In the play The Crucible Arthur Miller creates a play in which there’s a town with many persons of high stature. This makes a scene that is ready for an explosion with several different beliefs and when one woman confesses to the crime of witch craft it leads to several more confessions. One those who is convicted of witch craft, whose name is john proctor, cause a stir because the people that names carry weight in the town are convicted, but will not confess it raise some doubt. Which cause Judge Danforth to demand to get John Proctor to confess, however Johns concern for the respect people have for him in the town gets the best of him as he rips up the signed confession because he would rather hang than live because he …show more content…
This also shows how Mary is worried about her reputation so she throws John under the bus.
Then a copious amount of people continue to be arrested for witch craft because these young group of girls keep making accusations at people sometimes for family personal reasons other times just to do it for attention. However this leads to a rising fear and distaste for this court in Salem, which this latter leads to someone putting a dagger in the door of Mr. Paris’s home which causes him to fear for his life. Thusly he decides to go down to the court and talk to the judge so he asks the judge to put off the hangings for some time. The Judge is then baffled by this and asks him why so he states that they aren’t just bad people that there good people who names carry a lot of weight in the town. Which causes him to believe people will over throw the court if they all hang at once and none confess.
Therefore the court is forced to make a decision to attempt to get one or some of these people whom hold status in the town to confess. Mr. Hale a reverend brought in to help …show more content…
In this attempt they decide that the wife would be the best chance to draw out the confession, so she agrees to speak with him but nothing else. While she talks with him he decides to confess because he wants his life back. He continues to admit to seeing the Devil and agrees to do his work, but when other of the convicted are brought out he will not confess to seeing anyone else.
Eventually his confession is accepted, but when the judge asks for him to hand it to him so they can nail it to the door of the church he refuses. He states his reason for refusing to hand it to them was “how may I live without my name?” because he felt that them putting there would ruin his reputation and would destroy the respect his kids had for him. So he decides he would rather hang than have his name hung and take a chance of losing respect.
This shows how the concerns for respect and reputation in john proctor prevents him from confessing and leads to him tearing up the confession which angers the judge that leads to him being hung. The theme is about a concern for respect and reputation can lead to a person making decisions that may not be the best for