Reverend Hale Vs John Proctor

Foil characters are two characters that are complete opposites of one another. In the story The Crucible, there are plenty of characters that differ from each other. Two of the characters that have the biggest foil are Abigail and Elizabeth. Abigail is manipulative and attention seeking child. However Elizabeth is suspicious and a very relaxed wife of John Procter. Abigail and Elizabeth show their two very different personalities in three different ways, one being their traits, two being how they both change threw out the story, and their effect on being different from each other, therefore; characters in the story The Crucible are shown to be very different from each other.

John Proctor is a very friendly man. Everyone likes being his friend. He is open, kind, helpful, upright, blunt-spoken, and just a good, hard-working man. John has lots of faith in God but little in humans. He knows that mankind is good but he also knows that they are weak and imperfect. “Proctor: I’ve heard you to be a sensible man, Mr. Hale. I hope you’ll leave some of it in Salem”.

John Proctor is portrayed throughout the play to be a man who has high moral values that he must abide by. He

Samuel Parris and John Hale are the two ministers in The Crucible and were initially alike in their attitudes towards witchcraft. However, their personalities show some striking dissimilarities. Unlike Hale, Reverend Parris is characterized by extreme paranoia and egotism. He is very static- his traits and motives remain consistent from the beginning to the end of the play. Although a religious man and believer in witchcraft like Parris, Hale values human life and is motivated by personal beliefs and his sense of morality, disregarding his best interests. He is a very dynamic character, becoming progressively less confident and trusting of law and doctrine as his faith is tested throughout the ordeal.

The characters of John Proctor and Reverend Hale both resemble different ways of dealing with internal conflict. John Proctor, had a struggle between his head and his heart. For Example, after he heard of the trials, he had an internal

The second way John Proctor is an internally conflicted character is that he had an affair with Abigail. John Proctor, a married man with three sons, cheats on his wife with a young Abigail. He confesses to this by saying “God help me, I lusted and there is a promise in such sweat, but it is a whore’s vengeance.”(Act III, 49 ). John did not want to confess but absolutely had to, to expose Abigail’s real desires on why she is accusing Elizabeth of witchcraft. What John had confessed to was adultery and is punishable so he took a big risk. When Proctor said “Whores

In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the characters John Proctor and Reverend Parris are some of the major characters during the course of the play. John Proctor is a farmer in Salem that lives in the outskirts of town, and is religious like the rest of Salem but rarely makes it to the church due to living far away have having large amounts of work. He is seen as strong and confident by most town members, however “Proctor… has come to regard himself as a kind of fraud” (Miller 20-21). Reverend Parris is Salem’s religious leader. While he does regularly speak to the entire town, he has very little confidence and “believed he was being persecuted wherever he went, despite his best efforts to win people and God over to his side” (Miller 3). By comparing and contrasting both Parris and Proctor’s actions and beliefs throughout the play, underlying truths regarding self-realization and the consequences of our actions can be discovered.

Furthermore, in Act II, it is revealed that John Proctor attended mass scarcely because he hated Reverend Parris so much. His materialism (as proven with the gold candlesticks) was something that greatly bothered the town of Salem. In Act IV, Reverend Parris is humbled. Having been robbed by Abigail and her friend, Mercy Lewis, he is almost penniless, and thereby modest and sorrowful. He does not talk with the same biting command as he used to.

Throughout the play, The Crucible, we find many characters whose personality and intentions contradict with another character. This contrasting set of characters is an example of the literary term called foil. Abigail William and Elizabeth Proctor, for example, are two different characters whose demeanor and motivations contrast but still have a strong effect on each other.

Throughout this movie and book, John Proctor and Reverend Hale have both made a big impact of the overall plot of this story. I believe that overall John proctor has been the tragic hero of this play despite his flaws. One of John proctor's strengths would probably be that he is a pretty good leader and he stands for what he believes in. He is very unselfish and wants the best for everyone. We know this because in the end of the act three, when everyone had ran into the water and mary accused him of being a devil's man, he willingly confessed to it so that none of the other girls, or his wife would be charged. That scene right there really shows that he is very unselfish and cares very much for his wife and the kids of Salem.

