___.____ Name
Vanity vs. Honesty
Considering Act IV of The Crucible
John Hale places us in a difficult position when reading the final Act of The Crucible.
While many characters accused of witchcraft are refusing to confess to the alleged crime in favor
of maintaining their honesty, Hale returns to Salem, counseling many of these “good people” to
provide a false confession in exchange for their lives. Hales believes that those who will not
confess are committing a greater crime than witchcraft by willfully giving away their lives to
protect their reputations.
This prompt asks you to consider the validity of Hale’s assertion in light of both the
text and today’s society. To the point, do you believe that most people behave in a manner
that suggests they are being true and honest to themselves, or do you feel like most people’s
behavior is motivated by vanity (defined as a preoccupation with other people’s opinions).
You may organize your answer in any number of ways, but you must provide evidence
from the text (either direct or indirect) and from your personal observations and experience.
Because of this, you will potentially need to use first person in this essay, but please avoid
redundancies if you choose to do so (i.e., I think, I believe, In my opinion . . .). Follow all other
conventions of good essay writing, including an introduction that leads to a thesis statement in
which you take a position on this topic, and then provide well-crafted body paragraphs that
specifically support your thesis. Finally, write a conclusion that does NOT begin with the words
“In conclusion,” and that captures the essence of your thesis while not simply rewriting it.
This formal essay may be submitted electronically. Please type your paper using
Microsoft Word and according to the sheet of directions I gave you earlier for MLA format and
then submit your paper as an email attachment to [email protected]. If you feel the urge,
upon turning in your paper, to say something along the lines of, “I’m sorry, but this isn’t very
good,” then you probably shouldn’t have high expectations for your grade on this paper. Good
luck and happy writing!
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