Hale Character Analysis Innocent people are dying, children are becoming orphans, the Reverend helps the devil, and Satan is roaming the streets, holding the hands of young Puritan girls. Many have hanged, and there’s more to come. Let’s see how Determination, hope, and faith can make a small town Reverend named Hale play games alongside the devil with the unjust deaths of Puritans as the prize. Rev. Hale enters Salem with high hopes and the intent to stop the witch craze occurring in a small puritan village. He comes with books that are handed down by the brain of God. When questioned by the weight of those books he replies, “citation” this informs us that Hale has large beliefs and ambitions in the town of Salem because he genuinely believes …show more content…
that his books contain information from God himself and that it can help him figure out what is going on in Salem. Throughout the play Hale uses these books to help with his great suspicion and need for answers, that he has “Ah! The stoppage of prayer- that is strange I’ll speak further on that with you.” (Miller, 480; Act 1). This quote is seen when Giles Corey comes to Rev. Hale asking about his wife’s strange reading of books in which Hale is very concerned and interested in because reading books at night, the stoppage of prayer while Giles wife is in the room, and other factors Giles explains, are all huge signs of witchcraft. Mr. Hale’s intentions with his questions, books, and beliefs is to discover what is causing the chaos in a Puritan village which is told to us when Hale speaks of crushing the devil. “Have no fear now- we shall find him out if he has come among us, and I mean to crush him utterly if he has shown his face.” (Miller, 479; Act1). He speaks about his reasoning to why he has come to Salem and what he plans to accomplish here which is to help end the witching and make the town “Godly” again. With great faith, Hale has taken evidence from Act one and two that dark and monstrous things are attacking the town.
“No man may longer doubt the powers of the village. There is too much evidence now to deny it.” (Miller, 495; Act 2). He supports this accusation with explanations that in today’s world we would consider crazy. Things like spectral evidence, when Abigail Williams is attacked by Elizabeth Proctor with a needle and a poppet, he thinks this as evidence that is stone cold. He also sees suspicion when people go against the gospel which can be seen when Elizabeth denies the existence of witches. In which he tells her, “You surely do not fly against the Gospel, the Gospel-“(Miller, 498; Act 2). This shows us his trust in his faith, and also things like the Gospel and God. But, later on in the play one of the “bewitched” girls named Mary Warren comes to the court and admits to all the girls lying about the dark magic that has been going on. This eventually leads to his downfall of his faith and determination and makes his leave Salem because he begins to realize Mary is telling the truth and he is behind the hangings of innocent people. “There is blood on my head!” (Miller, 532; Act 2). This is explaining his guilt that he has and his recognition that he has caused hearts to stop for unjust reasons. Due to him leaving and saying there was blood on his head, it is evident by the end of the play, that Hale goes from a Reverend that is here to help Salem with the power of religion. To a Reverend that is going against his Godly duty and has lost all ounce of will that he once had because he has the mark of death now upon
him. Days before more hangings are to come, Hale is spotted in the jails. He has returned to Salem to help those that he once convicted, of magic; to save their lives. “It is a lie! They are innocent!” (Miller, 533; Act 2). With this quote, we see that Hale has come to realize that the trials are in fact false; this leads to his downfall that we talked about previously, when he leaves Salem. But, Hales awakening of the truth about the trials also causes him to come back to the town. Yes, he realized he is at fault with the trials, but he also realizes that he can salvage what remains. “Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my own.” (Miller, 533; Act 2). Hale speaks of how he took his Godly duty of starting the trials as just, but how he was wrong and people should not make his own mistake. He says this because he wants people to help end the trials not keep them going because they are false. After this quote is spoken we start to see a small spark of hope rise back into Hale. He has hopes to save the lives that he can by making them confess to a crime they did not do. Which, is ironic since that is breaking one of the Ten Commandants and he, a Reverend, is encouraging Puritans to lie. This can be shown when Hale tries to convince Elizabeth to make John confess to witchcraft, “I beg you woman, prevail upon your husband to confess.” (Miller, 533; Act 2). Through the course of the play, Determination, hope, and faith inevitably cause the downfall of Reverend Hale and mistakes him into doing the devils work. He shows these three factors while he hangs the innocent but buries them when he leaves Salem. He regains then when he tries to save the lives of Puritans. Either way, it’s a losing situation because he is always committing some kind of sin, such as Murdering, running from his God given fate and encouraging people to lie.
His respect for authority disintegrates as he learns that everything in life that he once placed emphasis on, like the power of the written law and the authority of the court, is corrupt in the town of Salem. Hale comes to the end that the law is not absolute, one does not need to strictly adhere to the law, and that authority does not always preside over everything. He recognizes the evil in the town of Salem, yet in response, he does not choose defiance, but surrender. When he stops believing in witchcraft, he stops believing in everything that he once believed to be true. Not only does he no longer believe in the prevalence of law, he no longer believes in the ascendancy of religion over all aspects of life. As Reverend Hale loses his conviction for authority, he correspondingly loses his identity, yet, in our eyes of the reader, he gains respect and sympathy in its
" The fact that he only wants to please people is what gets him into trouble. He tries too hard to tell people only what they want to hear. This all results in Hale changing his mind about the court, the witches, and Salem.
