salem witch trials in which a group of girls accused others of being witches. Arthur Miller draws parallels between this event and his own trial for supposedly being a communist agent. This essay will speak of two themes I noticed throughout the book: deceitfulness and reputation. These themes will be presented through text references and characters within the play. The first character to display a little of both deceitfulness and reputation would be John Proctor. In the beginning, John Proctor was a well respected man who valued his image and reputation. He was a man for exposing hypocrisy and was respected for this and actually made a reputation of this and his good family. He was a man with a great farm, three sons, and a beautiful wife who made him the ideal Puritan man, well before his "fall." John committed adultery with a young girl by the name of Abigail, age 17, who was working for John and his wife as a housekeeper. This was not only a matter of adultery it was also Lechery. Lechery was enough to destroy any man's character and respect, and John knew this, which is why he decided to hide it. …show more content…

Abigail lies about her ability to see "spirits" and tries to blame Tituba for everything when she is almost caught for playing with witchcraft, yet she is the one who persuaded Tituba to cast the spells. There is also proof of this deceitfulness in her actually accusing others of witchcraft just to save herself. In Act II she is again being deceitful when she blames Elizabeth Proctor; John Proctor's wife, for witchcraft. After her affair with John Proctor, she was after Elizabeth's position at John's side. A good reference of Abigail being deceitful could be found in Act I. pgs. 113-

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