Personal Integrity

Personal Integrity

Integrity is defined by honesty and moral values. It is a key component to ones characteristic that varies between each person. Keeping integrity also takes a lot of determination and loyalty to yourself and others. In the novel, The Crucible, Arthur Miller exemplifies this well through many characters such as John Proctor, Giles Corey, Mary Warren and Abigail Williams. The Crucible shows the characters integrity throughout the play with the several witch trials of Salem. They maintained strong through the problems they came across. Integrity is a big part of this play with each person showing a lack of it or a lot of it.

An example of weak integrity is shown through Mary Warren. Mary was accused of being a witch by Abigail Williams and instead of always telling the truth she turned to John Proctor to save her life. "His eyes were like coals and his fingers claw my neck and I sign." (119) which was false. This quote supports my previous statement because it shows that Mary says things that weren't always true. She lied so she could get herself out of any trouble she came across. This clearly shows Mary Warren has low morals and integrity.

Giles Corey is another character from The Crucible. He was charged with contempt of court because he didn't want to say any names. In Act 3, Mr. Corey said, "You know well why not! He'll lay in jail if I give his name!" (97) This quote supports my previous statement because it shows how he wouldn't give a name. Giles Corey shows loyalty with this quote. He did want to save his wife, but he also didn't want to get any more people into trouble or give anyone more problems. On page 135, Mr. Corey shows another example of how honest he is and how much integrity he has. They tried their hardest to get him to say names but his response was, "More Weight". (135) This shows that he would rather die painfully and slowly than to lose his loyalty and integrity.

The last example of integrity is in Act. John Proctor has to move a decision whether he will lie and confess or be truthful to others. Also in Act 4 he says, "I have given you my soul; leave me my name!" (143) this quote shows that John Proctor doesn't want his name posted on the church door. Throughout the book, John Proctor showed good and bad integrity. An example of bad he showed was when he cheated on his wife with Abby. John made a really poor decision that had many effects on him and some of his relationships.

Obviously there have been plenty of examples given to show different types of integrity and lack of integrity. As stated before, honesty and moral values are a big part of integrity. In this essay you saw John Proctor show both good and bad integrity. You also were shown how Mary Warren did not have very good integrity and how Abigail continuously tried to get John Proctor