Reverend Hale The Crucible Character Analysis

Reverend Hale admits to himself that he may have started the witch trials in Salem, feeling guilty Hale strives to save anyone that he can from being hung. After some time, Reverend Hale realizes that the witch accusations are driven by ulterior motives. He feels guilty because he is the one who confirmed that the presence of the devil is in the town of Salem, causing fear to overcome many people. Hale exclaims, “There is blood on my head! Can you not see the blood on my head!!”(Miller 131). He believes that because he started the unjust trials he is the one to blame for the execution of innocents. Hale is convinced that if he had never gotten involved then the witch trials may have never occurred. In an attempt to fix the problem he created,

All of a sudden there was a witch outbreak in Salem Massachusetts. The following day the girls were found in bed inert. The doctor attempted to figure out the sickness the girls could have. However, he could not give the sickness any name. Then Reverend Hale was called in to help the town cure its unnatural problem. Throughout the play Reverend Hale contributed to both sides of the arguments. At the beginning he believed the court was doing God’s job. Towards the end his character changes and is less in favor of the court and more in favor for the people being wrongly accused. Reverend Hale’s is seen to be independent, confident and outspoken. These traits end up changing towards the end of the play. Reverend Hale is a dynamic character

He took his job very seriously and wanted to get to the bottom of the Salem Witch Trials held. At first he was very energized and enthusiastic about his conclusions on witchcraft and how it does exist in Salem, Massachusetts. Reverend Hale gets caught up in the hysteria occuring in Salem and realizes that after interviewing John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth Proctor there is some doubts. His perspectives begin to change behind the community and it’s accusations. At the end of the play, Reverend Hale loses all his trust for the judges and witch

Hale came to Salem knowing his prestigious title and wanting to prove his worth by eliminating Salem of it’s supposed witchcraft issue: “I mean to crush him utterly if he has shown his face (referring to the devil).” (10; Act 1). After the trials have taken their toll along with the ridiculous accusations that ensued, Hale had snapped and began to sway people to lie and save their lives, rather than stick to the truth and hang. Hale claimed he was now doing “the Devil’s work.” by having those accused lie by admitting to being witches due Hale believing that the accusations were all lies in the first place: “It is a lie!

We get our first chance to look at Hale's character at the end of Act I. He is presented as a very highly educated individual who went to Harvard and has studied the devil and witchcraft. When he is introduced it states that he thinks very highly of himself, as one of the best minds in Europe. Considering this, Hale shows his first stand on witchcraft

He is an expert in witchcraft and is not from Salem. He receives a call from Reverend Parris saying that he needs help with the chaos that is going on. Reverend John Hale says; “Excellency, I have 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.” With the witch trails if Abigail and Betty said that they witnessed that person doing witchcraft, without any evidence the person was guilty. So Reverend Hale is not as wise as they say he is because there was no proof that those innocent people were performing witchcraft. He is signing 14 death warrants for people that he did not have proof

Characters who seem to be heroic, such as Reverend Hale in The Crucible, initially appear to be consistent and set in their beliefs become aware of their faults at a futile moment in the story. Reverend Hale comes to Salem in an attempt to purge the town of witches and demons. Inadvertently Hale causes the deaths and jailing of innocent people. At a later point in the story he returns to Salem and exclaims, “I have come to do the devil’s work. I come to counsel Christians they should belie themselves. There is blood on my head! Can you not see the blood on my head” (Miller 121). Although Hale never seemed to be a hero in the eyes of the reader he was a man of reason and knowledge who had come to Salem with good intentions. However, after

He began having doubts when he realized that nobody who had been convicted of dealing with witchcraft would confess. Another factor was that Abigail Williams, the antagonist of the Salem Witchcraft Trials, and her group of friends were the main people who were accusing other of witchcraft. One more thing that started to sway Hale’s opinion on witchcraft and the people who had been convicted was the fact that residents of Salem who had a good name in the community and were very religious began to be accused of witchcraft. Also, some people who held a high status in Salem started to be accused

Reverend Hale is one of the main characters that is greatly influenced by his pride. Hale is known for hunting witches. He shows that he takes pride in taking on this task. "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." This quote from the play shows that Hale was very prideful for taking on this task in Salem. Once in Salem Hale soon finds himself in a situation he has never been in. Hale feels as if the people that are dying of witchcraft are his fault. He attempts to tell the accused to plead to witchcraft in order to save their lives but yet, no one will listen. Hale realizes that his pride got in the way of what he was suppose to do and tries to make sure others do not make the same mistake he made.

After returning to Salem after an extended absence, and knowing that these absurd actions should never have happened in the first place Hale, states, “Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my own. I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I brought, and what I touched with my great faith, blood flowed up.” at this point hale has completely transformed from his reliance on strict biblical interpretations to relying on his own conscience and experiences, even faulting his reliance on these texts n the process.

When Hale first arrives to Salem, he is excited and determined to start his work. Mr. Parris’s daughter, Betty, seems to be inert at fault of the Devil. Hale is called in to investigate. He loves his job and takes pride in it, “This is a beloved errand for him: being called here to ascertain witchcraft” (Miller 1252). Hale first carries energy of intelligence and eagerness. He is encouraging people to testify and to bring them justice, “We are going to help you tear yourself free” (1260). Hale is assuring Mr. Parris that he is much more powerful than the Devil and that he can expel him.

Furthermore, Reverend Hale was pushed to change also. Hale came into Salem a stranger, but knew how to fix the problem the town endured. He never questioned that God had a plan and always thought that something was either good or bad, with no gray area in between. This thinking is challenged when Elizabeth, a pure person, is accused and then later when John confesses. He knows that these people are honest and leaves the court for a period of time. In the end, Hale is a desperate man, and even though knowing there is no witchcraft present, he urges John to admit that he is not the one that should be punished. He has to question all the rules he has lived by his whole life and pursue something he knows is incorrect. In essence, Reverend Hale is pushed to his limits and is turned into a man that will be permanently in suspicion of any standards he ever thought were true.

In the crucible Hale to visit the minister Paris to try and decide if witchcraft is present in Salem.

Mr. Hale is a man nearing forty, a tight-skinned, eager-eyed intellectual. He is a minister from Beverly who has been summoned to Salem by Reverend Parris to investigate his daughter Betty and whether or not there really is witchcraft in Salem. If he finds there to be witchcraft he would then exterminate it by any means necessary, such as conversion or removing the infected inhabitants all together. Hale devotes himself to his faith and his work. His good intentions and sincere desire to help the afflicted motivate him, and when he gets to Salem he wants nothing more than to get to the bottom of this situation and come out the hero. Unfortunately, this also makes him vulnerable. His desire for discovering witchcraft allows others, particularly Abigail, to manipulate him. Nonetheless, Hale 's perspective does not stay constant throughout the entire play. In The Crucible, the beliefs and principles of Reverend John Hale change dramatically, as the events of the Salem Witch Trials cause him to question his moral values and initial intentions.

In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Reverend Hale’s attitude and beliefs are changed completely as the play progresses. After Reverend Parris is a witness to girls dancing in the woods and also when his daughter becomes very ill, he calls Rev. Hale to Salem. Hale’s job is to find any form of witchcraft and to get rid of it. Over the course of the play, Rev. Hale experiences a transformation in his beliefs from the beginning of the play to the end. Reverend Hale has three different emotions throughout the play. When Hale is introduced in the the beginning of the play, he is passionate and very confident about finding witchcraft and getting rid of it. In the middle of the play, Hale is frustrated and he does not know who to trust nor