The Crucible Reputation Essay

945 Words4 Pages

Matthew Raeter
LA ll Honors
Mr. Novak
December 5 2022

The power of Reputation

Throughout the historical fiction story “The Crucible” we see Arthur Miller uses difference in ideas Mr. Proctor’s world crumble, from the outside while he can do no more than just watch. Nearly everything we see Proctor cares for gets hurt or damaged in some way, First his wife begins to distrust him and hate him because of an affair he had with Abigail Williams. In The Crucible Proctor deals with the guilt of the affair he had with Abigail and how this sparks Abigail's control of Salem through her Manipulation and her given power of the people by them because of their misguided trust. This power of reputation compared Proctor’s lack of care about his reputation …show more content…

A core example of this is in act 2 when Cheever comes to the court and states “The girl, the Williams girl, Abigail Williams, sir. She sat down to dinner at Reverend Parris‘ house tonight, and without word or warning‘, she fell to the floor. “Like a struck beast,” he says, and screams a scream that a bull would weep to hear. And he goes to save her, and stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly he draws a needle out… she testified it was where your Goody Proctor’s familiar spirit pushed it in.”(Page 27) Without question they search the house of John Proctor and find a planted Poppet, Cheever finding this as evidence turns Elizabeth into the court and tries her for the attempted murder of Abigail through use of witchcraft; all of this just because of Abigail’s word. Proctor brings up the potential falsehood of their claims by saying “ If she is innocent! Why do you never wonder if Paris is innocent, or Abigail? Is the accuser always holy now? Were they born this morning as clean as God‘s fingers?”(Pg 30) but this is completely ignored by the servants of the court, potentially not wanting to accept their blind faith in Abigail. Abigail commits most of these actions due to her jealousy of Elizabeth Proctor as she is the wife of her love John Proctor. This Jealousy fuels her manipulation of the people of Salem and uses this Reputation to control the courts with