How Does Hale Change In The Crucible

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

His transition from brash to broken while already a major step, is furthered as his character is taken deeper in Act Four. After his “leave of absence” Hale flushes threw town in hope of saving the lives of those convicted. As he begins encouraging the accused to lie in order to be saved, it’s clear his faith in the law has died out, and the suspicion of his shaken faith in god is apparent. Hale chooses to attempt to save the others after his conscience starts to feel heavy. He shouts out “ can you not see there is blood on my head?!”

Reverend Hale loses his faith in believing witchcraft, but he still has faith in his religion. Hale changes. He is perhaps the only character to believe that the witchcraft is truly real and then comes to disbelieve it. The other characters either deny the presence of witchcraft or never believe in the accusations; however, they

Hale was a small-minded man in the beginning of the play. His beliefs were dictated by what he had read. This is shown when he goes to the unconscious Betty to try to find signs of the devil. His books have told him of the markings that are on those who have had contact with the devil and he believed it. This shows how he believed purely in what he read. His small-mindedness is also shown when he is interrogating Tituba. He believes she is telling the truth because he thinks it impossible to lie once you have put yourself in the hands of God. This changes as the play goes on.

Reverend hale corrupts his power unknowingly, as he believes that Abigail and the girls are telling the truth, his image as a well educated Godly man makes him the perfect model for the towns people to mold their opinion of the witch trials from.

Hale was once a distinguished Reverend but now his opinion doesn’t matter in his own profession. Reverend Hale shows distraught in the Salem Witch Trials during Act 4 with his actions, statements, and through other people’s opinions of

Hale is a minister of Beverly a nearby town of Salem. He comes to Salem after hearing about witchcraft. He has studied the act of witchcraft extensively. He wants to heal the town of Salem and its people of witchcraft and the devil. He starts to question the court. Hale questions Abigail. Why was Abigail dancing in the woods (155)? It is towards the end of the play that Hale really starts questioning everything. He questions his own ability. He questions the court. He even questions his faith in God.

    Reverend Hale is a dynamic character who starts to show guilt and remorse further into the trials. His first mission in Salem was to condemn the devil in hoping that will bring Betty back. He believed Abigail and the girls were innocent. When Rebecca Nurse was brought to court, Hale starts to doubt his believes in the witch trials. In John's trial Mr. Hale says, “I denounce these proceedings, I quite this court!”(III.1164).

       Reverend hale’s strong willed personality suddenly backfired, making him not trustworthy to the the court members and people of Salem. Hale contemplated a lot and spent more time on his studies. He stated that, the people he had named as witches, were not witches. Because he changed his mind so often, and went back on his word, the jury cannot trust him which made anything he said pointless. He quits the court when he says “I denounce these proceedings I quit this court.” (Miller). Since Hale was so hard headed, it took him awhile to realize the extent of the witch trials was extreme and that it was not active in the town of salem. It was a mixture of extreme ignorance, pure cruelty to banish the unwanted people of the town. As Elizabeth was signing john's’ death warrant, Hale was watching. “Excellency it is a natural lie to tell, I beg you, stop now before another condemned! I may shut my conscious to it no more private vengeance is working through this testimony from the beginning this man has struck me

As the man who “found a witch in Beverly” (14) Hale fancies himself as a skilled purveyor of witches and relishes at the chance to uncover witches in the town of Salem. His lust to catch the witches shines at first in Salem as the people hang on his every word because of his “experience in all demonic arts” (14) and the hysteria that the girls create with fake hallucinations, and false accusations only propel him farther into his mad hunt. However, after hundreds of complaints hundreds of accusations, hundreds of arrests, and a finally executions, Hale experiences a change in heart, and realizes that his one righteous crusade against witches may have now become a power grab by the courts. His loyalty waiver ever so more upon realizing that Abigail has “gone wild” (119)

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.

     John Hale represents the voice or authority and reasoning. He appears to be strong and assured himself that there was a whole world of witches around him at any given time. He believes in the churches power to be the ultimate law in the situation at hand. This is his source of pride. He sees himself as the person come to save the lives in the New World. As the case progresses though he starts to doubt himself and realizes that he had caused many deaths. His pride is swiftly destroyed and he asks

Hale’s character arc is defined by the contrasting path he takes from the other authority figures in Salem, as he is originally a man of closeminded

confess witchcraft. At least this will save them from death by hanging. He preaches perjury to

In The Crucible, there are many complex characters who shift throughout the play. Reverend Hale was one of the most complex of these characters. Hale’s changes were a direct result of the trials. Because of this Hale’s changes can be traced through his actions and motivations. Throughout the play, Reverend Hale was changed by his faith, his knowledge of the truth, and by his guilt.