John Proctor: Hero or Stooge?

Before being able to be discussed, one must understand the specific meaning of what a "hero" and a "stooge" is for the best understanding and categorizing of the character John Proctor from the play The Crucible. A "hero" can be generally defined as a person who is admired for making great achievements by being courageous. A "stooge" is a rather derogatory term for someone who does unpleasant work for other people's benefit. At first glance, both definitions seem close, in that the person in both cases is benefitting others by sacrificing themselves in a way not necessarily by death; that is, they could be sacrificing their time and effort for some other person's gain. However, the stooge seems less willing to do the work than the hero, and the hero seems more likely to genuinely think that he or she does it for the good of other people, not just that he or she is doing it for someone because someone told them it was their duty, or it was implied.
With the aforementioned in consideration, we can examine Proctor's actions to see which of the conditions are met. It is important to note that in this town in the particular time period, people accused were guilty until proven innocent, as said in class. Elizabeth tries to laugh at Hale when he suggests that Rebecca Nurse had been associated with the devil (p. 1300), and had been found guilty and charged, even though Hale believes it is possible. Assuming Elizabeth and John Proctor have conversed beforehand and agreed, this indicated that they are not yet concerned about the situation of what they believe are false accusations, as indicated by Elizabeth's disbelief of Rebecca Nurse's witchery. However, when Ezekiel Cheever and Marshal Herrick come into the Proctor's home and prove Elizabeth guilty, Elizabeth is shocked and horrified, and John Proctor is mad (p. 1307). After Elizabeth is arrested, is then when first Proctor has intentions of saving Elizabeth and the people the girls accuse from the girl's accusations. Because Proctor had shown no indication of initially wanting to save Rebecca Nurse, he is not likely to be a hero. However, when his own wife gets arrested, he then shows signs of wanting to aid his wife and people of similar situations. It is a natural tendency for Proctor to want to free his wife, so he believes it is his duty because it is heavily implied by his wife that his wife would want to be saved by Proctor. It is not, however, directly his work to defend for unrelated people. As a consequence of his unpleasant work for Elizabeth, though, he also helps other accused people, not entirely by will. For this reason, John Proctor can be considered to be a stooge for others.