The Crucible Short Answers Danforth does not want Hale to be present in the jail because he knows that Hale is telling the prisoners to lie about being in league with Satan. If they do so, the prisoners will not die. Danforth, however, is convinced that the prisoners are witches and wants a concrete statement of proof in which the prisoners accept that they were indeed working for the Devil. Hale just wants to save the prisoners’ lives, so he urges them to lie. Danforth cannot put Hale in jail because the villagers have utmost respect and deference for Hale. If Hale is placed in the jail, the villagers will lose all their faith in the court. Therefore, Danforth starts to use Hale: he wants Hale to convince Proctor that dying for pride is not worth it. If Proctor accepts that he was working for the Devil, the rest of the prisoners will also think about confessing and the villagers will believe that witches did actually haunt the people of Salem. …show more content…
Danforth says that “twelve [people] are already executed; the names of these seven [people] are given out, and the village expects to see them die this morning” (Miller 131). If Danforth stops the hangings, the villagers will get angry and cast doubt upon Danforth’s abilities to act as a judge. Also, Danforth says that it will not be fair to pardon some people accused of being witches because many have already been hanged. Even though his logic is flawed, Danforth refuses to listen to Hale and continues with the
Reverend John Hale is the minister who is called in to investigate the witch trials in The Crucible. At first he believes them, but later he returns to the town to try and stop the trials. Deputy Governor Danforth is the judge at the witch trials. He is dedicated to removing all witches. He rules by the law and will not allow exceptions or anyone to try to undermine his court.
Logical Fallacies and Pitfalls in The Crucible In The Crucible, a Modern tragedy, Arthur Miller incorporates many logical fallacies including the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. When Reverend John Hale, Giles Corey, and Francis Nurse visit John Proctor and his wife, they all explain how many wives are being accused of witchcraft. Giles states that Walcott charged his wife, Martha Corey, on the terms of bewitching his pigs. He says that Walcott bought one pig from his wife, and it died shortly after.
Reverend Hale and John Proctor in The Crucible The Crucible is a play about the hardships of the Salem witch trials. In the beginning, Reverend Hale is a devout judge and reverend, seeing only black and white. When he faces the people of Salem, his character stops favoring legal justification and shifts to do what he knows is right, quitting the court and imploreing defendants to save their lives. John Proctor was a hardworking licentious farmer before the witch trials came to town, but when all was said and done, he chose the religious answer to the question of lying or dieing Arthur Miller shows the greatest transformation in Reverend Hale and John Proctor in order to convey that when people of usually certain manners are under extreme duress, they prefer religious/moral arguments over other arguments they favored
His reply is accompanied with a vindictive nature towards anyone who opposes the actions of the court or by extension, him. Therefore, his arrogance and pride restrains him from listening to others point of view. Lastly, despite hearing about the mass opposition and rebellion at the Andover witchcraft trials, Judge Danforth refuses to postpone the hangings and orders Reverend Parris that “Now hear me, and beguile yourselves no more… Postponement now speaks a floundering on my part.” (Miller 129). Danforth arrogantly waves off the request of postponement made by Hale and Parris. He thinks that the act of postponement of the hangings will raise the issue of his credibility as a judge. Danforth’s pride of his status as a judge denies him from giving it a thought that his actions can lead to the death of innocent lives. When pride and arrogance interferes with ones wisdom the repercussions are often destructive. Judge Danforth proves this through the medium of his actions which lead to the destruction of trustworthiness in the community and brought tragedy to Salem.
By making his decision based on his own application of the law, instead of based on religious expectations, Danforth is able to successfully separate “church” and “state”. The night before the hangings of Proctor and Rebecca Nurse are scheduled, Parris and Hale try to convince Danforth to delay the punishments:
Change is inevitable. Many humans fight it while others greet it with open arms and smiling faces. Most people change because of things that happen around, or to them. Negative or positive, the actions can dictate whether the individual changes for the worse or for the better. Reverend Hale in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is the perfect example of this. He changes drastically, yet gradually, throughout the entire play. Hale progresses from conceited due to his abilities, to hesitant because of the great negative impact the witch trials are beginning to hold, and finally, he becomes regretful because of his ignorance and the actions it caused.
