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John Hale In The Crucible

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In the play The Crucible, author Arthur Miller uses the dynamic character Reverend John Hale to serve as a passionate voice of reason in the otherwise hysterical village of Salem, Massachusetts. Throughout Acts I and II, Miller portrays Hale as a passionate but arrogant reverend. In order to show his pride, Hale comments upon his arrival in Salem, “HALE, setting down his books: They [the books] must be [heavy]; they are weighted with authority. … In these books the Devil stands stripped of all his brute disguises” (Miller 901). By saying this, Hale is claiming jurisdiction over, not only the situation, but also the Devil himself. It is a bold, presumptuous statement, and Hale is naïve if he thinks he can control the Devil. John Hale is not …show more content…

In response to Danforth's continued cries of “witch,” Hale says, “HALE: There is blood on my head! Can you not see the blood on my head!! … They are innocent!” (Miller 963). By saying this, he admits his guilt and cries for repentance. He wishes for the court’s corruption to be fixed, as he urges and pleads that they let the guiltless still living walk free. Furthermore, when he hears of John Proctor’s looming hanging, Hale tells Elizabeth, “HALE: …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.” (Miller 963). This shows his love for life and a desperate passion that those wrongly accused may continue to have such a thing. No matter the price, he wants them to be freed and not killed for a crime no one has committed. In the final moments of the final act, he is trying to be the hero he thought he was, fighting for a real truth. In the play The Crucible, the dynamic character Reverend John Hale becomes the passionate voice of reason in the hysterical village of Salem, Massachusetts. From his experience in such a village, Hale comes to realize that not everything is as it appears, but there is a truth, and there is a lie; it just takes some time, effort, and maybe another person to help draw a clear line between. Not everything everyone says is the truth, but not everything is a lie either. It’s simply a matter of searching for which is

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