John Proctor: Hero or Stooge?

     Mmm, John Proctor. When I hear that name, it makes me think of a real James Dean type guy – strong, handsome, the kind of guy who could fix your roof, and look really good doing it – and he’s got his own opinions and he’s just got the young girls falling at his feet. He sounds like the type of guy all the girls giggle about when he walks past you in the village, glancing over your shoulder after he goes.
     Besides the fact that he just sounds like an attractive guy, you can also tell he’s got a strong head on his shoulders. He knows what he believes in, and he stands up for it. He doesn’t believe in witchcraft, he won’t stand for his wife being accused. He knows what he wants and he sticks to it. He’s very practical, and much more sensible than the rest of the people in the town who have been hoodwinked into believing the stories about witches. I absolutely love it when he says,
     “Why do you never wonder if Parris be innocent, or Abigail? Is the accuser always holy now? Were
     they born this morning as clean as God’s fingers? I’ll tell you what’s walking Salem – vengeance is
     walking Salem.”
I think this is so, so, so so so brilliant. It’s obvious that the people who really need to be accused here are doing all the accusing, and John Proctor seems to be the only one who realizes it.
     He also stands up for the fact that he rarely goes to church, and he has a good reason for it. He says he stays home to worship, which I think is TOTALLY the right way to go. Who wants to go to hours of listening to some preacher talk about how God hates all sinners and everyone’s going to end up in Hell when they could be worshipping God joyously at home? He seems to have a clear idea of who God is, and he sees Him in a much nicer, loving, forgiving way. It is probably part of what makes him so strong.
     Although John Proctor is an amazing, able, strong-willed man most of the time, it seems that he also has his faults. Pretty major faults they are, too. He cheated on his wife with a young woman, Abigail. I don’t know what Elizabeth’s illness is yet, but it seems that this is part of what drove him to Abigail. I don’t know what possessed him to do it, but it’s just wrong. I know what they say, “He’s a guy”, don’t expect anything better from him. But that is no excuse. That’s like a girl going out and spending a million dollars on shoes and then people are saying, “She’s a girl, what did you expect? It’s okay”. No. It’s not okay. The worst part is that, although he’s trying to do the right thing by telling Abigail he doesn’t want her anymore, it seems like he’s doing it because he should, not because he wants to. He’s trying to be perfect, yet nobody’s perfect. I think he needs to figure himself out.