John Proctor, is he a hero or a stooge? Well, the one reason why he might be considered a stooge is because of his affair with Abigail. It’s that one mistake in his life that is always preventing him from being in peace (which is thanks to our wonderful conscious). Other than that, John seems to be a hero, or maybe he just wants to be a hero to erase the fact (from his conscious) that he is a disgrace to his wife, his family, and his values.
When you accidentally drop a child’s ice cream, what would you do? Probably try to make it up for him/her. Maybe buying that child another ice cream might work in cheering up the lil kid. So, lets put John Proctor as the person who dropped the child’s ice cream. The child is his wife and himself (because he not only disappointed/hurt Elizabeth, his wife, but himself too). To make things up for his wife and himself, he shall try to avoid the “accident” happen again (hey, he might be a protestant but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have flaws and makes mistakes, although this doesn’t justify what he did) and help his wife (and his conscious as well). Forcing Mary Warren to tell the truth might be considered heroic (maybe more like desperate) but I think what matters is why he is making her do it: he cannot take any more lies, more secrets, secrets that could torment him. Those secrets are the key to saving Elizabeth, but they could also mean his ruin. Yet he risks it just save his wife. You can call it heroic, or maybe, it’s just love.
So, one might consider John proctor a stooge, a hero, or just a desperate man in love. But it all depends on one’s personal judgment on life and humans… How are we supposed to live? What can be forgiven? What can’t be forgiven?...
I like your arguments, in the end he's finally trying to make up for the stirring in his conscious and all the guilty feelings.
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