Morals are rules that help guide people to conduct their lives appropriately, yet sometimes morals lead to internal conflict that have lethal consequences. Internal conflicts are usually afflictions that can only heal after the person learns to live with their mistakes and move forward. “The Crucible” depicts this struggle by portraying the morality of John Proctor and his internal struggle to find redemption for his misdeeds. He desperately searches for a way to find peace after committing adultery because “these people had no ritual for the washing away of sins” (Miller 20). At first, he searches for forgiveness externally, from his wife and from the village. But by the end of the play he finds that the answer to his turmoil does not lie with others but within himself and God.
He first seeks redemption from his wife by admitting to her that he had had an affair with Abigail Williams. Instead of finding her warm forgiveness, he finds a cold “justice that could freeze beer” (55). This cold “justice” is not the forgiveness that he sought, but a distancing in his relationships with his wife that only adds to his internal conflict because instead of finding forgiveness, he finds distrust. This dilemma leads to another predicament: the chance to expose Abigail of lying about witnessing witchcraft. However he must choose to either admit his misdeed to the village which would hurt his good standing, or not tell the village, resulting in the death of dozens of people. After what had happened with his last confession to his wife, he was questioning whether it was worth admitting to the village: “I have good reason to think before I charge fraud on Abigail, and I will think on it” (54). But being driven by his morality to save his wife and neighbors and his search to redeem himself, he finds the will to tell the village of his offense.
He goes to the courts where he tries to find redemption by admitting to the court that he had “known her” (110). But his admittance yet again backfires and instead of finding peace from his internal turmoil he finds a cell where he is to wait until he can mount the gibbet. This only worsens his turmoil because instead of finding repentance and an end to his turmoil, he finds hate and betrayal. He believes that he is the reason for dozens of arrests and many deaths because he is a bad person that does not follow the morals of Salem, while in all actuality he is the person that epitomizes these morals the most. He fails to realize this, thus he is thrown deeper into conflict with himself. Being stuck in jail allows him to find the peace that he so desperately seeks.
Right before his hanging, Proctor begins to piece together that the answer to his inner turmoil does not lie with Elizabeth or the village but from himself. He recalls this idea from his conversation with Elizabeth before his hanging. While they talk he seeks her forgiveness as a way to end his inner conflict, and she responds: “John, it come to naught that I should forgive you, if you’ll not forgive yourself” (136). But he does not begin to become aware of this until his false admittance to accusations of witch craft and Rebecca Nurse’s shock to his admittance. This sparks the notion about whether he should be seeking redemption from an external source like the village people: “You came to save my soul, did you not? Here! I have confessed myself; it is enough!” (142). He finally realizes that the forgiveness he seeks does not come from anybody but himself and God after Hale says, “Man, you will hang! You cannot!” (144). John responds, “I can. And there’s your first marvel, that I can […] I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor” (144). He has finally realizes that he must forgive himself to find redemption and he does leading to the end of his internal conflict, as Elizabeth notes: “He have his goodness now” (145).
Throughout the play the author encompasses the story around John’s search for his redemption. John’s morality arouses inner conflict in him that forces him to search for forgiveness after committing adultery. And since no one knew how to wash away sins, John sought this forgiveness from other sinners like his wife and the village. But when he finally begins to look inward for the key to his inner conflict he finds redemption before his tragic yet respectable death, after enduring months of internal conflict. Thus “The Crucible” is a play depicting the rise of John Proctor from his inner turmoil to inner peace.
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