Mr. Proctor, you have been notified, have you not? I see light in the sky, Mister; let you counsel with your wife, and may God help you turn your back on Hell.
– Arthur Miller
The Crucible, Act 4. Danforth doesn’t want to be the one to hang John Proctor, so he is trying to persuade him to confess to witchcraft despite him being innocent. He has arranged a meeting between Proctor and Elizabeth, in the hope that she will talk him into confessing. There is talk of local rebellion against the sham trials and one of the chief witnesses and accusers Abigail Williams has run away after robbing her uncle. So Danforth needs Proctor’s confession to give a cloak of legitimacy to the trials and validity to the convictions of the others condemned to die.