John Proctor: Hero or Stooge?

Though it is never said, John Proctor hangs. He hangs for a crime he is innocent of, all because he would not let the world know that he bowed and confessed. He was charged because he tried to fix things; he tried to make the wold see that Abigail was lying, that this entire event was just people getting back at people and lying so that they wouldn't hang. The real John Proctor, as he stood at the gallows about to hang, perfectly recited the Lord's Prayer, amazing and confusing the people who watched. A witch was not supposed to be able to pray. In a way, he got the final word, showing Salem that the people they hung could not all be witches. Since the play ends with Proctor being dragged off, I like to imagine that it did end this way.
So, hero or stooge? The answer is both, and neither. John Proctor   was human, and like any human, he showed both traits. He showed the hero aspect when he challenged the court, knowing full well he would be in trouble for it. And yet he challenged them, not only to save his own wife, but all those who were innocent. He also ruined his name to help the court see how guilty Abigail was, admitting to his affair with her, and admitting to a theocratic court that he had broken one of the Ten Commandments. This was enough to get him into major trouble, but he jumped and pulled Abigail down with him. 
And yet he was also a stooge, a pawn. People used him, and he had no say in the matter. Perhaps the higher-ups made an example of him, killing him who would defy the court. Because the people running the trials would have power, power they had never know, power over life and death. They would not want to give up that power, because people who are exposed to it rarely want to fall down to a powerless state. So when Proctor came in claiming that all this was false, that the children had made everything up, they could not let that be true, for if it was true, not only would they be accused of killing innocent and have to live with that guilt, they would lose what power they had over the people of Salem.