To truly understand “The Crucible” and its characters, one only has to use Kohlberg’s moral perceptions as an explanation to describe their motivation in doing what they do. This essay will go into detail and explain the three moral concepts that guide the characters in this play. There are three categories, pre conventional, conventional, and post conventional. The rest of this essay will break down the ways Kohlberg’s precepts and explain why particular personalities will fulfill these standards.

To begin, there is the pre-conventional stage. At this stage characters act in ways to prevent punishments and/or receive rewards. There are characters in the crucible that demonstrate this behavior. One of them includes John Proctor, when being told to go to Salem for the witch trials he says he’ll “think on it”. When being advised to go to the witch trials to confess he gives a neutral answer in order to prevent being further questioned, it is evident that Proctor was reluctant on going to Salem so he didn’t give a yes or no answer in order to prevent punishment. To continue, John Hale was another example, when questioning how Abigail was stabbed, Hale accused Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft when saying that “a needle were found stuck into her belly. Hale was trying to gain reward by accusing Elizabeth of witchcraft and mentioning how Abigail was stabbed. The third example is Tituba, when being questioned if she was working with the devil by Hale, Tituba was asked a series of questions to try and identify others who were with her and the devil. When asked on how many were with the devil, Tituba responds with “there was four”. Tituba gave an answer to avoid being punished as she gave Hale the answer he was looking for in order to prevent being further punished or questioned. These examples demonstrate ways that the characters had to do things in order to not be punished and instead be rewarded in some sort.

There are also examples of conventional characters in the play. This is the stage where characters try to fit into a group or fit in ways that are normal. An example of a character acting conventional is Marry Warren, Warren testifies that she “thought [she] saw spirits” to the rest of the group but didnt to fit in and testify that she didn’t see spirits during the witch trials. Warren was trying to fit in and prove her being normal with the rest of the girls despite being accused of seeing spirits during the witch trials. Another example is Betty, she states that she “saw George Jacobs with the devil” to add onto Abigal on how she saw others with the devil. Betty was fitting in with the rest when Abigail listed off people she believed to saw with the devil so Betty who just woke up also listed people she thought she had seen with the devil. The last character with an example of being conventional is John Proctor, Proctor is questioned that his wife isnt pregnant but then states “that women will never lie” saying that his wife will never lie. He says that his wife Elizabeth isnt lying about her pregnancy because it doesn’t seem normal to lie about pregnancy, so he establishes the fact that his wife would not lie. All three of these examples are ways of characters demonstrating being conventional to fit in or be normal.

Finally, the last stage of Kohlberg moral precepts is the post conventional stage, this is the stage where characters have been able to form their own beliefs regardless of what others may think of without the involvement of a reward or punishment. The first character to demonstrate being post conventional is John Hale. Hale demonstrated being post conventional when he yells at John Proctor “man, you will hang! You cannot”. Hale demonstrated his own belief of when proctor was confessing in the witch trials by stating that Proctor should be hanged at a result of  Proctor confessing. The second character to demonstrate being post conventional is John Proctor. Proctor states that he “see no light of god in that man” about Reverend Parris making his own judgment on Parris. Proctor believes that Parris doesn’t care for anyone and is mainly focused on himself  which Proctor then concludes he doesn’t believe theres any light of God in Parris. The last character with a post conventional example is Parris. When Mrs. Putnam was discussing about Hale supposedly finding a witch in Beverly, he comes to the judgement that hes “certain there be no element of witchcraft here”. Parris has his own beliefs that there was no witchcraft involved in Beverley which was something he believed on his own terms. These characters demonstrated examples of what being post conventional is.

In conclusion, there are three segments to Kohlberg’s moral precepts in which all three were demonstrated in “The Crucible”. Characters like John Proctor, for example, had examples of both pre and post conventional as he behaved in ways to avoid punishment and in ways where he comes up with his own beliefs, demonstrating him being a dynamic character in the play. Tituba was someone who was trying to avoid being punished so she came up with things to avoid punishment therefore being pre conventional. A character like Marry Warren demonstrated being conventional as she said things to fit in with others and mingle so she doesn’t stand out and people start to question her. This play had a wide range of characters who demonstrated the three segments to Kohlberg’s moral precepts which were pre conventional, conventional, and post conventional.