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The Importance Of Reputation In The Crucible

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In a setting of Salem, Massachusetts 1692, religion is the direct reflection of one's social standing. Reputation is extremely important for the town, as it is your only way to get a fair hearing and respect from the people. The protectiveness of reputation is necessary in The Crucible to justify yourself when presented with fallacious arguments. In this play the importance of reputation is revealed though the uses of ethos, logos and pathos. The protectiveness of reputation is uncovered through various characters such as Reverend Hale, Reverend Parris, and John Proctor. Reverend Parris shows the first example of the importance of reputation in the Salem. In Act I, lines 63-66, Parris discovers the girls dancing in the forest; he recognizes the threat of witchcraft that has formed in his …show more content…

In Act It shows that everyone accused was either a witch or innocent, and that evidence did not have to be brought up to prove any source of credibility. Without a good reputation would provoke unjust accusations being placed upon you, and no one to defend you. The protectiveness of self-image reflects on Arthur Miller's message on unfair government practices. The reason the people of Salem were so protective of their reputation was because the government in Salem did not have any uniform limitations. This made the government in Salem very biased towards more respectable and powerful figures in the town. Bias in government is shown in The Crucible and in news media today. The issue of bias in news we hear about everyday is very common. Bias is spread rapidly and is not reliable, this compare to The Crucible as hysteria spread throughout the town and accusations were very prominent. The bias Arthur Miller reveals is how the government tended to follow in compliance to the more reputable people in authority; how evidence did not have to be present to accuse

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Thesis Statement: In Arthur Miller’s Tragedy, The Crucible, it shows past events of the Salem Witch trials, as an allegorical unfairness of the McCarthy Trials, in which the word of a person can be misdemeanors or disregarded, based from mostly of their social importance in its hierarchy to mainly benefit the accuser within tragedy however, within the play it has segments to go against that old traditional social order, with a new type of order to overturn the view of society, and can be shown through split of groups. Paragraph #1: Topic Sentence: One’s words could mean of any value is depended importance of person in an social division inside the, The Crucible, matters greatly inside of the Puritan town whether the townspeople should even believe in the words of someone younger, and is a female,

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In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the setting is Salem, Massachusetts during the late 1600s where the town’s pious Puritan beliefs directly influence their government. A 17-year-old girl named Abigail Williams had an affair with John Proctor, a wealthy, married man. Abigail is told by John to move on but instead, Abigail starts accusing the townspeople of witchcraft, including John Proctor’s wife Elizabeth. As this hysteria begins to rise, other people such as Thomas Putnam, a rich landowner, start to also allege Salem villagers. In this play, the author illustrates the central idea that people should not allow jealousy to control their actions.

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Based on the tragic events of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, The Crucible is a hard-hitting tale that reflects upon the subjectivity of goodness and virtue, sparking the reflection of the importance of moral behavior during times of hardship and crisis. In an unyielding and restricted Puritan community like Salem village, a bad reputation could result in social exclusion and scorning from the community. As a result, many members of the community would go to extremes to avoid tarnishing their reputations. The Crucible asserts that those who are concerned only with protecting their standings are dangerous to a society, as they are willing to blame and hurt other people in order to protect themselves.

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