Arthur Miller’s story, “The Crucible” has characters with different motives. The new readers who have not yet understood the story would not be able to understand the reasons for different character’s motivations. This is where Kohlberg’s moral precepts come in to assist. With Kohlberg’s moral precepts, the characters can be easily distinguished. The three moral precepts are pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional.
In The Crucible, there are pre-conventional characters. Pre-conventional characters behave in a way to achieve a reward and avoid punishment. An example of a pre-conventional character is Tituba. Titubas’ owner Parris, orders her to “Confess before [he whips Tituba] to her death.” Tituba tries to avoid being scourged to death; so, she decides to lie to Parris. Another character who avoids punishment and claims a reward is Parris. Parris tells Danforth that a “dagger” was thrown at his door and terrified Parris. He asks Danforth to extend the hanging of John Proctor so he can avoid having the town be in a rebellion. And lastly, Mary Warren is the last example. When John Proctor tells Mary to confess the lie of seeing the devil, she refuses because she worries about “[Abigail killing her]”. She did not want Abigail to kill her so she avoided confessing and lives. In conclusion, Tituba, Parris, and Mary are pre-conventional characters in The Crucible.
In The Crucible, there are conventional characters. Conventional characters behave in a way to obtain group acceptance. The first example of a conventional character is Tituba. When Hale asks Tituba to “take courage [and give the] names” of who she saw with the devil, Tituba starts saying names. Hale and the magistrates accept Tituba being innocent and stop arguing against her. This makes Tituba obtain group acceptance from the magistrates. Another character who wants to obtain group acceptance is Mary Warren. Mary was commanded by John Proctor to confess the lie of seeing the devil but later refuses, goes back to Abigail, and tells her “[she does not want to hurt Abigail anymore]”. Mary obtains group acceptance and no longer suffers from being pressured into confessing. Lastly, the girls are the final example. After Tituba mentions some names of who she saw with the devil the girls mention more names such as “[Goody Hawkins, Goody Bibber, and more]”. The girls have done this to show they are not guilty of witchcraft and have the judges accept them as innocent. To sum this up, there are conventional characters who want to obtain group acceptance in The Crucible
Finally, The Crucible has post-conventional characters who behave in a way that suggests they have internalized a set of values. These values are not influenced by punishment, award, or group acceptance. A prime example of a post-conventional character is John Proctor. John Proctor signs a paper for his confession to lechery but refuses because his name would have a bad reputation and “[he] cannot live another life” with the same name. Later, he dies instead of living with his name with an unpleasant reputation. Another character who is not influenced by punishment, award, or group acceptance is Giles Corey. Giles Corey had stones stacking on him while the judges attempted to negotiate for Giles to confess the name of the person the judges wanted but Giles asked for “more weight” to stack on him instead. He did not care about his life ending and ignored the influence of the set of values to make him confess. The final example is Elizabeth Proctor. Danforth told Elizabeth if her husband committed lechery, she would say, “No sir” and saves her husband’s life and reputation. Elizabeth threw her reputation for being an honest Christian and kept her husband alive. From what has been said, there are post-conventional characters who are not influenced by the set of values in The Crucible.
After all the explanation, using Kohlberg’s moral precepts, readers can understand and distinguish the character’s motives in The Crucible whether they are pre-conventional, conventional, or post-conventional.