Reverend Hale's Paradox In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Trying new things, like a new home, a new job, or a new hobby are all things that can change people and that can be a challenge. New ideas, new people, new rules, and really anything that is different can change people. Change can be a good thing or a bad thing. Nevertheless, change is inevitable and it can’t be avoided. Take King George III for example.

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

The Salem Witch Trials were a time of paranoia and mass hysteria. In this small town of Massachusetts hundreds were accused of witchcraft and 19 people were executed. Salem was home to very devout Puritans. The worries arrived when young girls would become sick with no explanation or cure. The doctors not knowing what the cause of the illness was, quickly pronounce the girls bewitched. It spread terror through the town. The girls, as well as other residents, started accusing others of witchery. Many accusations were because of vengeance or self-interest. There were rivalries between families over land or wealth. Neighbors started accusing each other in order to gain their land. The religious community had an intensified sense of fear that the Devil was walking among them. They believed witches were out to destroy the Puritans. In order to purify the village of evil they had trials for the accused.

Summer Foust Mrs. Burchfield English III-6th October 1, 2014 Extra Credit; How does Arthur Miller change Reverend Hale, through conflict and character motivations? Reverend Hale begins the play as a witty man with great knowledge of witch craft; he is called upon to confirm what has entered the town of Salem. Hale comes bearing heavy books “weighted with authority”. He is a very confident man with what seemed to be good intentions.

29. The “promise” that Elizabeth wants John to do is to go to Abigail and to end the relationship between him and Abigail. John explains his anger by explaining that he is honest and that he promises to Elizabeth that he will curse Abigail hotter than the oldest cinder in hell. This explanation is not really convincing as John lied about his affair with Abigail before which made Elizabeth very displeased and annoyed about it.

A dynamic, or round, character is a major character in a work of fiction that encounters conflict and is changed by it. Reverend Hale is a dynamic character. Reverend Hale is a truly good man and has shown this many times througthout the acts.

The year is 1692. Throughout the small, Puritan, seaside community of Salem, rumors and accusations fly like gusts of ocean wind. Neighbors turn on neighbors, and even the most holy church-goers are accused of being the devil’s servants. The Crucible details this real-life tragedy of the Salem witch trials, in which nineteen members of the Salem community were hanged for alleged witchcraft. Abigail Williams, a seemingly innocent girl, accuses dozens of Salem’s citizens of witchcraft through the support of her mob of girls and the complicity of the court officials. The title of this play gives significant insight into the experiences of several of these Salem citizens. Although a crucible is often used in chemistry for heating up substances, the title of the play carries a much greater weight. In his famous play The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the title of “crucible” to signify the severe and unrelenting tests of faith and character that many of the community members endure throughout the Salem witch trials, which he achieves through the use of figurative language and fallacies of relevance and insufficiency.

John Hale is the minister of Beverly, which has been summoned to Salem to discover and

In this act, and with much consideration (adverb phase #2), Reverend Hale seems to be less full of himself, and more hesitant. He talks about how he has a difficult time drawing “a clear opinion of them that come accused before the court,” because he doesn’t know the people of their town (adverb phrase #3) (Miller 1169). This is only one of Hale’s problems as the play keeps moving along. Act three brings more complications and hesitance from Hale. Proctor’s wife has now been seized and taken to court, along with others accused of witchcraft. During these court sessions, Reverend Hale is beginning (gerund #2) to realize that the court really is unfair (noun clause #1). For example, even though evidence is given by Giles Corey (adjective clause #2), the judge refuses to accept (infinitive #2) it and simply asks for more evidence (Miller 1195). Now, Hale is starting to become frustrated. He’s also beginning to realize that he has made some aberrations (noun clause #2). When John Proctor is sentenced to be hanged for witchcraft, Hale respondes to the prejudice court by declaring , “I denounce these proceedings! I quit this court!” (Miller 1213), and proceeds to walk out of the courthouse. This is only the beginning of Hale’s

Soon after he is wrongfully convicted, a movement for change in Salem begins to stir. The people become restless, more of the accused refuse to confess and many choose to desert the town. Reverend Hale, who has officially quit the court, describes the decrepit scene to Judge Danforth as follows:

Reverend Hale, the specialist in dealings with the devil, has great intentions to save people from sin when he comes to Salem. In Act One, Miller writes of Hale: "His goal is light, goodness, and its preservation."(36) His goals and intentions when arriving in Salem are very specifically laid out for him when Miller speaks of him. However after events unfold, Hale ends up inadvertently sending many people to the courts. During the trials, he councils convicted witches to confess, so that they won’t be hanged. Hale knowingly counseled people to lie. The events that happen to Hale and the twisted way that he ended up saving lives is cosmic irony. Hale came to Salem to save souls from the devil and tell people not to lie, cheat, or sin, but when the play ends Hale has tried to save lives by telling those accused to lie and sin. Therefore, he has actually damned the very souls he came to save.

The conflict of the trials continued for months with no compromise in sight. The people of Salem needed to find more witches, so they used spectral evidence. If someone had a dream or vision of a certain person it was enough, and that person was accused as a witch (Fasting; Mather 74 80). Many people started to oppose these trials, and didn’t believe in spectral evidence, people opposed the witch trials, but they would say nothing because they may be the next one accused (Latson; Brooks). No one wanted to be accused, so they would do things to convince people that they were not witches. For example, people would put on a show at the trials of the witches (Kinchlow). Afflicted girls would have fits, and people would scream and yell at the accused. The trials were very strange, the judge and jury would act strange just like the people of Salem. The jury consisted of 12 men who decided the fate of the “witches” (Magoon 56; Roach 16). The judges were very lenient toward the people and didn’t really care what the accused had to say, if they listened to the accused they themselves may be accused. Five judges would hear the

The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is a tragic story of injustice suffered by an innocent community who are subjected to the hypocritical, prideful judges of their trial. These Judges use their power to eliminate evidence of their mistakes and return their community to puritanical ways. The leaders of Salem are not concerned with seeking the truth and justice, but with maintaining their authority and reputations; this objective leads them to consistently rejecting truth, against all logic and evidence of their senses.

Over the course of the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Reverend Hale has changed dramatically from the start of the play to the end. At first, Hale is convinced that he is an expert of witchcraft and the truth is found in his books. He also comes into Salem putting his faith into the court. As the play goes on, Hale questions his belief because he realizes that many people are being convicted without definite evidence. In the end of the play, Hale has no faith in the court. He realizes many people innocent people have died through the courts rulings and therefore he can not be a part of it. Hale’s character has changed significantly throughout the

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. These trials began after a group of young girls in Massachusetts claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several other locals of witchcraft. After this broke out a special court convened in Salem to “hear and determine” (Mather 328)