I cannot mount the gibbet like a saint. It is a fraud. I am not that man. My honesty is broke, Elizabeth; I am no good man. Nothing’s spoiled by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before.
– Arthur Miller
The Crucible, Act 4. At the end of the play John Proctor is faced with a moral dilemma. He can lie and falsely confess to witchcraft to save his life. Or he can choose to die a martyr, "like a saint," as he tells Elizabeth in a simile. Since he is already an adulterer with a "rotten" soul, he feels that he can’t damage it any further with this lie. The greater fraud, he believes, would be to die on the scaffold alongside sinless people like the saintly Rebecca Nurse. He doesn’t feel worthy of joining the ranks of such martyrs. John shows his honesty and integrity here.