In 1450 BCE, Moses returned from a mountain with stones in his hands. On these stones, God’s Ten Commandments were inscribed. All sins are damning on these stones, but not many were as frowned upon as adultery. On the stones, one commandment is stated exactly as follows: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, John Proctor, the most desirable man in town, was married to his wife Elizabeth when he came to know Abigail. When John is asked to recite his Ten Commandments, he is ironically unable to remember the exact sin he committed. John has regained his goodness throughout the play by showing remorse, admitting to his sin while risking his own name, and giving up his life to save his honor.
Throughout the book, you see John showing more and more remorse towards his actions. In act II, while John is talking
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At first, John decides that he will confess so that his children will have a father, and so that his wife will not be alone. He proclaims: “ I will have my life.” As John confesses, he realizes that he must sign a document to be hung over the church door in order to convince other convicted people to confess. John knows that he has not practiced witchcraft and the thought of having his name on the church for all of the town to see completely horrifies him. His name has already been stained by Abigail, and he did not want there to be any other reason for his name to be black. He begs the court officials to allow him to keep his name as so: “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” John realizes that there is no way for him to keep his life as well as his pride, so he decides to go to the gallows and save his good