As Act 4 of The Crucible opens, Marshall Herrick is moving Sarah Good and Tituba to a cell. Reverie to Paris enters and confesses Abigail Williams and Mercy Lewis have run away. Reverend Paris wants to postpone the hangings and fears a riot will erupt in Salem if John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, and Martha Corey are hanged. Reverend Hale wants them pardoned.
Danforth refuses to heed either suggestion. John and Elizabeth Proctor are brought into the same room, Hale believing she will convince her husband to confess to the charge of witchcraft, thereby saving his life. Elizabeth insists that the witchcraft be stopped.
he is the only one who can make this decision. John feels he is stained in the eyes of God and his wife because of his affair. She explains her forgiveness means nothing if he won't forgive himself. John announces he will confess. Proctor denies ever seeing any of the accused or any person with the devil because he will not ruin their names and can speak only to his sins.
After much arguing, he signs his confession, but will not allow it to hang publicly, and tears it up. He is worthy of an honorable death instead of living a lie, and he, along with Rebecca Nurse, walk to the gallows. Act 4 focuses squarely on the theme of morality versus reputation, showing a great disparity.
Judge Hawthorne never worries about his reputation, because he is convinced the majority of people accept the accuracy of his opinions, and those who disagree don't matter. Danforth's anxiety centers on his reputation if he pardons those to be executed. He worries that pardons will cause people to wonder if the 12 people who already died from hanging or being pressed to death were guilty of the crimes they were accused of.
John Proctor has always aspired to earning an honorable reputation in the eyes of God and the people of Salem. He never balked from confronting the truth, even when his life was on the line. Proctor showed his integrity by admitting to an affair with Abigail, even though it condemned him because it bought his wife some time. He cares only what God and Elizabeth think of him, and he wants to be able to look into his soul and not flinch because he tried to be a good and honest man.
Although she desperately wants him to live, Elizabeth accepts her husband's decision because it reveals his strength of character. In the end, he cannot lie because this would go against his very beliefs. She watches him as he goes to the gallows.