John Proctor...Hero or Stooge?

Throughout this play, we see John Proctor change and evolve a lot.  In the beginning, I see him as a stooge and foolish.  John cheated on Elizabeth with Abigail, a nasty young lady.  As the play progresses, I see him especially evolve when he starts to see the accusations as being completely made up, and as he starts to try to do something to stop them.  When John admits to cheating on Elizabeth with Abigail, at the cost of his own name, which he cares so deeply about, he demonstrates how good of a man he is.  He willingly sacrificed his reputation and invited the punishments that came with adultery, all to help prove that Abigail and the other girls were lying.  The final big decision that John makes is what truly shows if he is a stooge or a hero.  John willingly lies about doing witchcraft, in order to save his life.  At the last second, he decides that he would rather die than live and lie about his accused crimes.  He rips up the confession and makes the men of Salem put him to death.  The court knew that John was an innocent man, but he made them put him to death, just because they wanted to conserve their own image.  I think that John Proctor is a hero, because he had too much integrity to lie, even to save his own life.