More handpicked essays just for you.
How the characters in the crucible changed
Character analysis of the crucible
Character analysis of the crucible
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Millier, a story line which revolves around witches, magic, deception and betrayal. As the reader follows the characters they recognize the major character flaws within each one as well as the unjustified actions that they demonstrate through their diction. But the reader also sees how these characters change and as the play takes on a new scene the characters take on a new mindset. Pastor Hale at the beginning of the play had very innocent as well as pure intentions but toward the end of the act the reader watches as these intentions turn malicious and warped. Hales goes through an inner struggle with himself based off the outside perspective of those around him, his mind switches from innocence being manipulated, to hostility to regret through out the play demonstrating to …show more content…
what extent and persons mind can change over such a short period of time. The character Hale starts as a pastor who wishes to be able to rid the world of evil so his best bet was to ultimately rid it of the so-called “witches”.
While his intentions start off pure and his confidence at an all-time high, the more we follow the character the more we realize that these things are slowly eroding. As he becomes progressively insecure with his actions, he becomes overwhelmed with others accusations which begin to take the place of his own assumptions and decisions. The character Abilgail sees Hale’s innocence and will to do good and achieve the unobtainable as a weakness within him. This gives her the opportunity to take his previece beliefs and transform them into a more extremist perspective. *Quote* While Hale doesn’t recongnize the manipulation nor the warping of his own perspective. He still believes that his action are those of innocent intent. Genuenly at this point in the play the reader has to recognize that in this moment in time Salem is in a crisis their worst fear has come to life and Hale is their only was of protection. So with all of these people depending on him he becomes insecure with his original ideas.
*quote* With this new extremist perspective Hales actions become hostile. *quote* His actions transform from an infection to a disease, we watch as the people become malicious to one another moreover as the trust disappears from the people their actions become animalistic. After Hale continuously signs away people’s lives based on the simple accusations of children. The reader sees Hale do this without any type of remorse which completely combates his earlier intentions showing the change of perspective. *quote* While previously he wanted to make sure there was some type of evidence to prove that these people were in fact whitches at this point in the play Hale is willing to believe anyone whom points a finger, at one point even sacrificing a dog under the pretense that it too was a witch. Yet after accuse the people of the lower class aka the people of no importence to their society they ultimately blame someone whom Hale just couldn’t find the conviction within himself to prosecute. Still after the girl accuse a woman of high standing Hale begins to question himself. As the guilt begins to eat away at him he recongnizes his actions yet still trys to justify them *quote* even if this completely goes against his original ideal.
We have all heard the tales and seen the movies of evil witches cooking little kids up for supper. For the people of salem in 1692-1693 this was a reality. In the matter of less than a year more than two hundred people were accused of witchcraft and more than twenty were executed. In these historic events author Arthur Miller wrote a play about the people and events in this play there is a man, Reverend Hale is well versed in the study of witchcraft and has come to try and save the girls that have been gripped by the Devil. Miller has Hale change very much throughout the event of this play. In the beginning he believes that the Devil is at work in Salem, how ever near the climactic ending of this play he realises that this witch talk has gotten completely out of hand
" 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.
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, is about mass hysteria of witches being in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. An educated man named Revered Hale arrived in the town with his exclusive knowledge of witches to help the town eliminate the presence of the Devil. He became a member of the court and aided in putting innocent people in jail or hung. As Hale started to see the consequences of his actions, he struggled with fixing his mistakes. The change in his perspective of the witch trials caused his overall personality and attitude to change as well. Hale’s dialogue, stage directions, and other people’s perceptions of him reveal a man motivated by good intentions; furthermore, his mission to help Salem destroyed evil in the beginning and his attempts
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.
A crucible is a severe test of patients or belief, a trial. The play The Crucible is a journey through the trials of many townspeople caused by the superstitious belief in witchcraft. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller progresses and evolves the outlooks and views of the townspeople of Salem and shows how events, people, and catastrophes cause the characters to change their views on whether the people prosecuted were guilty or innocent of witchcraft. Reverend John Hale changes his view, more and more drastically as the play advances, as a result of the events that he underwent and the experiences he had. Soon he had a total belief in the innocence of all those convicted and hung in Salem.
When Hale came to Salem, his heavy books gave him confidence.”They must be; they are weighted with authority” (Miller, 1279). By Act II, he begins to change in his belief, that what he has brought to
...the first few people persecuted, he realizes the integrity of life and that it cannot be wasted. He recognizes that he had mistakenly contributed to the death of those in the trials, and now wants to put an end to the hangings and save the lives of those undeserving of death. Hale demonstrates his change in ideals by becoming emotionally involved in the situation and allowing himself to try to protect the innocent victims.
