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Who Is John Proctor's Reputation In The Crucible

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In Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, many innocent people were arrested and hanged for witchcraft. Playwright Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953. In this play, he tells about the characters involved and what happened during these harsh times. This event is known as the Salem Witch Trials. As many as 19 people were killed because of a group of girls trying to save their good name. In The Crucible, many of the characters lie to preserve their reputation which leads to the death of many innocent people. John Proctor cares so strongly about his reputation that he even dies in an attempt to preserve it. John is a well-known man in the town of Salem. John earns his living by farming and is married to Elizabeth Proctor. John and Abigail Williams have an …show more content…

Danforth believes strongly in the witchcraft idea and sentences many people to be hanged. He believes everything Abigail and the girls tell him. He doesn’t believe anyone who says they are innocent and sentences anyone who pleads not guilty to death. Danforth realizes close to the end of the story that maybe the witchcraft accusations aren’t completely true. He starts changing the way he acts when this happens and starts listening to the accused more instead of just the girls. He also gets angry more easily and yells at Parris, “Mr. Parris you are a brainless man!” (1100). Danforth yells this at Parris after Abigail and Mercy Lewis steal Parris’s money and leave town on a ship. This confirms that the girls are lying but Danforth doesn’t want to admit it so he directs his anger toward Parris. Even after the girls leave town and he knows that the witchcraft stories didn't actually happen, Danforth thinks that if he changes his mind after he sentenced all those people to death, the whole community would think less of him. This leads him to hang John Proctor and two other women even after he knows of the girls’ lies just so he could retain his good

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