There are many examples of Kohlberg’s morals that can be found within The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Kohlberg’s morals created by psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg are categories based on how people make decisions, there are three categories those being pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional. The Crucible has a very diverse cast and putting each individual into one or more of these titles is difficult and is what this essay is about.
The first category is pre-conventional, where characters act in a way to avoid punishment or to gain a reward. Abigail Williams is a quintessential example of a pre-conventional character because she will do anything to get what she wants, not caring if she hurts others. An example of this is when she cries out saying, “She made me do it! She made Betty do it!” Abigail immediately throws Tituba under the bus to escape punishment for dancing in the woods. This moment shows her manipulative behavior and how little she cares about others in contrast to herself. Her lies would later kill multiple people and families, but this still doesn’t bother her. Another clear example is Tituba, who becomes one of Abigail’s first victims. When she is accused of working with the devil, she responds by confessing, “He say Mr. Parris must be killed!” Though Tituba has never helped the devil, she knows that denying the accusations will only cause her death. So, she confessed to avoid this. Lastly, Mary Warren also acts in a very pre-conventional way. When she says, “I’ll not hang with you! I love God!” she turns on Proctor to save herself. Like Tituba, Mary’s confession is not out of guilt but out of fear of punishment. Mary Warren is constantly switching up and lying to avoid punishment.
The second category is Conventional, where characters make decisions in a way to fit in with a group. While Mary Warren acts pre-conventional, she is also a very conventional character. This is proven when she says. “I’ll murder you, he says.” Mary warren is once again lying but this time she’s following the lead of Abigail and her peers trying to fit in and not wanting to be ousted by her friends. This action proves that her decisions are influenced by her want to fit it. The next example is Judge Danforth. He will do anything to keep his career in the court with the other judges, and this is proven when he says, “A person is either with this court or he must be counted against it.” This quote shows that Danforth will not backdown no matter how bad it looks because all of the other judges are in on it and if he were to back down that would prove that he was wrong and was fooled by a little girl. The last conventional character is Elizebeth Proctor. Elizebeth was always a very good person abiding by the rule to never lie, but the one time she did lie was in the court when her husband was on trail. She says, “My husband is a goodly man sir.” This is a great example because she lies for the first time for her husband showing just how much she loves him but unfortunately it doesn’t turn out well.
The third and final category is post-conventional. This is when a character isn’t influenced by anything other than their morals and what they think is right. The first example is Elizabeth Proctor. She is undoubtedly the purest character in the story and just does things because she thinks it’s the right thing to do even if it hurts her. An example of this is when she says, “He have his goodness now, God forbid I take it from him.” This quote shows how caring Elizabeth proctor is, she knows she’s about to lose one of the most important people in her life but realizes that if she saves him, he will just suffer more. Knowing this she puts her feelings aside letting him die a good man. The second character is John Hale, a character who starts a lot like Danforth just wanting to keep his job in the court but after seeing what was happening, he realized it was wrong. He said, “I quit this court!” He knows doing this made him lose the comfortable spot he was in but seeing everything that was being done to the innocent civilians he decides to leave. Lastly, Giles Correy, when he was accused Giles would try his hardest to save himself but when he gives his testimony, he is unable to name the person who gave him it. No matter how much the court tortures him he would not name this person and before he died, he says two words those being “More weight.” Giles knows if he confesses, he will live but he also knows that wouldn’t be right. Him dying like this might be sad but the most important thing is that he died a good man.
In conclusion The Crucible by Arthur Miller has many examples of pre-conventional, conventional, and post conventional characters. And although some characters might be extremely complicated to understand when put into these categories you can see that each individual had their own reason for committing the actions they did even if they weren’t good reasons.
