John Proctor: Hero or Stooge? (Spoiler: Stooge)

                     "The Crucible" Shows a very interesting explanation for the Salem Witch Trials. This event showed a lot about human nature, and out of all of the characters in this story, the most intriguing one was John Proctor. For Puritan standards, John wasn’t exactly a role model. He cheated on his wife, and didn’t come to church too often. He even dared to plow on Sunday! I guess you could call him different, as in the beginning his actions show neither heroism or stooge-ness .  To decide whether or not John became a hero, we really need to know what a hero truly is.

             
                   In my eyes, a hero is someone that fights for truth, justice, and someone that has morals and values cannot be easily broken. Of course, heroes have flaws, and Proctor had his fair share of those. Anyways, later in the story, John was defending the supposed witches, saying that Abigail was lying about these accusations. Try as he might, his words didn’t affect the outcome of those who were hanged. By the time John himself was up for being hanged, Hale and Danforth knew him to be innocent, but they wouldn’t free him and the others just like that, as it would cause doubt as to whether the other hangings were actually justified.  If John just “confessed” that he was a witch, he would have lived.      Was it because lying is sinful? I'm not so sure. he was the last person to die because of his devotion to god; he instead died to spite those that sentenced him to death, knowing full well that he was innocent.When John says "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."  he's basically saying that he can't pretend that he won't lie because lying is a sin, as he exclaims that his honesty is broke. His only benefit would be that those that accused him and the judge would know that he was innocent, but was still killed.

                
                Does Dying make someone a Hero? While it does make for a flashy exit to this world, it’s not heroic. He’s not the first to deny performing witchcraft, and his reasoning behind it is definitely not heroic. While someone could make the argument that sacrificing yourself is heroic, John Proctor did not need to sacrifice himself for anything, he just added to the death toll. In short, John Proctor is a stooge, or at least closer to a stooge than to a hero. He makes rash decisions which don’t benefit himself or anyone for that matter. If I was put in a situation like his, I would without a doubt “confess” so that I may keep my life. Does that make me a stooge? No. It doesn’t make me a hero either. I’d just be a person trying to get by, and live to see another day.