By the end of the play, Arthur Miller has shown that redemption is always possible. John Proctor, the protagonist, is a flawed man, to be sure. He has committed a pretty egregious sin, the sin of adultery, and he has "come to regard himself as a kind of fraud" as a result. John no longer thinks of himself as a good man, and this makes him very defensive when he feels that his wife still doesn't trust him. However, Elizabeth, his wife, says, "I do not judge you. The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you." It's true.
John thinks of himself as damaged goods until the end of the play when he must make a decision between lying and saving his life or refusing to lie and dying for it. He says, "My honesty is broke [...]; I am no good man. Nothing's spoiled by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before." And for a few moments, John is ready to confess a lie in order to keep his life and return to his family. But when it comes time to sign his confession so that it can be publicly posted, he tears it up. The magistrates, without meaning to, have given John an opportunity to prove his goodness, and he takes it. He tells them, "You have made your magic now, for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor." In making the choice to be honest, in sacrificing his life for his integrity, he has redeemed himself in his own eyes.
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