Honor In The Crucible

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Honor can be seen as many things including great respect or privilege, while pride is more defined as being especially proud of ones self. In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, honor and pride go hand and hand as the play comes to an end and one-man’s death gets various interpretations that do not match the true meaning. The witch trials, taken place in Salem, MA, come about by the lies of girls who try to hang those who stand in their way. As the story progresses, the town’s people have to think to save themselves or die by not admitting to being a witch. The hysteria made comes after the author during the McCarthy trails, where Miller was accused and tried of communism. He took his experience and used it to write The Crucible. The actions of …show more content…
When Proctor is accused and sentenced to hang Hale goes to Goody Proctor to convince him to live honorably: “Let him give his lie. Quail not before god’s judgment in this, for it may well be God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride. Will you plead with him?” (134). Hale would rather not have Proctor throw his life away for some form of fulfillment and instead live to be with his wife and children. Hale suggests Proctor is dying for pride, but Proctor shows with his words and actions that not signing his name to a lie means much more than pride. As Proctor gets a last chance to save his life, he refuses to sign his name to a lie and give into the pressure: “I have three children- how may I teach them to walk like men in the world, and I sold my friends?” (144). Proctor immediately thinks of his family and friends that would suffer if he lived. He would have to name people’s names before the court and survive on a lie to not hang, which was something he would be uncomfortable doing. Proctor makes the choice then that he is not worthy to live and that dying would ultimately set the example of living a fulfilled life. Prior to ripping up the paper with his confession, Proctor proclaims that it cannot hang because it is all a lie and would ruin his and the names of people who have died before him: “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!” (145). Proctor breaks and cannot let the town see the confession he falsely signed. It takes all that is left of him to reclaim himself and prepare to die with other colonists who have been wrongly accused and chose to die for the truth. Proctor hangs before the town with honor knowing there were no lies or deception left
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