Internal Conflicts In The Crucible

Throughout the entirety of the play, The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, different characters are faced with contrasting internal conflicts. Characters including Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Reverend Hale must choose between serving their self interests or serving the larger community of Salem. Salem is the home of these characters, but Salem is not cozy or pleasant. This town idolizes specific Puritan rules and beliefs that were dictated to them by their Church and other religious figures. The society in the little town of Salem, are petrified of sinning or displeasing God because of these “norms”; therefore, if they ever made a mistake, like humans do, and went against God’s will or the commandments, most would try to keep it a

In his mind, Proctor seems to stray away from these beliefs, and throughout the play, he distrusts the religion and its directors even more with the corrupt lies regarding witchcraft. Once these witch trials go to court with Judge Danforth, Proctor gets aggravated when the entire population of Salem is believing Abigail’s and the girls’ lousy, in his opinion, lies, especially that his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, is involved in witchcraft and collaborating with the devil. However, this is expected of them because it follows the virtues of Puritanism that young girls are pure and genuine, and that they would never lie, especially to someone with so much authority, like the Judge. While in Court when John Proctor reaches his limit, he makes the decision to confess about his affair with Abigail. In this instance he chooses to better the community, by hopefully saving the town from believing the lies that Abigail has asserted, by proving her impure and distrustworthy. Proctor realizes that this will dirty his name also, but chooses to do so to expose Abigail. However, his plan ultimately fails when they bring Elizabeth Proctor into Court to ask if she knew about the affair, because John Proctor

Reverend Hale is a recognized religious figure during this time, and journeys to Salem to assist in this witchcraft epidemic. At first, he believes everything and is extremely petrified at the active forces of the supernatural that are said to be there; however, near the end of the play he starts to become exceedingly skeptic like John Proctor and a couple others. As shown in Act Three when he states to Judge Danforth that he has “signed seventy-two death warrants; I am a minister of the Lord, and I dare not take a life without there be a proof so immaculate no slightest qualm of conscience may doubt it” (The Crucible Act III). He starts to realize that there is not substainial evidence to actually prove that these women and men are involved in activities of witchcraft. Conclusively, at the end, he makes the decision to leave Salem and to stop collaborating with the court. This situation could be interpreted as Hale bettering the community by him stopping his involvement, but it could also be seen as him serving himself because the toll of him endangering so many lives broke him down. Hale has been seen through the novel constantly serving the community of Salem, but at the end he makes the decision to leave which can be interpreted in two contradicting ways, that he left to hopefully make a statement that this court