Reputation and Integrity

• Reputation is the way that other people perceive you. Integrity is the way you perceive yourself.
• Several characters in The Crucible face a tough decision: to protect their reputation or their integrity. 
• Parris, Abigail, and others to protect their reputations. Rebecca Nurse and, eventually, John Proctor, choose to protect their integrity.
• In rigid communities like Salem, a bad reputation can result in social or even physical punishment.
• The Crucible argues that those most concerned with reputation, like Parris, are dangerous to society: to protect themselves, they're willing to let others be harmed and fuel hysteria in the process.
• In contrast, The Crucible shows that those who favor integrity by admitting mistakes and refusing to lie just to save their own lives help defy hysteria. 
• Willing to die for what they believe in, they put a stop to the baseless fear that feeds hysteria.