Abigail Williams Reputation Essay

In The Crucible by Arthur Miller many people’s own reputation have effects on the story. People are inherently concerned about how others think about them and sometimes this causes issues. When people become too concerned about their reputation things can start to go downhill and people can become more absorbed. Sometimes a person even gets to a point where they are so concerned about how they are viewed by society that they lie and compromise other people's positions. They might even end up going to drastic measures in order to make people think highly of them. Throughout the play, many different characters care too much about their reputations which leads to trouble in the story. The most obvious characters who demonstrate this are Abigail

She is completely full of herself and cares way too much about keeping her name clean. From the start of the play this is very clear when she goes to the drastic measure of threatening her friends in order to keep from being disliked by the Salem community. For example, when her friends want to tell the truth about what they were doing in the woods, but she does not, she says, “Now look you. All of you. We danced...And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” (Miller 1137) Abigail does not care what she has to do; she will not let her reputation be ruined, even if it compromises her so-called friends. Continuing into the trials, Abigail continues to lie and blame people in order to keep her reputation. When someone tries to accuse her she immediately denies it by getting the accuser in trouble and accused for witchcraft even though she knows, for a fact, that they are innocent. She risks people’s lives in order for her own good. For example, when Mary Warren challenges Abby, Abby immediately accuses Mary of witchcraft saying, “Why...why do you come yellow bird?...God made my face; you cannot want to tear my face. Envy is a deadly sin, Mary.” (Miller 1209) Finally, when it all gets too much for Abigail, she leaves because she

From the very beginning of the play it is obvious that all Parris cares about is himself and what the people are going to think of him. When Parris’ daughter, Ruth, is sick, and they don’t know what is wrong, his concern about himself over anyone else is clearly obvious. While his daughter is laying there in bed, his only concern is that she and Abigail were not involved with witchcraft, telling Abigail, “Abigail, I have fought here three long years to bend the stiff-necked people to me, and now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my very character. I have given you a home, child. I have put clothes upon your back - now give me an upright answer. Your name in the town - it is entirely white is it not?” (Miller 1130 Reverend Parris’ care about only his reputation and nothing else, not his family, not even his morals, becomes even more apparent when Parris lies to the court. Lying to the court is a serious and immoral offense, but Parris does not care about that, all he cares about is what the people of Salem think of him, it doesn’t matter what he seems to think of himself. When confronted in court about what he witnesses in the woods the night all of this chaos began, Parris lies in order to yet again keep the rumors of witchcraft out of his family and keep his name “white”. Although Parris knows he saw the