Themes of Pride and Integrity in The Crucible Essay

The Crucible was not widely accepted when it was originally released. The literature was Arthur Millers response to McCarthyism and the Red Scare. During the play Abigail Williams accuses most of Salem of being a witch. This leads to mass hysteria within the town. Which in turn leads to Reverend Parris bringing Reverend John Hale to Salem. Hale is there to sort out and get rid of any presence of the Devil. There is a multitude of themes in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. These range any where from guilt and revenge to authority and integrity. A very apparent theme is pride. Pride controls many things in the play: how characters act, how they feel, and what they say. Pride can be easily confused with integrity. Pride and integrity†¦show more content†¦Parris pride causes him to hide the fact that Abigail had run away and stolen his money. When his niece ran away, this greatly affected his pride because it made her look guilty. One may believe that she fled Salem not being able to face anyone and deal with her guilt. Another example of pride would be with John Proctor. John Proctor was your everyday man. He was a farmer, he claimed to be Godly though he was said to never attend church. Not attending church then was very frowned upon and even considered a horrible sin. His wife, Elizabeth Proctor, was accused of witchcraft by Abigail Williams. Abigail did this to get revenge because Elizabeth fired her. Elizabeth did this because Abigail had an affair with John. He would not confess to being associated with the Devil because it was not true and he did not want shame brought to his name. Though his wife talked him into confessing, he would not sign his name to the paper. Not only did he not sign his name; he also ripped up the papers. This shows a great deal of pride as well, being that he would not confess because of the way society would look at him thinking that he was associated with the Devil. 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