The Crucible is a 1953 play by Arthur Miller. Initially, it was known as The Chronicles of Sarah Good. The Crucible was set in the Puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts. It talks of McCarthyism that happened in the late 1600’s whereby the general public and people like Arthur Miller were tried and persecuted. The Crucible exemplifies persecutions during the Salem Witch Trials. The people were convicted and hung without any tangible proof of committing any crime. Persecutions were the order of the day. When a finger was pointed at any individual as a witch, the Deputy Governor Danforth never looked for evidence against them or evidence that incriminated them; he ordered them to be hanged. This can be seen through his words “Hang them high over the town! Who weeps for those, weeps for corruption!” (1273), the people were persecuted aimlessly. The four main characters in the play, John Proctor, Abigail Adams, Reverend Hale and Reverend Parris, are caught in the middle of the witchcraft panic in the religious Salem, Massachusetts in late 1690’s. Persecution is the most important theme in the Crucible, the leaders and citizens of Salem attacks and persecutes one of their own without any tangible evidence against them.
The Crucible is a play which brings to our attention many timeless issues. The nature of good and evil, power and its corruption, honour and integrity and our tendency to create scapegoats for all manner of problems are all brought up through the course of the play - sometimes in very dramatic fashion.
The Crucible is a play with many underlying messages and themes. One of which is the idea of power. Power is a very important term in this play in that whoever holds the power, holds the fates of others. The hysteria within Salem has directly effected society. Everything has turned upside down and has gotten distorted. Arthur Miller is telling us that all the power in Salem is given to those who are corrupt and their abuse of it is directly shown through: the actions of Abigail throughout the play, the corruption and desires of Parris, as well as the witch trials held by Judge Danforth.
Hale first enters salam he is proud and confident in his ability to find and eradicate witchcraft where he believe he’s found it. “In these books the Devil stands stripped of all his brute disguises” (Hale 37). He claims to be able save anyone from the supposed witchcraft taking hold in this town. As more truths are uncovered Hale begins to question his beliefs and if the witchcraft he came to extinguish was really their at all. When people were questioning why they were accused and were genuinely confused. Hale picked up on people not knowing why or how they were accused, but he had to follow through with who were to be accused of being guilty until proven innocent. When Mary Warren I confessing that she had lied and had never seen the Devil and that none of them had. Hale is just starting to take them seriously that maybe they were falsely accusing people. That’s why by the end of the book (Act 4) he is in their cells asking them to lie because he has noticed that they were just lying. He believed that he should not have held the power to sign all their deaths because of his ideas. His ideas took control of him and with the power of the state used those ideas to sign death
One definition of "crucible" is "a severe test of patience and belief, or a trial". This definition pertains to Arthur Miller's four-act play, "The Crucible." The definition is suiting, because it is during this play that the wills of innocent women and men are put to the test when they are accused of things they did not do. It was the ultimate trial of determination and willpower to withstand such a wretched ordeal. Abigail Williams, Elizabeth and John Proctor, Mary Warren, Reverend Parris and even Reverend Hale had changed drastically because of what they had to go through during the course of the play. However, other characters such as Ezekiel Cheever and Marshall Herrick did not really change noticeably. Reverend Parris and Reverend Hale are two characters in "The Crucible" that did change, and Ezekiel Cheever is one that did not.
This can be seen when Hale begins to question the evidence being presented to the court. For example, Judge Danforth states, “Reproach me not with the fear in the country; there is a fear in the country because there is a moving plot to topple Christ in the country!” to which Hale responds, “But it does not follow that everyone accused is part of it” (Miller 1196). What readers can take from this quote is that while there could very well be witches in Salem, Hale acknowledges that it does not suggest that every single person accused is involved. By doing this he seems to be piecing together that just because some evidence is presented to the court, it doesn’t make it accurate. In addition, Hale also starts to express his concern about people using their own personal grudges to benefit themselves in court. Particularly, Hale states, “Excellency, it is a natural lie to tell; I beg you, stop now before another is condemned! I may shut my conscience to it no more-private vengeance is working through this testimony! From the beginning this man has struck me true. By my oath to Heaven, I believe him now, and I pray you call back his wife before we-” (Miller 1208). By stating this, the once quiet Reverend Hale shows that he is finally done taking orders from the court and decides to protest the doubts he has. As a result, this leads Hale to quit his job with the court after Judge Danforth
The morals that Hale treasures and relates to religion focuses on the connection of truth and the will of God. In the beginning, Hale defined the truth to be connected to God’s will. This is shown when he tries to make Tituba confess and tells her to “speak utterly… and God will protect you” (157). Here, Hale implies that the truth will ensure God’s protection from the Devil, who is represented by lies. It is also seen that Hale earnestly believes in the relationship between God and the truth because he is able to say it confidently and without any stuttering or passive language. However, Hale’s sense of character begins to change when the witch trials begin and the innocent are now the accused and the guilty are the ones allowed to run free. Hale is especially tested when Proctor brings up the fact that the accused, whether they are innocent or not, will lie in order to save their own lives (169). This creates a problem for Hale, who has previously believed that the words of the accused, such as Tituba, were the truth. It also rips holes in his once unquestionable faith to God’s will because the “truths” that he had believed in were actually lies. It brings up questions regarding Hale’s morals, and makes him questions what is the truth, and what is wrong. But as the witch trials become more extreme and innocents are being hanged in the