Proctor's Exam
John Proctor was a god-fearing man of good reputation and high moral fiber. But in the
panic-stricken town of Salem, he was accused of witchery. If he "confessed" to the crime, he
would be allowed to live, but if he did not, the gallows were in his future. Believing he was doing
the right thing, Proctor took his punishment without bending to the court's will. In the end of
Arthur Miller's The Crucible, John Proctor abandons his morals and takes the selfish way out.
Salem was a fervently religious town in Proctor's time. Essentially a theocracy, the
government of the town used the Bible as the highest authority. According to the Bible, selling
one's soul to the Devil is a bad thing. John was faced with a choice: admit witchery and stay
alive but be humiliated, or hold his tongue and save face but not his neck. He chose the noose,
which in itself seems honorable and dignified. However, according to the Bible, suicide is
disreputable as well. And since he could have chosen to live, but didn't, John essentially
committed suicide, perpetrating a sin against his god. One might argue that admitting a lie is
wrong. Hale, a representative of justice and of his god, pleaded with Proctor to admit the crime,
showing god's flexibility on this issue. He didn't even die with honor. They were hanging him
for witchery, not the most honorable crime.
John Proctor was remarkably short-sighted. In Andover, people were already
overthrowing their court. Six months after his death, the Salem witch trials were over, and the
general populace had regained its sanity. If he had stayed alive, he would have regained some
semblance of honor when people realized he was not a witch. And he would have been alive for
Elizabeth, who asked him to admit guilt, and his three children. Instead, Elizabeth became a
widow, and his children were fatherless. There is absolutely nothing honorable about John
Proctor's death. He failed his test. He was a fool.