At the end of the play, The Crucible, Reverend Hale insists that John Proctor (a man in his middle thirties with a wife and two sons) design to hang instead of admitting he was with the devil is an act of excessive pride on stubbornness. I think that John Proctors last act was an act of honor. Reason being, if someone did not do something why should they say they did it and say they saw others do it if they know it is a lie. I feel that if someone has to die for telling the truth than that is something that just has to take place. If you lie on other people to get out of life or death situations or any other situation you should feel horrible and should have to deal with guilt for the rest of your life. “Let them that never lied die now to keep their souls.”God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride.” Even though John Proctor was just a farmer in the community, people admired him for his honesty.
John Proctor was a very honest and fiercely courageous man. He did right by tearing up his confession and telling the truth because “Before man, nothing had a name. A man’s name is a symbol of his unique position in God’s creation. Take away John Proctor’s name, and he is nothing.” The only thing he should be committing to or have to commit to is the fact that he had an affair on his wife with Abigail Williams. Other than that, John Proctor was a very good man. During the middle of the play, Abigail and the girls were lying and committing a whole lot of people of committing witchcraft and being with the devil.
Because of his or her actions, everyone accused of either performing witchcraft or being with the devil has to have a trial in court. Those trials were the Salem Witch Trials. Testifying against Proctor were Ann Putnam, Abigail Williams, Indian John (a slave of Samuel Parris who worked in a competing tavern and eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Booth, who testified that ghosts had come to her and accused Proctor of a serial murder. Proctor fought back, accusing confessed witches of lying, complaining of torture and demanding that his trial moved to Boston. The efforts proved futile. John Proctor was strong and courageous in the courthouse.
He defended himself as well as his friends; “You will not use me! I am no Sarah Good or Tit uba I am John Proctor! You will not part of salvation that you should not use me!” Once the trials began Proctor realizes that he can stop Abigail’s rampage through Salem but only if he confess to his adultery. Such an admission would ruin his good name, and Proctor is, above all, a proud man who places great emphasis on his reputation. He eventually attempts, through Mary Warren’s testimony to name Abigail as a fraud without reveling the crucial information. When this attempt fails, he finally bursts out with a confession calling Abigail a “whore” and proclaiming his guilt publicly. Only then does he realize that it is too late, that matters have gone too far, and that not even the truth can break the powerful frenzy that he has allowed Abigail to whip up. Proctors confession succeeds only in leading to his arrest, conviction as a witch and through he lambastes the court, and its proceeding he is a ware of his terrible role in allowing this fervor to grow unchecked.
During the trials, the town started to break up. Everyone was insane about the whole ordeal. There were people saying things that were not true. It was a big controversy over deception, possession, greed, and the wanting for power. For Abigail desire refers to her sexual longing for Proctor. Putnam desires land and Parris desires control and authority.
I agree on John’s act of excessive pride because it is not correct to lie on anyone about anything. It is not correct to lie on your self about anything either. At the end of the play, they hanged John Proctor. His wife Elizabeth, who conviction was of witchcraft, spared execution because of her pregnancy (reprieved “for the belly”)..