     John Procter is a strong man, who thrives at the chance to be right and known. But by the end of the play he questions himself saying, “Who is John Proctor, Who is John Proctor?” (act 4). The trials to John Proctor are a time of change. When Reverend Hale enters the town John leaves in disgust, he knows the girls are lying. John’s pride springs from his feeling of being smarter then the rest of the town. He was constantly found bickering with Reverend Parris about unnecessary expenses. He is worried to speak at the trials for he would condemn himself as a lecher. His wife has her finger on his button though because after the affair, she uses his guilt so he will promise to accuse Abigail. As soon as John steps into the trials he is labeled as a witch and condemned to death. But from his own pride is unable to confess. But at the same time he does not want to die for such an absurd reason.

There is a very fine line between whether John Proctor’s decision was an act of pride or honor. The reader can analyze this by seeing the situation through each character’s point of view. Reverend Hale is immensely distraught over those who have been sentenced to hang because he can now see how the court has falsely accused them. With Reverend Hale feeling responsible for those convicted and now trusting John Proctor it is reasonable for him to feel as though he is choosing to be hanged out of pride. We see how Reverend Hale feels about John Proctor when he defends him in court court saying, “I denounce these proceedings, I quit this court!” when they arrest John Proctor and Giles Corey due to the girls acting.

Reverend Hale was a priest so he was all about honesty and did not want anyone to lie. Hale once said, “cleave to no faith when faith brings blood” (Miller 132). In this quote Reverend Hale warns Elizabeth and tells her that she should not lie because that is bad and it could lead to death. This connects to Reverend Hale as a tragic hero because he changed his beliefs as he left the court and left Salem. Then Reverend Hale returned to Salem because he wanted to help save the rest of the people of Salem since he was not there to directly help John Proctor. Hale went from being someone all about honesty to basically a liar. The only way to help save the people of Salem would be to tell them to lie. Reverend Hale was only able to do this because he left the court. If he was still part of the court he would have to follow what they do and he would not have a voice or a say. When it came to John Proctor’s trial, he decided to tell the truth but that unfortunately did not work out for him. This is because they sent Elizabeth into the court and asked he the same question they asked John Proctor, however, Elizabeth lied for her husband. Because he did not say the same thing as John Proctor he would most likely be killed for this. When this was happening, Reverend Hale was still part of the court so he did not have say about what would happen to John Proctor. This is one of the reasons why Reverend Hale

In The Crucible, Miller too created a character that would stand against authority; John Proctor. When Proctor is questioned as to why he has not been to church in so long, he admits that he has ill feelings towards Parris and the way that Parris gives sermons. Proctor does not like authority, and since Parris talks as though he is an authority figure, Proctor has an issue with this. Proctor is very critical over representatives of authority. Proctor changes from a timid character held in bondage by his sin, to a strong, righteous man who will die for the truth. This drastic change in his character is the basis of his significance to the outcome of the play. When faced with the prospect of either confessing to something he didn’t do, or dying, he tells judge Danforth that he cannot have his confession and name nailed to the church door because it would betray his friends who have already died for the truth. When Danforth refutes this, John says, “Beguile me not! I blacken all of them when this is nailed to the church the very day they hang for silence!” (143). Proctor seizes the power back from those who are misusing it, simply by refusing to be a part of the false confessions. The unyielding faith of Proctor’s wife, the influence of the people who share his beliefs and his triumph over an inner struggle help him make a decision that he believes will finally set him free from his past.

Another pivotal development in the plot of the play is the reactions of Mr. hale to the happenings in Salem. He is a man of integrity, although at times misguided and overzealous, he is willing to change his mind when confronted with the truth. Despite this admirable trait, he lacks the moral conviction to act against proceedings that will condemn innocent people to death. He comes to realize that John Proctor is