Having a good reputation is something many people value and this is especially true in the 1600s. The characters in the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, have a lot of pride. They are all known as good citizens, for one reason or another, and they would all like to keep their good name. The Crucible analyzes how your reputation reflects who you are as a person and when comparing this theme in The Crucible to that of the characters from Kindred, we see how having a stellar reputation becomes less important in a much later time period. When put in a tough situation dealing with life or death, all of these characters choose to keep their reputations rather than do the right thing or saving their friends’ lives. The importance of having a good name is a very prominent theme in The Crucible, however, in Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred, Rufus starts with a very respectable reputation and towards the end of the book we watch him slowly start to lose that but does not deal with the same consequences that the characters in The Crucible have to deal with. The main reason that Rufus does not have to deal with the same consequences is because he is white and the blacks during this time had no say and their opinions were irrelevant.
In The Crucible, Abigail Williams, who was accused of being seen dancing with the devil, confesses her friends names in court so that she would not be accused of witchcraft. “I want to open myself! I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” (Miller 171). Obviously, it was more important for Abigail to keep her good reputation rather than protect her friends from being accused of witchcraft. Being accused of witchcraft during this time meant life or death. You did not have a say, if you were accused, you were most likely hung or punished in another extremely violent way, which meant she chose giving her friends lives in order to save her name from becoming bad. Throughout the play, she told lies and manipulated people. Abigail threw Tituba, a black woman in the novel, under the bus and accused her of witchcraft, and because Tituba was a person of color, everyone believed her. When Reverend Hale ordered Tituba to wake Betty, Tituba responded with “I have no power on this child, sir.” (Miller 23) and because she was black, nobody cared enough let her explain herself so he responded, “You most certainly do, and you will free her from it now! When did you compact with the Devil?” (Miller 23).
Tituba tried to save her good name by saying “I don’t compact with no Devil!” (Miller 23), but Parris, Betty’s father told her to confess or he will whip her to death. Tituba had two choices, she could either confess to something she did not do or not confess and get whipped to death. This is because Tituba is black and her reputation does not matter to anyone. However in Kindred, Rufus does not care much about losing his good name. In the beginning, the slaves respected Rufus; Dana respected him. “Rufus grabbed my arm and held it, obviously trying not to cry. His voice was a husky whisper. “Don’t go Dana”” (Butler 66). Rufus needed Dana and always had a soft spot for her. Dana was Rufus’ guardian figure, his mom was too overprotective and his dad was the opposite, and Dana was the perfect person for him. She guided him in the right direction but it was ultimately his choice where he wanted to end up. Once he began gaining power because of who his father was, he became violent and drank more, giving him a bad reputation. When Dana failed to save Mr. Weylin, Rufus’ father, Rufus put her to work in the fields with the other slaves. “On the day after Mr. Weylin was buried, Rufus decided to punish me for letting the old man die…
He did lash out at others when he was hurt; I had already seen that” (Butler 210). Even though Dana had a good reputation with helping Rufus, that meant nothing when things did not go as planned for Rufus and he lashed out. Losing a good name to a slave was not something Rufus worried about. He, nor any white person during this time period, cared what the people of color had to say. The difference in importance of a good name between these two novels is that in The Crucible, they will do anything to keep their good name, but in Kindred, they do what they feel is necessary, even if that means losing their clean reputation. Everyone, including the slaves, knowing he was the son of the man who owned them, respected Rufus.
Lying to keep a good name is a constant them in The Crucible, the characters in this book will do everything in their power to keep a good reputation. Another example of this a Deputy Governor Danforth, the judge who oversees the witch trials and trades the lives of many people for the respect of being a good judge in Salem, as well as in other parts of Massachusetts. He likes to think of himself as fair-minded, so it disturbs and angers him to discover that people fear the court. He brags about his powers, “This is the highest court of the supreme government of this providence…near to four hundred are in jails… upon my signature… and seventy-two condemned to hang by that signature” (Miller 80). Judge Danforth makes it seem like the more people he puts in jail or has hanged, the better he is doing his job. He cares more about having the reputation of a good judge than saving the lives of many innocent people. This is similar to Rufus from Kindred because Rufus ruined many peoples live getting what he wanted and losing his respectable reputation. When Dana asked “Rufe, did you manage to rape that girl?.. Why would you do such a thing?
She used to be your friend’ (Butler 122-123), Rufus responded with “When we were little , we were friends, we grew up. She got so she’d rather have a buck n***** than me!” (Butler 123). This shows how Rufus used to be friends Alice, who is another one of the slaves, but when he saw her in love with another slave, he got enraged and wanted to get back at them. As he was seeking revenge, he was also losing his good name throughout the slaves because they all saw the man he was turning into, which was a replica of his father. Judge Danforth from The Crucible is keeping his good name by letting innocent people lose their life and Rufus from Kindred was losing his good name by becoming the man they all hoped he wouldn’t, but, in The Crucible losing your reputation is a big deal, whereas, in Kindred, Rufus does not seem to mind that none of the slaves like him anymore; since he is in control now, he does not care about having a good reputation.
As we know, in The Crucible, people will not give up their good name without a quality reason. John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor’s husband, decided to reveal his past relationship with Abigail, to prove that she is a “whore,” even though this would sacrifice his good name. He then verified the importance of the statement with his name, ‘A man will not cast away his good name. You surely know that’ (Miller 102) . This quote by Proctor proves that he is true, because no man would give away their good and respected reputation for an unworthy cause. Proctor emphasizes how important his name is to him by saying “Because it is my name. Because I cannot have another in my life, because I lie and sign my name to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of those that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” (Butler, 115). In The Crucible, your name defines who you are and once your name is bad, you are considered bad and in this quote John Proctor is begging to have his name because he feels like it is now gone forever. Towards the end of Kindred, after Dana asked Rufus ““What would you do if I found someone?”, Rufus replied ‘Sell him,’ he said. His smile was still in place, but there was no longer any humor in it.” (Butler 230). Rufus doesn’t want any black men hanging around Dana and hitting on her. He feels as though he has a power over them, which during this time, as a white man, he did. When Dana asks what he’s going to do about it, Rufus replies that he’ll sell whoever’s doing it. His good name means nothing when it comes to the slaves. He even carries out this threat later on when he sells a slave named Sam who’s been chatting with Dana. It all goes to show just how much Rufus thinks of these human beings as his personal property and he completely lost care in having a good name to them.
Having a good reputation is very important in The Crucible. It means you can be accepted by society. If you do not have a good name, you will be completely rejected or be seen in court and possibly face death. Fighting for your life was hard during the 1600s so protecting your name at all costs was essential. However, in Kindred, it was more about power over slaves than having a good name. Rufus had a good reputation with the slaves in the beginning by respecting them and being kind to them but once his father, who was always in charge, was gone, he took over the slaves and treated them horribly by raping Alice and fighting her husband and attempted to rape Dana, the only person who truly cared about him. In the beginning, Rufus was so young that he did not quite understand the difference between blacks and whites. He never acted like he was above them until he grew up and watched how his father treated them and Rufus mimicked that behavior. Losing his reputation did not bother him, though, because his good name did not matter when it came to black people. Comparing the importance of your reputation within these novels shows us how hundreds of years ago, if you lost your reputation, that was it, your name was bad and nothing would change that, and in Kindred which takes place years later, you have more chances to make things right and get your good name back.
