This is our hero, protagonist, the main character of the text. He isn’t a good person at all. He cheats on his wife; he can't remember the main ten testaments (but he continues going to the church every Sunday). Also, he is the biggest stubborn person that you have ever seen being angry pretty much 100% of the time. He wasn’t like that all the time. Back in the day, he had everything that a man wanted to have at that time: a farm where he was working unremittingly, three clever sons with good discipline, and a wife who is keeping the house. All people in the town think about him as about wealthy, strong, honoured person. He was respected, and even more, he respects himself. But one day everything changed.
John Proctor in the Essays