The Crucible Character Analysis

In the play The Crucible many of the characters learn things about themselves as well as others. Discuss the insight gained by the characters of Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale, and John Proctor.

In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Reverend Hale’s attitude and beliefs are changed completely as the play progresses. After Reverend Parris is a witness to girls dancing in the woods and also when his daughter becomes very ill, he calls Rev. Hale to Salem. Hale’s job is to find any form of witchcraft and to get rid of it. Over the course of the play, Rev. Hale experiences a transformation in his beliefs from the beginning of the play to the end. Reverend Hale has three different emotions throughout the play. When Hale is introduced in the the beginning of the play, he is passionate and very confident about finding witchcraft and getting rid of it. In the middle of the play, Hale is frustrated and he does not know who to trust nor

The Family Crucible is a story about the Brice family who is recommended by Claudia’s psychiatrist to go to family therapy due to the fact that she has not been making progress in individual sessions. The Brice family comes to meet with Dr. Carl Whitaker and Dr. Augustus Napier, who co-facilitate family therapy throughout the story. The family is made up of five people: Claudia, the IP; Carolyn, mother; Laura, the sister; Don, the brother; and David, the father. The family is coming into therapy because there have been mounting concerns about Claudia and her behavior—acting out, staying out late, some fairly typical teenage stuff.

In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor, the protagonist, is a farmer in his middle thirties. The author gives little to no detailed physical description of him, but from Proctor’s speech, we can still picture him as a strong and powerful man who is able to keep every situation under the control, the kind of personality which earns him deep respect and even fear from the people in town. On the other hand, Abigail Williams, the antagonist, plays an inferior role as an orphan who has no social status in a place like Salem. Over the course of the play, John Proctor is absolutely awakened and transformed by Abigail Williams. In the end, he overcomes the crucible by releasing himself from his guilt of

Pride can become something that will lead a man to shame and destruction. In The Crucible this happened to one of the main characters, John Proctor, which also is the one of the Tragic Hero in the book. The Crucible is about when some town people in Salem was accused of being witches after four girls were found dancing in the woods. After 200 people were accused of being witches in 1963, 20 people were either hung or crushed by many stones. In the Crucible John Proctor, the tragic hero had a weakness as pride eventually forcing him to face a serious decision and suffering more than he should.

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.

Upon being first introduced, Reverend Hale is described as a confident, ambitious man driven by motivation to impress others with his thorough knowledge of witchcraft. He considers himself to be an expert; a veritable beacon of intellectual light who will be able to cure Salem of its supernatural affliction. By the end of The Crucible, Hale has undergone a complete character transformation, making him one of the more dynamic characters in the play. His perception of the trials are shrouded in guilt and self-doubt as he struggles with feeling responsible for those who are condemned to hang and wanting to preserve his Puritan values.

In the first act of The Crucible, Reverend Hale is confident in his ability to find the Devil in Salem. The Reverend’s goal is described as “light, goodness and its preservation”

Throughout the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the character Reverend Hale takes the role of identifying witchcraft in Salem and getting rid of it by converting or removing the “infected,” if present. Hale is a “spiritual doctor” who only tries to do good while following his faith, he intends no harm. However, his purpose throughout the play is bigger than what is manifest, he resembles Miller’s paradox of theocracy: Salem was eventually torn apart because of the desire for a pure theocracy. Hale not only resembles the paradox, but he is also a morally ambiguous character because of his changes of view on justice and religion.

In Act 1, Hale’s devotion to carrying out God’s law reveals his sense of obligation in eradicating the diabolic disturbances in Salem, despite the negative impact it may have on its citizens. Prior to entering the town, the Reverend’s motives lie in defeating the Devil, believing that this valiance will bring preservation to the Puritans. Although “his goal is light,” he believes the people of Salem have been “called upon to face what may be a bloody fight with the Fiend himself” (36). Despite wanting to face off with the devil, Hale stands strong in his belief that this will restore peace and prove to be beneficial. Consequences aside, his heavy

Reverend hale goes from being a man happy to use his expertise as he pursues evil and searches for witches. He is proud of his role in hunting for witches and sees it as his mission. Upon arriving in Salem he indicates to

In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, there is a very clear representation of compassion and forgiveness within the book, in several different ways. Compassion and forgiveness could be hard things to show during such a trying and stressful time; however, many instances of both appear throughout the play. Both traits are very clear in the character of Elizabeth Proctor. However, not everyone showed the traits. Some people in the play counterbalanced those who did. The lack of forgiveness is evident in the character John Proctor and the absence of compassion is also demonstrated through the character Abigail Williams in The Crucible.

The play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is set in Salem, Massachusetts during the time where Puritan society was infatuated with the mass hysteria of witchcraft and the denial of an individual having the right to make their own judgment. The fear of plotting against the court develops an idealistic credence that God is always on one’s side and challenging this theocracy means plotting against God and the values of a Puritan society. Throughout the prevalence of the Salem Witch Trials, characters are juxtaposed to highlight each other’s key qualities and distinguish between the concept of good versus evil. In the play, Giles Corey and Thomas Putnam serve as foils; Miller includes them in the play to illustrate that someone who is immoral is often appointed a higher status than someone who is moral.

Imagine that a pretending teenager and her posse was the reason you and your wife were killed. Would you die or confess knowing that you did nothing wrong? In the famous witchcraft play, The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, two of the protagonists were brought down by a lying group of girls. The play takes place in the town of Salem, Massachusetts during the 1600s. There were several town girls that were caught dancing in the woods by a man named Reverend Parris. Because they were convicted of conjuring spirits, the girls told lies about being tortured by afflicting spirits. Witchcraft was not a negligible act, but it was taken very seriously during this time period. Those that were convicted but did not confess to conjuring spirits were hung or executed. John Proctor’s flaws of a protective personality, stubbornness, and disloyalty have led to their ultimate downfall of death.