To Have Pride is To Have Vanity Jane Austen quoted,” Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.” The Crucible demonstrates this quote greatly. I have always felt that as humans, vanity is one of our most faulty talents and that it is very hard to do one without the other. Vanity is an over abundance of pride on oneself. Pride is a feeling of satisfaction in something a person has achieved or is well at. The two terms can flow very easily together to form an unnecessary end. John Proctor shows an excellent example in act four. As he goes to sign the confession, given by Danforth, he rips it in half after signing it. Danforth goes to ask him why he had just done the unthinkable and Proctor answers with unwavering vanity that it is his name, to sign the confession would be to sign his name off as a hoard of lies. John shows much vanity in this scene by the emotions and pride in his tone. He has too much pride in his name and himself that it costs his …show more content…
In act two Elizabeth and Proctor are in their home and the tension in the house was suffocating. John is upset because his wife still has not forgiven him for the affair despite him trying to be a better person and attempting to please her. Elizabeth displays vanity in her actions and words towards John. She has too much pride to give John a chance. Act four helps John and Elizabeth mend the wounds in their marriage and she admits her vanity kept her from releasing her grudges against John. She was portrayed in the play as a modest and honest woman. Her pride kept her from having a better marriage after the affair. I can see how it would be difficult to overcome such a fear but Elizabeth could have protected not only her feelings but Johns’ as well by not having such