John Proctor is a man of honor and of his word. He is the epitome of the perfect Puritan...hard work, honest, true to his word. His only weakness is Abigail. The only thing he had is his good name and his sense of honor. He refused to be used in what he saw as a farce--Abigail and the rest of the community being carried away with the whole "she's a witch and so is she and she..." act. He refused to be a part of it, and thus chose to hang rather than fight a losing battle since he knew he was not completely innocent because he did have impure thoughts and actions with Abigail.