Is John Proctor (a farmer in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller) a hero or a stooge? First of all lets start with the definitions of hero and stooge. A hero is a person of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities, regarded as a model or ideal. A stooge is a person who is "played" or taken advantage of by another person. In my opinion he doesn't fit in the definition of a hero.
You can say he tried to be a hero by proving that Abigail's accusation of his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, and the accusation of the other two women were false, but ultimately he's a stooge because he didn't tell people what he knew about the girls until it was to late. By the time that he did tell, it was to late the girls had already gained the trust of many people and soon people didn't believe in what he said. If he is a hero, he would have told the truth earlier instead of thinking of whether to go to court or not. He could have prevented the girls from gaining so much trust.
He first tried to get Mary to tell the court that the girls were pretending to be possessed by the people that had been convicted. He showed them the papers that she wrote saying that the girls were pretending to be possessed. Although she did tell the truth, she soon mentally broke down when Abigail and the girls started pretending that she is sending out her spirit to attack them. Due to their actions, Mary says that her words were all lies forced upon her by John Proctor. Now they think Proctor is a liar.
The next thing Proctor does to try to save the convicted was confessing that he had an affair with Abigail. He told them that Abigail's motive in accusing Elizabeth of witchcraft was so that she can have him all for herself. To make them believe him, he tells them when and where this took place. To see if John Proctor was telling the truth, they have Elizabeth to come and testify that this did occur. But she denies it ever occurred, and soon John was deem a liar and a sinner. After this the girls start saying that he sided with the devil. Soon the judge ordered him to confess or be executed.
In the end he was executed. By this it shows that he isn't a hero, if he is a hero then he would have told the truth early. He couldn't save anyone and soon all his friends were killed. I also think he was foolish in not signing the document admitting he was on the devil's side and that he was a witch. If he had signed it people might had stop accusing one another afterward, since they would see that he had confessed. He could have saved other people from being trial for witchcraft.
Please leave a comment on what you think he is.
From your definition of a stooge, Proctor did not take advantage of anyone. His guiltless conscience in the end did lead to everyone's death but it preserved his name from further shame. He died doing the right thing. Even if the truth was told earlier, Elizabeth would have still believed in his husband. Also, confessing to adultery is not a light sin in his community. Either way, his family will be destroyed and people will trust Abigail's words over his.
ReplyDeleteI think I would agree with what what Henley is saying because no matter what, the girls were just too trusted in their community. In their society, children are of pure heart and soul so they could never lie so either way, his participation in this event wouldn't have changed a thing. Also if he had prepared more convincing evidence such as actually having his wife tell the truth, then he could have saved his friends. Ultimately he was a brute who haven't planned out the strategies and decided to rush forward thinking he have the situation under control.
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