Reverend John Hale, a Puritan pastor of Beverly, Massachusetts, was a strong believer of witchcraft and was one of the many people who sought out to end satan's reign. In The Crucible reverend John Hale represents the change in beliefs.
Hale does not start out as such however. In fact he is the reason the witch hunts are started. In the beginning of the play Hale is called to Salem to determine whether or not witchcraft is afoot. Witchcraft is expertise, and Hale, eager and naïve, wants to determine whether or not the devil is in Salem. His analysis is that Tituba is controlling the girls’ souls, leading the girls, starting with Abigail of course, to shout out various people they saw convening with the devil while they were under the control of Tituba. Hale, blindly and unquestioningly conforms to the rest of the town and believes the girls. In fact he leads the way, resulting in fourteen arrests. He is completely unphased by this, and wholly believes that they are all witches and that by arresting them he is doing God’s work.
As Reverend John Hale is not a resident of Salem, he approaches the accusations and rumors without any prior opinion. Hale is introduced as extremely arrogant and proud with his goal being “light, goodness and its preservation”(Miller 34). This phrasing strengthens his role as a man of God, but this is not actually displayed in his personality until later. He is very book smart and this leads to some signs of immaturity. This is shown in Act I when Parris questions why the devil would come to Salem. “Why would he [the devil] choose this house to strike?”(39) In response Hale says, “It is the best the Devil wants, and who is better than the minister?”(39) This shows he enjoys the position better than he does its purpose. He is also very eager.
Reverend Hale is believed to be a witch hunter of sorts. He believes himself to be a specialist and othe...
The test that Reverend John Hale faces is whether he can change his character early enough to redeem himself for the lives he has caused to be lost. He is the character that shows the most significant transformation overall. When he first comes to Salem, he is eager to find witchcraft and is honored that his scholastic skills are necessary. He feels that as an exorcist, it is his duty to help pe...
Arthur Miller weaves many events into the story that contribute to the alteration in Hale’s mindset. In the middle of Act 1, Hale arrives and is perceived by the town as “The truth seeker”. Hale is called upon to determine what sort of witchcraft, if any, is occurring (Page 33-35). Hale arrives admired by the people, who all want him to claim it was witchcraft that has occurred. Although unsure, he understands he is being led toward the conclusion of witchcraft by the town’s false pretences and mass hysteria. He begins to see a weakness in the position of the townspeople of Salem and tries to not let common accusations be the support for his diagnosis.
Statements from Hale show that he has realized the error of his ways. He decides to “shut [his] conscience no more” (223) and quits the court. Hale can no longer suppress his beliefs about the court and in effect, like Pontius Palter, absolves himself from the court. Next, Hale’s Words are used to show the immense amount of guilt that rests on his shoulder. Hale walks the prisons of Salem and, in knowing that “there is blood on [his] head” (234), “counsels Christians they should belie themselves” (234) even though he is also belying his reputation as reverend by doing this.
The judge is still accusing people of witchcraft and because they will not admit it they are getting hanged. Hale is a dynamic character because at first he wants to prove that witchery is real but at the end he recognizes that a man named John Proctor was telling the truth and that the girls were lying the whole time. In the
Because he is forced to accept that his beliefs have been messed with and realizes that he has sent people to their deaths, he loses faith in the law and questions his faith in God. Arthur Miller put many events into the story and tells about Hale’s mindset. In the middle of Act I, Hale comes and what he is called by the townspeople “The truth seeker”. Hale is called upon to determine what sort of witchcraft is going on. Hale arrives admired by the people who wants him to calm this nonsense of witchcraft down. He understands he being led toward the conclusion of witchcraft by the town’s wrong doings. He also begins to see a weakness in the position of the townspeople of Salem and tries to not let common things be the support for his
Hale is an intellectual man who takes pride in his ability to detect witchcraft. He was called to Salem to analyze their situation. "This is a beloved errand for him; on being called here to ascertain witchcraft he felt the pride of one specialist whose unique knowledge has at least been publically called for."
Reverend Hale arrives in Salem thinking that he will become a hero and rid Salem of the devil. Hale is speaking to the townspeople when he says, "Have no fear now--we shall find him out if he has come among us, and I mean to crush him utterly if he has shown his face!" Hale thinks that there is an actual devil in the town, and they must defeat it. He is trying to show the people of Salem that he is their savior, and that he knows exactly what to do.
They had no trouble believing that, because Parris had called Reverend Hale, (known for his studies in demonic arts), there must truly be witchcraft within the town. The play progresses and certain characters begin to develop; here is a community full of underlying personal grudges. Religion pervades every aspect of life. ' A man may think that God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now.
The Crucible, a container that resists hear or the hollow at the bottom of an ore furnace. However its connotations include melting pot, in the symbolic sense, and the bearing of a cross. Elizabeth, John Proctor’s wife; a cold, childless woman who is an upright character who cannot forgive her husband’s adultery until just before he died: she is accused of being a witch. Reverend Hale, a self-proclaimed expert on witchcraft; at the play’s end tries to save the accused. John Proctor, a good man with human failures and a hidden secret, a affair with Abigail, he is often the voice of reason in the play; accused of witchcraft.“I do not judge you.