Handle with care
Our reputations are beliefs and opinions that are held by our friends, family and even complete strangers about bout us. Someone’s reputation determines how they will be seen before even meeting them, almost like a first impression. Which is why your reputation is something you need to handle with care and protect, however some will go to extremes in doing this for instance the play The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller. It is a look into what it was like back in the 1800’s during the Salem witch trails. During this play Miller makes the strong argument of the importance of reputation and the countless ways people will protect it. In the play this occurs with many of the characters some more than others yet it’s of importance to everyone in some way or another. The protection of one’s reputation also occurs outside of the play, an example of this would be in politics and sports. In the play The Crucible, Author Miller makes the argument that reputation is incredibly important and people will go to great lengths such as betrayal and lying to protect it, quite often ones morality will become altered when protecting their reputation.
Protecting ones reputation can cause them to betray others witch will allow them to alter there morality. Right away we get a glimpse of what Paris values in his life when he tries to get information out of Abigail of what made Betty sick, “Abigail… now my ministry’s at stake … and perhaps your cousin’s life” (Miller 11). With this statement we can see that Paris places more importance in his church then his own daughter. Miller is communicating that the people of Salem are more concerned with their reputations then the important people in their lives. In a way Paris is betraying his d...
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...ns in regular life. For instance, recently the famous bike rider Lance Armstrong finally confessed that he had been lying about taking performance enhancing drugs. Armstrong lied to the public and to himself about taking the substances; the reason for his untruthfulness is so his good name will be preserved. However his lies eventually caught up to him.
The concept of protecting your reputation by lying or betraying others is in sense ironic; in order to keep people from seeing you as someone that is corrupt you do those corrupt actions. The importance of someone’s reputation and the distance they will go to keep it untainted is based on the individual but as Miller showed us it’s easy for someone to go against what they believe in and become corrupt. Humans naturally want others to see them in a positive way, which is why you must handle your reputation with care.
Would you be willing to die to keep your reputation clean? Would you besmirch the good name of other people for your own gain? These are the questions characters from the Crucible had to ask themselves. In The crucible by Arthur Miller, Young girls went around accusing people of witchery for their own gain this caused many people to falsely be hanged on accusations of witchery, and for some people it meant tainting their name or be hanged, like in the case of John Proctor. Arthur miller shows us in the crucible that one’s reputation is one of the most important things in
Reputation is a company’s biggest asset so you would think that organisations would avoid engaging in any sort of business that would put its reputation in jeopardy. Nevertheless, many organisations find their credibility destroyed due to practices that are harmful and illegal, which could land a CEO’s in prison.
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible reputation was a critical factor for characters like John Proctor and Reverend Parris. As a hard working farmer, John Proctor cared very much about having a good name. Reverend Parris had a good reason to care about his reputation since he was a very respected religious leader. I don’t think reputation is everything but for these characters it was very important.
Honor, dignity, and integrity are traits that are becoming more and more rare in our society. The Crucible, a play written in 1952 by Arthur Miller, is based on the Salem witch hunts of 1692 and parallels the Red Scare and McCarthyism in the 1950s. In the play, Miller attempts to focus his themes around traits such as honor, dignity, and integrity, and as a result, the theme "is it better to die honorably or live dishonorably" becomes vital to the story and well conveyed throughout it. The characters that exemplify this idea are John Proctor and Giles Corey, both of whom die by the end of the play, and Reverend John Hale and Abigail Williams, who live through the trials.
The absolute power of aristocracies is a scourge on society that corrupts minds and imposes too much of an impact on the lives of the majority. At the time when Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible, society was subject to McCarthyism, the unquestionable authoritative force that could and did ruin the lives of those suspected of communism. Yet, of these people who suffered the brunt of punishment from authority, a numerous percentage of them displayed hypocrisy in accusing others out of survival. In The Crucible, Miller reflects this idea of hypocrisy in an environment where unquestionable authority reigns. His work displays the essentiality in rising out of such an insincere state and acting upon what
From the very start of the text we can see that reputation is a key factor in Salem, it is first noticed at the beginning of act one, when Reverend Parris’s daughter is sick due to unknown reasons, however this particular detail does not show that reputation is a motivating factor. It is the fact that Parris had found Betty dancing in the woods with various other girls from the village and at least one of them were naked. This event could prove Betty practising witchcraft, but also be the reason for her falling ill. Shortly after this event it is revealed to the reader that Parris is ashamed to call witchcraft in the “holy” town of Salem, let alone his own household, he states that he has “enemies” that if they find out this information would
The Crucible is a great example of the importance of reputation but the most paramount theme remains to be the staggering roles of hysteria. Hysteria is defined as, “an overwhelming fear and excitement that overrides all logic, and is often enhanced and intensified by the presence of others who are acting out on that fear.” (Campbell). Hysterically in Act 3, “She [Mary Warren] and all the girls run to one wall, shielding their eyes. And now, as though cornered, they let out a gigantic scream, and Mary, as though infected, opens her mouth and screams with them." (Miller, Act 3). The role of hysteria is the main theme throughout the play and it’s represented within the characters Danforth, Abigail, and Proctor.
