Do you consider John Proctor to be a hero?

However much mistrust may run between Elizabeth and Proctor, it is clear that he loves her. When Abigail accuses her and is taken away, he is very adamant that Mary Warren goes to admit it was all a deception. He knows that people will hang, and want's it to end, but when his wife is taken, he has to do something. Even as Mary Warren is crying, he says, "We are only what we always were, but naked now. Aye naked! And the wind, God's icy wind, will blow." In other words, he is going to expose the truth about the girls, maybe even expose the truth about him and Abigail if it means saving his wife's life.

When he is at the court, he restrains himself well, keeping himself from revealing the truth or bursting out, until Abigail arrives. After hearing her lie so many times, he finally speaks the truth about them. It is one of the hardest things for him to do, as he breaks into tears almost immediately. When Mary turns on Proctor, all his feelings about the girls, Abigail, his wife and his guilt comes crashing down on him. He shouts loudly, "I say - I say - God is dead!" He says that the whole court is appealing to the Devil by killing so many people. Proctor is taken to the jail, but he knows that doubt will be cast on Abigail and the rest of the girls.

Proctor also has an independent nature about him, something that goes against him in court. He does not visit church, he does not like his minister and he willingly admits to not liking the authority that Parris' church imposes, "I like not the smell of this authority." John Proctor is independent, and willing to take such a risk as almost denouncing his church.

Perhaps another thing about John Proctor is that he is respected. As Parris says, "It is a weighty name; it will strike the village that Proctor confess." Even when Proctor is accused, he is still respected in the town and without respect, no one can be called a hero.

John Proctor values his name in the village. Danforth is not willing to let John confess unless the confession is nailed to the church door, thereby spoiling John's name, which is as important to him as his life. When Danforth asks him why he will not let his confession be posted on the church door, he shouts, "Because it is my name! Because is cannot have another in my whole life!" He didn't want his name to be ruined by the confession being posted on the church. If it were his life would be ruined. People would think of him as being evil when his name would be mentioned. And when he changed his mind, and ripped up the confession, he knew that he would hang, but he knew that his name would not be spoiled, and even as he was taken away, his wife said, "He have his goodness now." So to his wife, he was a good man, maybe even a hero.

John Proctor was many things; an adulterer, a doubter and a sceptic, but he was fighting for his town and he was fighting for the truth. He did not stop loving his wife, nor did he lie when it would have saved his life, and self-sacrifice could be called heroic. He has to overcome many difficulties, from the perseverance of Danforth to cleanse Salem of witchcraft, to Abigail's deception, to his own struggle about whether to lie or not. His agony over everything eventually takes over when he shouts, "God is Dead!" and he is arrested. When his wife convinces him to sign the confession, he fights with his own soul about whether to sign it. If he lied, and signed his name would mean nothing, and to him, his name means a lot. If he did not sign, he would be hung, and in the end, he decided he would rather save his name than save his life. At this point, even his wife understands that, and lets him 'have his goodness.' Because of this, I think John Proctor is a hero. He fought not only his own guilt, but also the wrath of others in the town. He saved his name, which can seem as important as life at times. In doing so, he showed courage and self-sacrifice, because when he ripped up the confession he was throwing away his life. As he said to his wife, "Show them a stony heart and sink them with it!" John Proctor showed them a heart that was in constant torment, but was strong enough to fight those that would threaten it. John Proctor was indeed a hero, one who won one of the hardest battles of all - against his own conscience.