The Symbolism Of Names In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

In Arthur Millers play, ‘The Crucible’, there are many references to the names of the characters. The characters refer to their names as ‘pure’ or ‘white’ to show that they are still holy and haven’t committed any sins. The characters are very religious because they are part of the puritan religion so their name remaining white or pure is important. Also the characters names are like rankings, so if you have a ‘weighty name’ – as Parris says on page 113 -, you must be an important person or from an important family. ‘Weighty’ meaning that the name has a lot of effect in the community, if someone with a weighty name does something, the town will hear of it and it will influence them in different ways.
Abigail claims that ‘there be no blush about my name’ – page 9 – when her uncle asks if her name is entirely white. He is asking about her reputation because whatever she does has a

Also when John Proctor refuses to tell Danforth that he saw anyone else with the Devil because he, again, doesn’t want to send someone else to his or her death, he would far rather be the good person. “I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another. I have no tongue for it.” – page 113. John Proctor said this to show that he will not get anyone else into trouble, if they get into trouble, it wont be because of him so he wont get the blame for someone else. I think that because they are all religious, they would rather be a good person and die than be a bad person and live because God will allow them into Heaven if they are good, and He damns liars. I think that John Proctor doesn’t give the names of people because they are his friends and he doesn’t want them to have choose between feeling the guilt of lying or dying for telling the