The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate to the readers and give them a better understanding of the characters found in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. These characters act in an way that may confuse the reader. However, by using Kohlberg’s moral perceptions one may understand each character’s behavior and the reasoning behind them. This essay will examine Kohlberg’s 3 categories and use them to understand the motivations felt by everyone. These categories are pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional.
There are many examples of pre-conventional characters within the crucible. For an example the character known as John proctor can be deemed as a pre conventional character, he shows that he’s pre-conventional when talking with his wife Elizabeth Proctor and he says “I’ll think on it” he says this to his wife in the context of that he goes into the city and accuse Abigail to witchcraft, the only reason why he states that he will “think on it” is because there are many cons upon following through on accusing Abby. If Abby were to go into questioning due to being accused by John Proctor, the question of why Abby got fired from the household may appear, if Abby were to say that she was fired due to sleeping with John prior and him retaliating by firing her so that he does it no longer occurs in the household, however if the affair comes to light John Proctor will be accused of lechery and if this accusation comes into play, John proctor will be hung. Therefore, John acts in a pre-conventional manner to make sure that he is spared. Additionally in the literature we can also see that Abagail would act in a pre-conventional manner Abby acts in this manner to gain rewards Abby states that “Elizabeth proctor’s familiar spirit pushed the needle into my belly” she only mentions this so that Elizabeth Proctor will go into trial and potentially be one of the victims who were accused of witchcraft and hung. Abby only acts in this manner to get closer to John Proctor and this means to her that it is her reward from doing this. The final example of pre-conventional character is Tituba “Aye, sir, a good Christian woman.” Tituba is acting in a manner so that she doesn’t get punished and gains reward, even though she is seen dancing with the girls outside contacting the devil, she is threatened by Revered Parris to confess is she doesn’t she will get beat to death, naturally for her life she pleads that she is a good Christian women so that she fits in and that she doesn’t get beat to death and let free of the situation with her life, she shows her pre-conventional manner and the way she thinks in this situation allowed her to get away from punishment and obtain her reward.
The crucible not only contains pre-conventional characters, but also conventional thinkers as well. An example of a conventional character is John Proctor “Aye but we did not” telling that to Abby after talking with her about the affair between each other. Telling her that claims that he will not admit to anything happening between the two of them, he’d want to be seemed as “pure” and a good Christian man to the Christian community, therefore that John has both natures of a pre-conventional and conventional character. Another person who acted in a way to fit into a group was John Hale “The man’s ordained, therefore the light of God is in him.” He shows this reasoning when speaking to Paris, Hale chooses not to question purity of Reverend Paris since it may throw off the equilibrium of some people, Hale’s reasoning behind this leads to him being conventional, since he wants to be passive between all the people and remain being well acquainted with Paris, another demonstration of a person who had to act in a way to fit in with the crowd was Cheever Ezekiel “you know I must do as I’m told.” this shows that Cheever is willing to do anything even throw his own friends wife into jail, to fit in with those around them, by throwing his morals and dignity, it’s obvious that Cheever is a conventional thinker, with all the evidence given to us, it’s clear to see that Mutiple characters throughout the literature behave in ways that allow them to fit in and not stand out. In addition, towards both the pre conventional thinkers and the conventional thinkers, they’re also post conventional thinkers showed to us in the literature, in addition a person who is a post conventional thinker is Elizabeth Proctor “if you think that I am one, then I say there are none.” This statement shows to us that Elizabeth as she claims is not a liar and will not like whether she believes in the existence of witches. Elizabeth is not scared of speaking her mind or speaking out of line it doesn’t matter to her if it puts her on trial, she will say what she wants, which will demonstrate that her thoughts and words are post conventional, another person who isn’t afraid of speaking with any regards of punishments is Giles Corey “More weight” this shows that even though that Giles was in punishment for not providing the name of the individual who gave him very important information, he’s willing to die to protect the identity of 1 person and willing to protect on what he truly believes in, it goes to show that Giles won’t be persuaded by any group or rewards and just willing to do what he seems is right. An addition another person who will do whatever they want disregarding any punishment is John Proctor, throughout the story it’s apparent that John Proctor has all 3 characteristics previously mentioned. “I can” John says this while talking with Hale after he rips up the confession that he signed, and by disregarding what Hale has said to him its potent that John does not care to fit in a society nor to strive for acceptance with anyone. John would rather die than live harboring lies to his name, this behavior can be deemed as a post conventional characteristic.
This essay has illustrations of how strange and questionable the characters’ mind sets might be, however if we were to take lines with contexts with the story its clear to see how reasonable their motives and reasoning are. For this reason, Kohlberg’s moral perceptions can be deemed as important to help aid the readers understanding of the story.
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