A reputation can be so well established that if one person in power does a wrongdoing people will not believe it. For example when Mrs. Muller says, “Let me ask you something. You honestly think that priest gave Donald that wine to drink?” (47). Donald’s mother is questioning sister Aloysius because she does not believe Father Flynn would do something like that. He has a reputation of being a great priest and his reputation is better than Sister Aloysius’. Mrs. Muller states, “You’re not going against no man in a robe and win, Sister. He’s got the position.” (47). Just by Father Flynn being a male he has a higher reputation than a nun, which he knows and can accumulate for his actions. In the hierarchy of the Church, the head male priest is the most dominant. Therefore, nobody questions what he is doing; he has a reputation of being this influential priest who gives great sermons. He knows that he has the power to do what he wants and has his fellow Monsignor and other men in the ...
A person’s character can have a lot of influences in weather or not they can maintain their morals. In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the town of Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony is taken over by witch trials. They are started by young girls who accuse people of being witches in order to avoid getting into trouble for having been caught dancing naked in the woods. Reverend Hale, who is considered an expert in witches, is called in to assist the courts with the trials and give his opinion on the severity of the situation. At first he believes these cases are true, however he changes his opinion when the credibility of the accusers come into question, and he also denounces the courts proceedings. Various townspeople believe that the girls are lying, and some people try to stand up to them but end up being accused of being a witch and dying. The internal struggles of the character play a large part in determining whether or not they will be successful or not in standing up to the girls, and if they will be able to maintain their morals. Two of the people who stood up to the girls are Mary Warren and Reverend John Hale; Reverend Hale was able to maintain his morals by looking at the situation for a neutral prospective and going by the facts, whereas Mary Warren, a girl who was one of the accusers, was unable to successfully maintain her morals and stop the unjust trials because she was fearful of the other girls, she is self-centered, and she had no confidence.
The theme of reputation and quest for people is also portrayed clearly in The Crucible. In the old days, children were considered unimportant. They weren't allowed to speak until given permission to, and they didn't make important decisions at all. However, during the witch court trials, Abigail and other girls had the power to say who was innocent and who was guilty. Probably, for the first time in their lives, they had power over Salem and they wanted to maintain it. Moreover, the authorities of Salem were afraid of losing authorities and power. For example, the judges, Governor Danforth and Ezekiel Cheever didn't want to admit that they were being fooled by a bunch of girls so they insisted that witchcraft existed in the town of Salem.
In the crucible, I believe reputation and respect was interwoven in the term of the play the ‘‘crucible’’. Reputation and Respect can also be a theme or a thematic idea in the play, reputation is very essential in a town where social status is synonymously to ones competence to follow religious rules. Your standing is what enables you to live as one in a community where everyone is bound to rules and inevitable sequential instructions. Many characters for example, john proctor and reverend parris, base their action on the motive to protect their reputation which is only exclusive to them. People like reverend parris saw respect as what made them important or valuable in a town like Salem, this additionally imprinting to his character as a very conventional man.
In the Crucible, Parris did not want to ruin his reputation because if he had not killed all the others who were accused of witchcraft it would have made him look really bad. Although, after they figured out that Abigail was faking the whole the thing. He still had to do what was right to protect his reputation. So this here shows how important and valuable a persons reputation is, in today's society. The people of Salem would
Reputation is the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something. A famous American poet once said: “Oh reputation dearer far than life”. James Russell Lowell highlights the importance of reputation by declaring it more important than even human life itself. This idea is also found in ‘The Crucible’ as many characters will be challenged between telling the truth and dying, or saving their reputation. In ‘The Crucible’, this theme beholds a key position in the unrolling of the story as an impression of control over the outcome of people’s lives is created by its importance.
The reputation of a person is very important to their standing in the community, and especially in a religious community. In the play the Crucible, Arthur Miller shows the importance of social standing by religious beliefs and contemporary social dynamics. Therefore, the play was based off of a historical context, witchcraft, some characters represent as a scapegoat while others act as an antithesis of being a witch to meet the society’s standards.
Charles was a greedy man. He was cold hearted and never philanthropic. This "Scrooge" was the CEO of a multi-million dollar stock company in New York City. Charles often told his employees that honesty is the key to success and that he would not tolerate liars. When approached by a potential client himself, he told the client that he would be sure to consult with him before making any major decisions. As soon he left the room, however, he transferred all of the man's stock to a different holder without asking the man's permission. As long as the outcome benefited him, dishonesty was acceptable. This man's hypocrisy parallels Arthur Miller's novel about the Salem witch trials. In The Crucible, the theme of hypocrisy plagues the pages and the three characters that exemplify this theme the most are Danforth, Paris, and Mary Warren.