I believe John Proctor was a hero. He stood up for his friends such as Giles, and when he was offered a deal by Danforth, he denied it, as he wanted to help his friends' wives that were also accused. Despite him having an affair with Abigail, he was still a good person since he confessed in front of the whole court. He fought in court of what he believed, and fought until the end where he was arrested. At the end of the play, he also could have saved his life by lying, but knowing how Giles had died, he knew he could not live with that, and so he decided to get executed instead. He stood up with his beliefs, and did them, which made him a good man. He had many wrongs, but everyone else does as well... it's just whether or not you learn/change from those mistakes.
In some eyes, such as Parris', they didn't feel that John Proctor was a good man according to his actions of the Puritan's rules. Some rules would have been going to church, and getting your children baptized, and as you know, Proctor's youngest son didn't get baptized, he didn't go to church often, and he also didn't know all ten commandments. However, his actions were mostly righteous, as he did have many good beliefs as stated above. John Proctor was a hero: a person that put his friends first, fought his beliefs, and learned from the mistakes he did.
I think you make really good points in your entry. I hadn't thought about how some might not look at him as a hero. I considered whether he was a hero by his actions not how others thought of him. But I think you bring up a good point about how he wasn't a hero to everyone.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point of view about him being a hero to some and that his actions in the story defined him as a hero. Yes, he could've done many things differently in the story, but he didn't in order to save others.
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