Reverend John Hale

In 1642 there was a hunt for witches in Salem, Massachusetts; in the 1950s there was a hunt for communists in America. Dramatist, Author Miller writes about the Salem Witch Trials in his play The Crucible. In 1692, just like in the 1950s, the congressional committees were searching for the truth, and trying to get rid of fear. Reverend John Hale was called to Salem because of his knowledge on witchcraft. Reverend John Hale was a Sensible man, who began to doubt the veracity of witnesses in the Salem Witch Trials, and became fearful in what his authority had set in motion.

Reverend John Hale was summoned to Salem because Reverend Parris wanted him to examine his daughter Betty. Reverend Parris heard about what Reverend John Hale did in Beverly Massachusetts; Reverend John Hale was asked to search for witchcraft and had found none, which shows that Reverend John Hale is a fair and sensible man. When arriving to Salem, Massachusetts he meets John Procter, also a sensible man, John Proctor mentions his sensibility, “I’ve heard you to be a sensible man, I hope you’ll leave some in Salem” (1231). For Reverend John Hale his sensibility and his authority is what make up his reputation.

When examining Reverend Parris’s daughter, Reverend Parris claims it was the doings of witchcraft. Reverend John Hale merely states: “We cannot look to superstition in this. The Devil is precise” (1231). Then while questioning the other girls, one of them mentions that Tituba, Reverend Parris’s servant, was the one doing witchcraft against them. In anguish Tituba confesses of doing witchcraft. Reverend John Hale convinces Tituba to go back to God and in this moment Reverend John Hale thinks he had caught a witch and saved the “afflicted girls” and in t...

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...the beginning Reverend John Hale’s intentions were good, just like Joseph McCarthy’s intentions in the 1950s, but they both got caught up in their reputations. Reputation played a tremendous role in The Crucible. The fear of guilt by association became destructive. Reverend John Hale experienced the demise in his reputation. Reverend John Hale, although a sensible man, struggled to keep his sensibility. He believed he helped rid the town of the Devil, but soon after he began to doubt the reasons behind the trials. In the end he began to fear what had become of the Salem Witch Trials. Although Reverend John Hale recognized the evil of the witch trials, his comeback was not boldness but surrender. He persisted that survival was the highest good, even if it meant accepting oneself to discrimination, something that he just could not accept.

Works Cited

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