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How Does Hale Present In The Jail

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The Crucible Short Answers Danforth does not want Hale to be present in the jail because he knows that Hale is telling the prisoners to lie about being in league with Satan. If they do so, the prisoners will not die. Danforth, however, is convinced that the prisoners are witches and wants a concrete statement of proof in which the prisoners accept that they were indeed working for the Devil. Hale just wants to save the prisoners’ lives, so he urges them to lie. Danforth cannot put Hale in jail because the villagers have utmost respect and deference for Hale. If Hale is placed in the jail, the villagers will lose all their faith in the court. Therefore, Danforth starts to use Hale: he wants Hale to convince Proctor that dying for pride is not worth it. If Proctor accepts that he was working for the Devil, the rest of the prisoners will also think about confessing and the villagers will believe that witches did actually haunt the people of Salem. …show more content…

Danforth says that “twelve [people] are already executed; the names of these seven [people] are given out, and the village expects to see them die this morning” (Miller 131). If Danforth stops the hangings, the villagers will get angry and cast doubt upon Danforth’s abilities to act as a judge. Also, Danforth says that it will not be fair to pardon some people accused of being witches because many have already been hanged. Even though his logic is flawed, Danforth refuses to listen to Hale and continues with the

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