John Proctor: Hero or Stooge?

            Currently my English class was assigned to read The Crucible, a famous story rewritten into a play by Arthur miller, which later became a movie.  The Crucible was mainly a story about how a young girl’s lust and deceptions lead to anarchy in Salem, a small puritan town in 1692. The puritans basically lived their lives by every word in the bible and believed that even the smallest sin would send them to damnation unless they repented directly after confessing their sins. One of the most deadly sins to the puritans was witchcraft. Anyone caught doing witchcraft or even accused of it was sentence to death by hanging, which was exactly how the young girl known as Abigail Williams, caused a widespread of chaos in Salem after she had a sexual affair with a married man named John Proctor. Abigail worked as a servant in the Proctor household and when the wife learned of the affair she fired Abby. Abby hated John’s wife Elizabeth so much that she drank blood so that Elizabeth could die and Abigail could have John. This lust that Abigail had, changed into these continuous lies that lead to both Elizabeth and John getting arrested for witchcraft. The judges of the town whole-heartedly regarded Abigail’s lies that they hung innocent people for it. The fact these judges hung innocent and well respected people caused the citizens of the town to question the court so much that the judges forced Elizabeth to try and convince her husband to confess to using witchcraft, even though he never did. John was going to confess because he wanted to live but soon realized the motives behind why the judges wanted him to disclose; they wanted to win back the trust of the townsfolk. I thought that John Proctor was a hero for not signing the confession for several reasons. For one, John was noble enough to stand his ground and plead innocence instead of pleasing the judges with a lie. I also thought he was a hero because he did not falsely accuse his friends of witchcraft, which was something that most of the people who were arrested because of Abigail and her friends’ lies, did. John was not always the holiest Christian according to the townsfolk because he rarely attended church and he was an adulterer; although, only a few people knew of his sexual affair. The fact that he set aside his un-Christian attitude to stand up against the Covetousness of the court proved that he was a very honorable and heroic man. “You made your magic now, for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but white enough to keep it from such dogs. …Give them no tear! Tears pleasure them! Show honor now, show a stony heart and sink them with it!”-John Proctor’s last words to his wife right before he was hanged.