Jacobs 1

Josh Jacobs
Mrs. Broom
Honors English III
25 October 2016

Reputation in the Crucible

In the Crucible reputation, and status lead to many deaths, from people willing to die to
preserve their reputation, to people willing to condemn their neighbors in an attempt to gain
power. Status, and greed are more valuable to the people of Salem than justice, this is visible
through the lack of action, on the part of the people who know that they risk their reputation if
the get involved, while innocent people are accused and put to death.
The most disappointing of all of the people who fail to act is Reverend Parris, as a man
of God, his inability to condemn the lies that are flying about witchcraft, when it was within his
own household that took part in the conjuring of spirits, it is sickening to see him stand by to
keep himself, and his position safe. He fails to act, because of the faction that is about in the
community that threatens to remove him from his post, and his paranoia leads him to believe that
any blemish against him could remove him from the pulpit. He saw first hand, Abigail and the
girls dancing in the woods, and he spoke nothing of it to the people of the village, which seems
like an attempt to protect Abigail, and his daughter, but he only wishes to protect himself from
the scrutiny that would come with his daughter, and niece attempting to perform witchcraft. He
says, I have spent three long years to bend these stiff necked people's necks to me, just now
when some good respect is rising for me, you compromise my character, it is apparent that he

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values the opinions of the villagers, more than his integrity as a man, as he allow to trials to
unfold.
As a man who only values land and profit, Mr. Putnam is a man who condemns George
Jacobs to death by hanging, without the blink of an eye. He tells his daughter, one of the girls on
the court, to accuse George Jacobs or wizardry, because if a man hangs for witchcraft, then his
land becomes forfeit, Giles Corey points out the intentions of Thomas Putnam by saying, If
Jacobs hangs for a witch he forfeit up his property-thats law, and there be none but Putnam with
the coin to buy up so great a piece. Corey in essence says that Putnam is killing his neighbors
for their land, and is using the trials as a way to do so. Land was so significant at the time,
because land meant timber, a necessary resource, and it meant that more crops could be planted,
which meant more could be sold, and that created more profit, so Putnam got rid of Jacobs, as a
business move.
To John Proctor, his reputation as a honorable man, preserving that reputation was worth
his life. He is willing to face the noose, because he is more scared of his conscience, and the loss
of his last piece of himself: his name, if he confesses to a crime he did not commit. Proctor
considers living after confesses, and he says, How may I teach my boys to walk like men in this
world, when I sold my friends?, by this he means that he would not know how to look his boys
in the eyes, and tell them how to be honorable, God-fearing men, if he sold himself to a lie, to
save his neck. John believes that he will be a better example to his boys on how to live as men, if
he goes to the gallows as man who is honest, and true, so that his boys will believe that their
father was a honorable man, instead of a man who lived through a lie. Proctor is aware of the
Puritan belief that God damns all liars, and as a Christian man, he knows that it is better to

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hang as a witch than to lie, and live, in the eyes of God, and this strengthens his conviction in
facing the noose, and he goes to it without fear.
The role of reputation is equally honorable, and disgusting, in The Crucible, both are
crucial to the integrity of the play and how the events unfold, and the tragic nature of the play.
Without the fear of reputation, the play would not occur, as Reverend Parris would have made
public his finding of his niece and daughter dancing in the woods, and accusations of witchcraft
would have never been spread. The choice of dying to preserve reputation, or the choice of
accusing, and in turn condemning innocent people to gain position, shows the very clear contrast
of internal integrities between the characters. The theme of reputation is relevant to the real
world as often lies are told, and rumors are spread, without any seed of truth, because the fear of
not being cool, or accepted, keeps the truth from being spread instead of slander.