Witchcraft : The Perfect Crime In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

Reverend John Hale, an educated man of the Lord, arrives in Salem and unwittingly starts the Salem Witch Trials and reveals the theme that lies blind even the most well intended from the truth. Reverend Hale represents a good uncorrupt holy man, unlike Parris, and we have chosen a New Testament bible due to his piety, but also due to the Congregationalist Protestant faith which settled in New England. Hale presents himself as an educated man of the world and at the time only priests became educated so we have chosen a textbook. From the very beginning, Hale searches for the truth behind the “witches” in Salem and he remains determined to reveal the lies told by Abigail. We have chosen to represent his determination by a magnifying glass or

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible the witch trials in Salem were a devastating time. The entire community was in disorder and chaos because of personal vengeance. This included accusations of innocent town’s people being called witches, so they hanged and were jailed. Throughout the play certain characters help the rise of witchcraft as well as the disapproval of all the innocent people who were being convicted for no reason. Reverend Hale is a dynamic character whom comes to rid of the evil spirits in Salem, yet he later tries to end the trials. Hale realizes the accusations are false, attempts to postpone the hangings, and persuade the victims to lie conveys that he is a dynamic character and changes throughout the play.

In the book, The Crucible Arthur Miller tries to demonstrate that the Salem Witch Trials and the red scare had a huge impact on the lives of many people. But mainly that there was lots of fear during that time. And people like for example McCarthy saw that as an opportunity to Manipulate people for personal gain. Also, Arthur Miller is showing how these two events really relate to each other and share the same concept.

Have you ever felt like you were among frauds and liars in a group supposedly full of devotees? The people living in late 1600s Salem were known as God-fearing, yet often projected their personal vendettas onto one another through the witchcraft trials. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller utilizes characterization, dramatic and verbal irony, and symbolism to the the convey the conflict of piety and corruption, therefore exposing the hypocrisy of a theocratic community.

Reverend Hale became so disillusioned that he was a witch expert who was helping cleanse Salem of witchcraft. He came into the play with high hopes that he would be able to prove his abilities and to show what he can do and being all stuck up about himself. Without knowingly that he was the one who aided in the innocent people that were hanged and trialed for something that could not even be proven with evident but with just by the word of others. When he was going around Salem asking people questions of what they thought about the witch trials and other things possibly he was beginning the doubt since the people had said that certain people were good puritans and they saw absolutely no signs of them using witchcraft. Particularly when he questions John and Elizabeth Proctor who of which John point out so much evidence that Hale was seriously

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.

In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, Arthur intrigues audience time and time again with the historical context, social implications, and the Salem, Massachusetts Witchcraft Trials of 1962. Most members in Salem feel the need to prove their authority in ways such as accusing those who have done nothing or hanging them without proving their innocence first. The thing is authority is not made up by an authority figure, but by society. Miller’s The Crucible, demonstrates how people misuse their authority for cruel purposes through a fascinating plot, well-crafted characters, and well-set theme. During the hysteria of witchcraft trials in Salem, there were multiple figures of authority or per say the community who abused their power, Reverend Hale, Abigail Williams, Reverend Parris and Judge Danforth.

​There are usually at least a few instances when a person gets wrongfully accused of something they did not do, whether it would be taking the last cookie out of the jar, picking their nose, or even something to the extremity of taking someone's life. A tragic, real-life example of this is when Michael Morton got sentenced to life in prison when he was falsely accused of murdering his wife. Twenty-five years later, he was eventually exonerated from prison by the use of DNA evidence. In Arthur Miller's ​The Crucible, while the witch trials were underway, situations like this were common occurrences. The play which took place in Salem, Massachusetts, was centered around many innocent people getting framed for witchcraft by licentious people who wanted to place blame on them due to jealousy or hatred for the sole purpose of revenge. The rumors quickly spreading through the town caused hysteria, defined by people behaving in an uncontrolled way due to fear or anger, eventually leading to nineteen righteous people being hung. Reverend Hale, a supposed expert on witchcraft was one of the main people to blame for the witch trials according to the vast majority of readers. Despite that, his probity becomes clearer and clearer when scrutinizing the text for its true meaning. After all, he was not responsible for the spread of the rumors about witchcraft, he began to realize the flaws in the Salem witch trials as the story progressed, and he tried to compel everyone condemned to death

How do the characters respond to the accusation of witchcraft? Why do you think they act this way? Does their religion have anything to do with their reaction?

Hale was similar to proctor but had his own special lesson to learn too. Hale believed in witchcraft completely and thought through the light of god they could be saved. But he was different from the rest of salem, he didn't just believe that someone was a witch just because someone says so. He wanted honest truth that someone was a witch instead of a bunch of scapegoats. When proctor was being questioned and his wife lied on his behalf he reminded the court that any wife would do the same.

In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, many characters were drastically affected by the traumatic trials and executions happening in Salem. One such character was Reverend Hale. Reverend Hale began as a well-respected and confident witch hunter but ended as a disillusioned man filled with guilt over the death of innocent people.

Many crucial events lead to the Salem Witch trials. The trials ended in a gruesome manner, and conflicts were at the root of the cause. The Salem Witch trials were the result of illogical-mass hysteria, and were induced by grudge holding people who used the trials to harm their foes.

Hale at the beginning of the play does not take evidence much into consideration when someone accuses of witchcraft,

The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings that were accusations of witchcraft. The trials resulted in twenty deaths and fourteen of the people were woman. With the Witch Trials, Arthur Miller is able to Mirror what happened in Salem in the play “The Crucible”. There will always be someone to blame for the losses. But in the event, there were some more worthy of being blamed than others. Although, everyone is to blame because no one would step in and stop it, but rather go along with the hangings. The man who is most to blame for the ultimate outcome of the Witch Trials in Salem Is Mr. Hale. He is the one who strikes fear into the hearts of these people.

Not only was the mixture of the law in the church and society complementary to the theme, so was fear. Witchcraft was forbidden. To have been unknowingly associated with it seemed frightening to a lot of characters such as Reverend Parris. He did not sign his daughter up to play a part in this sinful game . Reverend Parris just found his daughter and other females "dancing like heathens in the forests" (Miller 10). When voiced to the opinion of Thomas Putman, Reverend Parris became too sensitive to consider there being an "element of witchcraft" (Miller 14). He was concerned of what people might think of him. Although Parris had a half priced reasoning for not wanting to conclude witchcraft, he had a good point. "Witchcraft was an easier way