How does Miller show the changes in Hale during the course of The Crucible?

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How does Miller show the changes in Hale during the course of ‘The Crucible’?

        Reverend John Hale is a respected religious scholar who arrives in Salem to give advice on the witchcraft problem. He means well but is proved to be weak. He turns against the court but is unable to halt the executions.

        The lengthy stage directions before first Hales entry, is one way that Miller tells us about him. He seems to believe completely in what he is doing, and he thinks he is trying to eradicate witchcraft for all of the right reasons. “His goal…goodness and its preservation”.  Hale sees the study of witchcraft like a science, and Millers uses medical words to back this up; “painfully”, “symptoms”, “diagnostic” and “procedures”.  I think this is because Hale feels he is almost curing people of the illness of witchcraft, however it could just be to make Hales job seem more important than it really is. The idea of Hales job being like a science is continued through “the devil is precise”. This starts to make Hale almost comic, as we really see how seriously he takes witchcraft, which today in the modern world we see as false. Hale states he is going to “crush” the devil. The idea of crushing the Devil, seems to foreshadow the death of Giles Corey who was crushed to death later in the play. It gives the idea of crushing lies to get to the truth. This shows Hales certainty that he is right and that he will find the devil and has the ability to destroy it.

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        At the beginning of ‘The Crucible’ Hale also seems to be a proud, authoritative figure in touch with the latest religious theories. “He feels himself allied with the best minds of Europe”. Hales intelligence is portrayed through his books; “loaded down with half a dozen heavy books…weighted with authority”. This makes Hale seem very young, but with a nieve feeling of self-importance. These books appear to carry all of the answers to Salem’s problems.  The reference to Hale being like a book, reminds me of the cliché; ‘like an open book’. I think this portrays Hale well as easy is ...

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This is a well expressed response that explores some key ideas that come up in the play. There is reference to language, structure and form and the explanations of textual references are sound. Links to the contextual factors that influenced the writing of the play could have been included to further strengthen the response. 4 Stars