"You're Either Brave, or Stupid" (John Proctor, Hero or Stooge?)

Alrighty then; John Proctor. Is he a brave soul or an idiot? Let us look back on past events in the story...

• [In response to Rebecca Nurse's "I think she'll wake when she tires of it...a child's spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back."] "That's the truth of it."
• "This society will not be a bag to swing around you head, Mr. Putnam."
• "I like not the smell of this 'authority.'"
• [After Elizabeth Proctor's "You must tell them it is a fraud."] "Aye, it is, it is surely."

...And the list goes on and on. I'll stop to spare your eyes. XD From my point of view, Proctor is just trying to look out for the town/village, and he will not jump to conclusions such as witchcraft or other nonsense without tangible evidence. I think that is a good trait. I also believe that all the other townsfolk are far too eager to accept witchery and the Devil's work as a source of mischief, but hey, that was then, and they handled it as they did. Whether it was right or not is another question, but here we're debating the status/role of Mr. John Proctor.

I feel like he's attempting really hard to get everyone to come to their senses about the whole "witched girl" thing. He's a sensible man, and he agrees with Rebecca Nurse that it is probably just an act of foolishness from the girls. So far, he, Rebecca, and Elizabeth are the only ones who see the supposed witchcraft as false. Everyone else just wants to blame other people at random. I sympathize with Proctor...I mean, how must it feel to be the only one who has the slightest bit of an open mind???

So, in that aspect, I think Proctor can be seen as a hero, because he tries so hard to get everyone to see the light. He even got a confession out of Mary Warren and tried to free all the wrongly accused prisoners (even though the scared girl went right back to lying, just because she has no backbone; but I'll let it slide b/c she was being pressured).

However, one thing kind of throws a wrench into my thought process. The fact that Proctor had an affair with Abigail, and he still lets that affect him. I mean, when his wife suggests he go to Cheever and let him know that Abigail was pretending, he hesitated, either because he didn't want to get the brat of a girl in trouble, or because he didn't want his sin to come to light. I still don't think that qualifies him as a "stooge," but it definitely counts as a strike against his hero status. Just saying.

I thought of something, actually. About Proctor. (Note: this is straying away from the subject of the post, but I covered my thoughts, sooo.....) I know that the word "proctor" has to do with tests, like the person who gives out an exam or something (thank you, Naruto). My handy dictionary widget defines proctor as "a person who monitors students during an examination." I thought that was a strange coincidence, mainly because my mind made connects between the definition of a proctor and John Proctor's role in the Witch Trials. Looking at it, he does in a way monitor everyone else in an examination of sorts--the witch hunt. That doesn't mean that he is the one giving the test, oh no. But he's like a supervisor, and it's like he's the teacher: no nonsense, and you can ask him for help.

That's just my thoughts on the matter. I feel like John Proctor was a little Hero in the town of Salem, even if he gave in to the madness around him in the end of Act Three. I hope that everything turns out alright for him...

"Is the accuser always holy now?"