“I have given you my soul; leave me my name” (Miller 133) cries the belligerent John Proctor, faced with the very real possibility of his execution. Accused of witchcraft, a crime he did not commit, John Proctor is threatened by religiously controlled courts during the Salem witch trials of 1692 in an allegorical story for Senator Joseph McCarthy's Red Scare. However, in the face of religious persecution, John Proctor demonstrated immense determination against the aggressive power figures of the Puritan Church. Throughout the story, John Proctor clashes with the religious authorities in his town. His main goal: to try to protect his family and friends from personal attacks, made up entirely of fabricated evidence, from the church establishment. To explain, when John Proctor says: “Don’t fool me! O blacken them all (other members of the town) when this is nailed to the church on the very day they are hanged for silence” (Miller 132), this shows him refusing to have his confession sheet nailed to it. the door of the courthouse. If John Proctor allowed Danforth to publish the confession to the church, his friends would be hunted down by the church and possibly killed as well. John Proctor chooses to die and keep his friends safe rather than save himself. This is in opposition to Puritan standards, because Puritanism focuses on self-salvation, and he could have asked the Church to purify his soul, which would have allowed him to continue living; however, he protected his loved ones rather than himself. This also contrasts with other members of this society who have sold out others in exchange for their own well-being. This demonstrates John Proctor's religious progressivism in having a view focused on the salvation and preservation of others, opposed to self-salvation. Because of his desire to help others before helping himself, John Proctor is forward-thinking. By making a false claim, John Proctor would be “signing the devil’s book” (Popkin 318). If John Proctor signed the sheet, he would be attributing the witches' dark deeds to himself, which would have been false. By confessing to his witchcraft, John Proctor would destroy his family name by associating it with the Devil. John Proctor would rather die as a truthful and honest man that his children could admire rather than as a man who lied to save his own skin. This contrasts with a man like Reverend Parris, a church establishment figure, whose only desire is to remain head of the local church. John Proctor would accept death before joining forces with