SUPER PROCTOR...sort of.

I wouldn’t exactly put John Proctor, of The Crucible, in a Batman suit and start singing the theme song. Na Na Na Na… BATMAN BATMAN! I also wouldn’t call him a stooge.

    I do believe that he is more of a hero. He is at least brave. He stands up for what he believes in, or doesn’t believe in. He also admits to the mistakes that he’s made an decides to not repeat them. I believe that by admitting to one’s mistakes you are actually a better person and most likely more respected than one who does not admit to mistakes that they have done. It also helps that you try to change and avoid making the same mistake. John Proctor does exactly this.

    He did admit to Elizabeth, his wife, that he had an affair and Elizabeth seems to have forgiven him. He refuses to get back with Abigail. Although he doesn’t seem to be well liked by the other villagers he is certainly made out to be liked or at least respected by the reader. I think that the reader respects him because compared to some of the other characters he looks at things in a more realistic point-of-view and isn’t very power-hungry as some of the other villagers are. Specially if he is compared to the Putnams and Parris.

   I can also see why the greedier villagers wouldn’t like him. He sees how these people are and maybe they feel that he will convince others that they don’t have the best interest in mind. With Parris it’s that he wants to keep his position because he knows it is of great power and money. But Parris sees that Proctor might threaten his position. Proctor makes clear that he doesn’t like Parris and I believe that he does see that Parris is a greedy man who wants people to keep on coming to his sermons and is doing it by speaking of how evil they will look in the eyes of God if they do not listen to the “messenger”, which is Parris.

   When the whole witchcraft accusation starts Proctor thinks that they are ridiculous and he knows that they are false since Abigail pretty much told him so. I don’t think he believed it will go as far as his wife, and himself, being accused of witchcraft. He is willing to defend their innocence and the innocence of other who were already condemned. He knew the truth and wanted the truth come out.

   He, along with Hale and Giles Corey, show courage because they show up at the court with evidence and with Mary who knows the accusations were false but in the end decides to change her story once more and ends up accusing Proctor. Proctor does “confess” (and I put this word in quotation marks because there was nothing to confess to, he never used any sort of witchcraft.) But he then refuses to lie and believes that as long as the judge and God see his confession it is enough, there is no need for the whole town to have prove, for shouldn’t a judge’s word be enough proof.

  Unfortunately like most heroes there are not seen as such when they are alive but most likely they are seen as heroes when they are gone. He learns from his mistakes as many of us do throughout our lives. He shows integrity by not giving up on what he believes in and stays true to those believes.