Elizabeth tells Proctor that if people confess to witchcraft they will not hang.
Salem is going crazy! What began with a bunch of girls dancing in the woods has turned into advanced sensationalism. The witch trials have people convinced that the Devil is amongst them.
Proctor considers the whole thing ridiculous, until his family gets caught up in the mania when Abigail accuses Elizabeth. She escapes the noose because she tells them he is pregnant.
Proctor does not believe that the court will actually hang anyone. Elizabeth tells him that people who confess are not hanged, but if they do not confess they will hang.
The Deputy Governor promise hangin‘ if they‘ll not confess, John. The town‘s gone wild, I think—Mary Warren speak of Abigail as though she were a saint, to hear her. She brings the other girls into the court, and where she walks the crowd will part like the sea for Israel. (Act 2)
She assures him that it is not just a threat. They are being killed.
This creates a conundrum. A person can live by confessing, but an innocent person will not want to confess. Some people refuse to confess because they are accused but they know they are not guilty. Danforth is committed to the witch trials. He really believes in them.
Proctor is one of the ones who refuses to confess. He explains to Elizabeth that he cannot put his name to a document that he does not believe in.
DANFORTH: Do you sport with me? You will sign your name or it is no confession, Mister! (Proctor signs) Your second name, man (Proctor signs his last name.)
PARRIS: Praise be to the Lord!
DANFORTH: (Perplexed, but politely extending his hand.) If you please, sir.
PROCTOR: (Dumbly, looking at paper.) No. (Act 4)
Even though Proctor signs his name at first, the gravity of what he is doing hits him. All he has is his name, and he will not sully it. Even if it means certain death, he refuses to take part in the nonsense.
The witch trials were a terrible time in Salem's history. They are an example of how people can get carried away by an idea. Sensationalism was not limited to Salem in the seventeenth century. It captured America again with the McCarthy hearings, which were Miller's influence for this play.
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