John Proctor's Confession In The Crucible

In the mid to late 1600’s, Salem, Massachusetts suffered from witchcraft, accusations, and trials. People were being accused of witchcraft and conspiring with the devil. Many people had been accused, and John Proctor was one of many. Before the witch trials started John was already trying to save his marriage with Elizabeth, his wife, and his reputation after his affair with Abigail Williams. John Proctor’s desperateness to save his reputation showed when he told the court about his affair, never turned in his friends, and when he would not turn over his confession that stated he had conspired with the devil. In the first act of The Crucible we learned that John Proctor and Abigail Williams had an affair while Abigail was working for the Proctor family. After the affair happened Elizabeth fired Abigail. After Elizabeth fired Abigail she was set on getting revenge on Elizabeth. As the play went on Elizabeth was accused of being a witch by Abigail and Elizabeth was taken to town to await trial. When John Proctor went to court he knew he should tell the judges about the affair to show
that Abigail cannot be trusted. The judges had then decided to bring out Elizabeth to see if John was telling the truth because Proctor insisted that Elizabeth never lies. Whenever they questioned Elizabeth she lied because she knew how important John’s reputation was to him. Proctor knew that if he told the court about the affair that would bring less attention to Elizabeth about being a witch. John had saved many of his friends reputations by never turning them into the court. Even on the day of his hanging he still would not confess to conspiring with the devil. Reverend Hale was trying to get Proctor to confess in order to save his life. Elizabeth was saying that she will not step into his decision and that she believes that John is a good man. She had given John the determination to live. John had confessed verbally to Judge Hathorne and Danforth. The judges had then started to ask Proctor if he had seen anyone else conspiring with the devil when he had come to him, but John denied each person they had named. Proctor knows that if he turns them in they will be condemned and hanged. Proctor does not sign the confession to save his reputation and also his friends.
John thought that if he signed the confession then everyone would know that he was lying and people would think he falsely accused people of witchcraft. Proctor had signed the confession, but when Judge Danforth reaches for it, John rips it into pieces. Proctor had ripped the confession because he knew that if he would have gave it to the judges then his name would be ruined forever. The judges then began to beg Elizabeth to make Proctor sign the confession and talk some sense into him. Elizabeth would not give in because she knew what Proctor wanted and the moment he ripped up the confession she knew that was his moment of redemption. The judges had no other choice than to sentence him to hang. Proctor had been falsely accused and later hung, but Proctor had also saved the reputations of his
friends.