When John Hale notices the accused people of the town who tell the truth are being threatened and killed he begins to encourage the indicted ones to lie. For example, Rebecca Nurse, one of the most honored people in the town of Salem, was arraigned of witchcraft and told the truth but was still executed. On the other hand, people who didn’t actually do anything and said that they did do witchcraft when accused just had to ask for forgiveness from god and were able to continue on to their lives. In result of this, John Hale seeks to get people such as John Proctor to lie and confess even if they didn’t do anything. He tries to convince Proctor to confess so he can continue his life with his loving wife and children. To
Even if he knew what was true and what was false keeping his reputation in tact was more important. Contrasting from both of the first characters Reverend Hale was more of a guy who wanted to do right. He knew that his job was on the line but instead of worrying he tried to find justice for the people who were being hanged. His name wasn’t as important to him as getting justice was. In act four Hale finally starts to realize all what he's been doing wrong, and so was watching those innocent people getting blamed for something that wasn’t even real. When trying to give Elisabeth advice Hale says, “Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my own. I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, earring gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I brought, and what I touched with my bright confidence, it died; and where I turned the eye of my great faith, blood flowed up. Beware, Goody Proctor- cleave to no faith when faith brings blood. It is mistaken law that leads you to sacrifice. LIfe, woman, life is God’s most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it. I beg you, woman, prevail upon your husband to confess. Let him give his lie. Quail not before God’s judgement in this, for it may well be God damns a liar less than he that
Hale was called into town by Reverend Parris to examine Betty’s body and determine if it was due to witchcraft. Being the expert that he is in witchcraft, he already has a great deal of power because he has the ability to to say there is witchcraft in the town or there is not witchcraft in the town. With time, Reverend Hale realizes that Abigail is deceiving the court and that John, Elizabeth, and many others were actually innocent. By the time Hale realizes this, the trials had turned into the hands of Danforth and the court, leaving Hale with nothing to do. When this happens, Hale is then a powerless character.
Secondly, after Hale returns he wants to try and help postpone the hangings because he knows the accused are innocent. He returns just in time for the day John Proctor is to hang. He comes back to town because he knows that John is truly innocent. He has changed into a better man and he wants to now save the lives of those who he had a help in condemning. So he says to Danforth, “Excellency, if you postpone a week and publish to the town that you are striving for their confessions, that speak mercy on your part, not faltering.” (Miller 130) Hale is trying to show them, that they are helping the Church rid of evil by postponing the hangings and having the accused confess to dealing with the devil. Hale has become more desperate because he wants the accused to live; he blames himself for them being accused and not seeing that the accusations were false earlier. Hale came the first time to rid the town of what he thought was evil, and now he has returned to save the lives of the so called “evil people”.
Additionally, when John states that he believes the trials are nonsense, Hale defends the court and argues that people have already confessed to which John retorts “And why not, if they must hang for denyin’ it? There are them that will swear to anything before they’ll hang; have you never thought of that?” (Miller 61). John’s argument illustrates the extremity of the court system in Salem. His argument also portrays the guilty till proven innocent system of court which shows how those accused rights were taken away and the reasoning why many of the accused did, in fact, confess. Also, when Francis Nurse brings forth a signed testament of people declaring their good opinions of Rebecca Nurse, Elizabeth Proctor, and Martha Corey, Judge Danforth commands Cheever to “have warrants drawn for all of these- arrest [them] for examination” (Miller 76). This further illustrates the corruption of the courts in that witnesses are to be arrested for going against the courts and defending the accused. Moreover, those accused in Salem were allowed virtually no representation in court and any witnesses to possibly prove their innocence to the biased courts were arrested. The occurrences mentioned demonstrate the true stripping of rights of the accused by the court during the Salem Witch Trials.
The Crucible written by Arthur Miller is a play that takes place in the sixteen nineties during the famous but tragic witch trials. Reverend Hale who is a minister and an expert of the demonic arts and witchcraft is sent from East Hanover to Salem where there is a spreading fear of witchcraft. When Hale arrives in Salem he finds the entire town in total chaos. At the beginning Hale is adamant in believing that they’re where witches and that nothing but good could come of his being there. Near the end when the truth has been exposed, Hale with so much blood on his head pleads : ‘‘ I come to do the Devil’s work. I come to counsel Christians they should belie themselves. There is blood on my head! Can you not see the blood on
At this point, he becomes convinced that the accused are truthful, and his approach towards Abigail is one of increasing suspicion. Although Hale attempts to prove that Proctor is telling the truth, the trials are no longer in his hands, but rather in those of Danforth, who has no interest in seeing its proceedings exposed as a
Therefore, we must rely upon her victims – and they do testify, the children certainly do testify. As for the witches, none will deny that we are most eager for all their confessions. Therefore, what is left for a lawyer to bring out? I think I have made my point. Have I not?"(239-243). Reverend Hale is starting to believe that the girls are lying, and he thinks that the ones being accused should have a lawyer but Danforth just says the accused only rely on victims and witnesses. Danforth feels that he has much power and he wants it to stay that way by "defending" the people. "I cannot hear you. What do you say? You will confess yourself or you will hang! Do you know who I am? I say you will hang if you do not open with me!" (483-487). Danforth knows that he has the power to say if someone hangs or not so he's using it to scare Mary into telling the truth, or in this case the truth he wants to hear.
Proctor is later found guilty and he is ordered to be taken to jail. With anger, Hale speaks out, “I denounce these proceedings, I quit this court” (1151). Hale can no longer take part in a court system that hangs innocent people. He publicly declares that the court’s rulings are wrong which reveal his frustration and his rejection to the court. Reverend Hale is no longer the same man who had his faith in the court when he had first arrived in Salem.