What Are The Similarities Between The Crucible And The Scarlet Letter

If you’ve ever read The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, or The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, you may have made a connection between the two. These two texts relate in many different ways and of course, they also have numerous differences. While comparing and contrasting the two texts, The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter, I concluded on three similarities including: a conflicted male, reputation, and setting; three differences include: reactions from Hester and Abigail, attitude of Roger Chillingworth and Elizabeth Proctor, and the communities’ opinions on the Reverends.

John Proctor from the Crucible and Arthur Dimmesdale from the Scarlet Letter both share a conflict in theses texts. Both characters obviously, have made the decision

What exactly is reputation? Reputation is the overall quality or character as seen or judged by people in general (Merriam Webster’s Dictionary). This similarity doesn’t just occur with John and Arthur, it also encompasses Abigail Williams and Hester Prynne. Of course they all have different reputations, but they still all have to face their reputation being tarnished. John is worried in the beginning about his name being tarnished by lechery; which is the unrestrained indulgence of sexual desire (The Free Dictionary). Although, late in the story his worry changes to the fear of his name being put on the Church door as confessing to witchcraft. “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” This is the statement John shouts when he is trying to convince the court to not allow his confession go up on the church door. In the Scarlet Letter, Arthur is worried about his reputation being completely ruined and losing his job if people find out that he is Pearls father. This is the main reason why Arthur wouldn’t confess to the public; fear of his reputation being destroyed. Abigail Williams from the Crucible and Hester Prynne both have their reputation tarnished because everyone is aware of the sin they had

One difference is the way Abigail and Hester handle their accusations and tarnished reputation. In the Crucible, Abigail comes off as a troubled soul in a sort of way. She has been through many things and those all help to make up the type of person she is. This quote from the text helps to show the trouble she has dealt with and what has become of her personality because of it, “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. And you know I can do it; I saw Indians smash my dear parents' heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!” As you can tell, Abigail is very bold and intimidating. Which goes to explain why she wanted revenge so badly on Elizabeth and was willing to ruin many other people’s lives in the process. Whereas in the Scarlet Letter, Hester goes on to make a good life for herself. She doesn’t try to get revenge on anyone. She just finds a way to support Pearl and herself and go about making the life she can for them. Clearly, Abigail handles the situation in a much more conflicting way then Hester