There are many reasons why different people want Proctor to confess or not. He will either hang or confess. If he confesses then his confession will be nailed to the door of the church for everyone in Salem to see. He will be lying because he never did see the devil or perform any witchcraft. The other six people will also be seen as traitors of God if they confess because they have been accused of witchcraft.
These seven people are to be hung for crimes they did not commit. According to Danforth this is in order to be fair to the other twelve people who were unfairly hung, who were accused of being witches though there was no solid evidence to prove this judgement. Obviously he does not admit that they were unfairly hung because that would prove he had made incorrect judgements, and ruin his reputation. Danforth and Hathorne use injustice, which the people of Salem believe to be true.
If Proctor were to confess, Parris and Hale would be very happy and luckily for them he does confess. He does it to save himself, but mainly for the lives of the other prisoners however he does not want to accuse them "I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another. I have no tongue for it". When Proctor confesses Parris expresses his happiness saying "Praise God!" This is because he wanted to excommunicate Proctor from the church long ago but could not because many people thought him a good Christian "It cannot be forgot, sir, that when I summoned the congregation for John Proctor's excommunication there were hardly thirty people come to hear it". Now that John has confessed, Parris can excommunicate him from the church because the confession proves he is not a good Christian.
Proctor does not like Parris; "I have no love for Mr Parris. It is no secret" it is not unlikely that this feeling of dislike is mutual as there is often disagreement between them. After all Parris did want Proctor excommunicated from the church, perhaps this was not only because Proctor was not a practising Christian. Parris would love to see this well respected man despised of by the people of the Salem community because he blames Proctor for Abigail (his niece) leaving Salem.
At the beginning Hale was sure that there were witches among the people in the town but he comes to realise that honest, good people are being executed. Hale would be very happy if Proctor confessed because he would, and does, blame himself for Proctor's hanging "I would save your husbands life, for if he is taken I count myself his murderer" he tells Elizabeth. He came to the town believing that he knew all about witchcraft, what he did not realise was that it can destroy lives whether it is fact or fiction. By the end of the play he realises that all he has been saying is untrue and the law uses it as evidence "It is mistaken law that leads you to sacrifice". Hale feels guilty and responsible for Proctor's sentence to death. which is why he asks the court to postpone the hangings "Excellency, if you postpone a week . . ." so he will have time to prove to the court that they should not be hung and try to put right what he has done wrong, but it is too late. The only chance he has of saving Proctor's life is to encourage him to confess, so he turns to Elizabeth" let you not be mistaken your duty as I mistook my own. I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I brought, and what I touched with my bright confidence, it died; and where I turned the eye of my great faith, blood flowed up". He admits to his mistakes in an attempt to save lives. If he encourages people to confess then he will be telling them to lie, which is against his religious code and is a moral sin. He knows that the prisoners know this so he tells them; "God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride". By the time Hale realises the injustice going on it is too late for him to have any influence.
The most significant question the audience ask is; why does Proctor confess and then tear up his confession? The dilemma he is faced with is similar to the one he faced when he had an affair with Abigail. He does not want to confess but he knows that he must do so in order to save other lives as well as his own. This is his reason for his confession. Then he is told that the confession, with his name on it, will be nailed to the door of the church for everyone in Salem to see. All will know him as a traitor to God. His name will always be associated with this, it will be tainted forever and he does not want that. "How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!" it is almost as if his name will be taken from him.
The other prisoners want to die with dignity instead of signing their names to a lie. Proctor knows his motives are different from the other prisoners but he does not want to make another mistake so he tries to act in accordance to his moral code, which is why he tears up the confession. He does it to spite Hale and Parris who desperately want him to confess. Furthermore his decision means that no doubt will be cast over his name or the other victim's names. His decision to hang was the moral and honest thing to do, which is why he is seen as a hero at the end of the play. He has finally done something right. He treats the hanging as a punishment for his sins.
Another main character is Tituba. She is Paris’s slave from Barbados and is the first to be accused by Abigail Williams. When the girls were first discovered dancing in the woods. The girls were not blamed. The blame was put on Tituba, the "black" slave who was said to have "charmed" the girls. Abigail swears, "she [Tituba] made me do it". It is obvious that in the Puritan society that whatever did not match to what the masses had decided as proper, then the deviated, but innocent, were to blame. This practice contributed to the tragedy in Salem. The fear of what was unknown created uneasiness within Salem's population that added to Salem's social downfall.
The circumstances surrounding the witch trials gave residents something to blame the supernatural on. The condemning of Tituba was mainly due to this. When Tituba took the girls into the woods, and they performed their ceremony, something the Puritans were not accustomed to. She was convicted of witchery. Along with Tituba, Martha Corey was charged because she would not allow Giles to read her books. Giles also stated "I tried and tried and could not say my prayers. And then she close her book and walks out of the house, and suddenly--mark this--I could pray again!”
This evidence of witchery is ridiculous. The only thing that is true is that Giles was not allowed to read the books, and because he did not what the books contained, he feared them. This type of reaction throughout the community to the supernatural, and what was not known blamed many people, and contributed to the tragedy in Salem. The state of this confusion in Salem created a society of individuals who were only concerned with what was good for them, so that they would not be the next one implicated in the witchery scandal. This situation is clearly evident after Hale becomes privy to the true story of what happened in the woods. Abigail abandons Tituba, and accuses her of "sending her spirit on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayer", and Abigail also says Tituba "comes to me every night to go and drink blood". Abigail reacts like this only to save her from being suspected of witchery.
At the end of Scene One, many community members are accused of consorting with the devil. These names were given by all of the girls present that took part in the ritual in the woods, in an attempt to return to God and to be declared bewitched. This was a common reaction that many had when accused of witchery. The clear destruction of Salem’s social order was due to fear of the unknown, and mass confusion.
The inclination that Salem fell victim to, was the cause of a great tragedy, which saw twenty townspeople hung at the hands of the state. The Crucible written by Arthur Miller is a story of a great catastrophe which highlights a "free man's courageous and never-ending fight against mass pressures to make him bow down in conformity"(intro. -x) and shows how hysteria can be used for evil purposes in an atmosphere were there is a belief in freedom and right of disagreement.
