The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Over the course of the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Reverend Hale has changed dramatically from the start of the play to the end. At first, Hale is convinced that he is an expert of witchcraft and the truth is found in his books. He also comes into Salem putting his faith into the court. As the play goes on, Hale questions his belief because he realizes that many people are being convicted without definite evidence. In the end of the play, Hale has no faith in the court. He realizes many people innocent people have died through the courts rulings and therefore he can not be a part of it. Hale’s character has changed significantly throughout the

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.

In The Crucible, there are many complex characters who shift throughout the play. Reverend Hale was one of the most complex of these characters. Hale’s changes were a direct result of the trials. Because of this Hale’s changes can be traced through his actions and motivations. Throughout the play, Reverend Hale was changed by his faith, his knowledge of the truth, and by his guilt.

However, he still has faith that the court will reveal the innocence of the accused. "If Rebecca Nurse be tainted, then nothing's left to stop the whole green world from burning. Let you rest upon the justice of the court; the court will send her home, I know it." (p. 71) By the time upstanding citizens like Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse are condemned, Hale had begun to listen to his conscience about the validity of the court. As Hale hears Mary Warren and John Proctor's evidence against Abby, he finally allows himself to pay attention to his morals and realize the court's corruption. Although Hale quits the court, his remorse at the seventy-two death warrants that he signed leads him to try to undo the chaos he had started by trying to get the remaining accused to confess their sins and thereby save their physical lives, as opposed to what he had been trying to do when he first arrived and save their spiritual lives. Hale's entire personality changes from the beginning of the play to the end, as shown by his change from "Here is all the invisible world, caught, defined, and calculated. In these books the Devil stands stripped of all his brute disguises. Have no fear now-we shall find him out if he has come

When in reality, there were no witches, it was all false notations of Abigail's’ lie that lead into something greater than it should have been.“It were only sport in the beginning, sir, but then the whole world cried spirits, spirits” (Mary Warren, Act 3, p. 100)

The deterioration of justice in Salem was well represented by the unjust sense of guilty until proven innocent that defined the court’s process of determining the outcomes of the trials. “I have no witness and cannot prove it, except my word be taken” (56). John Proctor’s reluctance to tell Hale what was discussed between him and Abigail portray the fear of being labeled as a guilty individual and losing a precious amount of dignity due to the unjust procedures in court. In order for him to maintain his dignity and innocence, he would have to have a witness and proof of his declaration, which he

When the play begins John Hale is much like Reverend Parris- he is naïve and controlled by the dogmas of the church, but unlike Parris, he truly believes that what he is doing is right while Parris's intentions were never pure. When he first enters the play, he is the force behind the witch trials- probing for confessions and encouraging people to testify. As the play continues, however, he experiences a transformation, making him one of the most dynamic characters in the play. He begins to empathize and has independent revelations regarding the nature of the trials after listening to John Proctor and Mary Warren.

      Reverend Hale is another character that changes during the course of "The Crucible." Upon his entrance in the midst of Act I, he is depicted as a strong, knowledgeable intellect. His intelligence seems to leave no room for compassion. This is evident by his interrogations which took place during Act III, the Trial, as well as the biographical information provided in Act I of "The Crucible." However, his emotions do come out in Act IV. He appears sympathetic and kindhearted while begging the women in prison to confess to save their lives.

Hale goes up to Danforth as he putting an unfair case on trial: “ I cannot say he is an honest man; I know him little. But in all justice, sir, a claim so weighty cannot be argued by a farmer. In God’s name, sir, stop here; send him home and let him come again with a lawyer-”(92). Hale is concerned for the people of community; he believes that like Giles many other people in the community are not getting fair trials. He stands up for the people in the jail that are not able to these liberties to get to represent themselves civilly. Hale also tries to convince the accused to confess so they are not sentenced to death. When he realizes that his evidence of the accusations are altered by Abigail's

Furthermore, Reverend Hale was pushed to change also. Hale came into Salem a stranger, but knew how to fix the problem the town endured. He never questioned that God had a plan and always thought that something was either good or bad, with no gray area in between. This thinking is challenged when Elizabeth, a pure person, is accused and then later when John confesses. He knows that these people are honest and leaves the court for a period of time. In the end, Hale is a desperate man, and even though knowing there is no witchcraft present, he urges John to admit that he is not the one that should be punished. He has to question all the rules he has lived by his whole life and pursue something he knows is incorrect. In essence, Reverend Hale is pushed to his limits and is turned into a man that will be permanently in suspicion of any standards he ever thought were true.

Reverend Hale believes in his second thoughts of the devil not being such a thing, and sees that Abigail has been setting this all up and framing John Proctor to have his love. Pointing at Abigail, Hale says, “I believe him!...This girl has always struck me false!...”(Act III, 50) After Abigail over-exaggerates and makes the girls believe the devil is in their presence, and the people of the court believe them, Reverend Hale walks out in frustration. People of the court and town don’t know what else to believe because they always thought the girls were saying the truth about what they saw. Hale begins to see that a lot of people in the town of Salem, are corrupted in result of the witchcraft trials.

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

But, as the trial went on, Hale realized that what was happening in the court was truly bizarre. The court was so blindsided by Abigail Williams smug demeanor and the lies she and the girls had been telling, but Hale was not. There were many accounts in the play where Reverend Hale tried to stand up to the court and expose the girls of their fraudulent ways, but they never listened. Finally, the last straw for Reverend Hale was when John Proctor was jailed for being wrongfully accused of witchcraft. When that happened Hale yelled to Danforth, “I denounce these proceedings, I quit this court!”(Miller 120). Hale went from being a key component to the court and the trials to completely isolating himself from the whole situation.

The action “takes place in 1692 at a time when people were living in a very closely knit society, based on Puritan principles, and, consequently, prone to a certain amount of intolerance towards any form of opposition or dissent” (Bonnet, 33). So, basically, in 17th century Salem, Massachusetts, a group of teen girls had been caught in an innocent act of love potions when the ceremony is witnessed by the town minister, who happened to also be Abigail’s uncle. As the girls run away as Parris’ daughter falls over unconscious. The girls are then accused of witchcraft but they then play it off and claim that the devil had possessed them to do those rights and started going around town accusing innocent townspeople of witchcraft as the accused were then sent to trial to be hanged. Parris questions Abigail about the events that took place in the woods and to save herself and the other girls from punishment, Abigail claims that Tituba was working with the devil. After a brutal whipping, Tituba confesses to being a witch. Struck by their newfound power,

“I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him, I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” This is when Abigail Williams "confesses" to being a witch. This outburst shows the hypocrisy in Salem as well as ignorance towards the idea of the witch trials. Beginning with confessions of a meeting with the devil, continuing with declaring a reunification with Jesus, and ending with of course, accusing others of witchcraft. The false confessions favor the dishonest and are motivated by jealousy and spite.