Hale keeps an open mind by telling people that there could be a number of reasons behind Betty’s inertness. “We cannot look to superstition in this. The devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as stone.”
When Hale uses the books, he believes fully that they contain all the information and answers to the problems that lay before him. “In these books the Devil stands stripped of all his brute disguises.”
We soon see another side to Hale. Abigail mentions Tituba and Hale requests to see her. Hale is quite convinced on meeting Tituba that she is compacting with the Devil and that she has bewitched Betty. He orders Tituba to wake her but when Tituba says she cannot Hale turns angrier and Parris threatens her with whipping. It is not long until Tituba is drawn into making accusations with Abigail and certain names get repeated. Hale is now convinced that the work of the Devil is going on in Salem
At the end of Act One, we see how much Hale has a very strong belief in God and that God is with the people of Salem because he announces, “Glory to God! It is broken, they are free!”
Hale enters Act Two at the end. He is “drawn a little, and there is a quality of deference, even of guilt about his manner now.” He explains how the girls have mentioned Rebecca Nurse and he has just come from her house. He is now on the outside, absolutely certain that it is the work of the Devil going on in Salem,
“No man may longer doubt the powers of dark are gathered in monstrous attack upon this village. There is too much evidence now to deny it.” However, I do feel that Hale is torn between what he feels emotionally, that so many outrageous accusations are being made and therefore something is wrong, and what he feels he must do, keep looking for signs of the Devil in the people of Salem. At the end of Act Two, we see Herrick come to the Proctor household. He has come to arrest Elizabeth by order of the court. Hale seems shocked and speaks with uncertainty about Elizabeth’s link with the Devil but goes on trusting that God will prevail, “I shall pray God open up our eyes.”
In Act Three Hale has changed somewhat. Hale is not convinced at all with Elizabeth Proctor’s link with the Devil and also with many other people being held by the court. He is now starting to think and speak what the audience reading the play would be thinking and saying. When Elizabeth Proctor defends her husband’s name by lying in the court, Hale cries out, “Excellency, it is a natural lie to tell: I beg you stop now before another is condemned!” This means that Hale thinks that the people who have been condemned are innocent and it cannot go on. He speaks exactly what everyone reading the play will be thinking in their heads.
By the end of Act Three I don’t think that there is any doubt I the reader’s head and that of Hale’s that the witchcraft is being made up and that Abigail is behind the hysteria. “This girl has always struck me false!”
Abigail begins to twist the court away from believing Proctor’s and Mary Warren’s story when they are summoned to the court to talk about the Poppet. She starts to scream and point at the ceiling, insisting that there is a yellow bird up there. The other girls soon follow suit and start to pretend as well. Mary Warren cannot handle this and soon returns to the group of girls where she feels safer. She now lays an accusation of witchcraft on to Proctor. “ (pointing at Proctor): You’re the Devil’s man!”
Hale once again speaks for the audience, “You cannot believe them!” “I see nothing, Your Honour!” and “Excellency, this child’s gone wild!”
Hale sees that everyone has been engulfed by this mass hysteria and so he walks out of court, he doesn’t want to be involved in these false accusations any longer. “I denounce these proceedings I quit this court!”
In Act Four, Hale is no longer the strong, influential character he was at the beginning of the play. He is now trying to get the convicted prisoners to confess so as to save their lives. I think this perhaps show some guilt on Hale’s head. He was drawn into believing the accusations and freely did his job, basically condemning people to death. Hale asks the people to abandon their principles and confess.
Danforth, when asked to pardon the prisoners is far too concerned for his own reputation than for the lives of innocent people. He says that people expect them to die and that if he pardons the rest, there will be outrage that people have already died, “I cannot pardon these when twelve are already hanged for the same crime.”
The first sign we get of Hale being broken is mid-way through Act Four. He begins to use sarcasm, “Why, it is all simple. I come to do the Devil’s work. I come to counsel Christians they should belie themselves.” We then hear how he feels responsible for the deaths of the people who have already hanged, “There is blood on my head! Can you not see the blood on my head?”
When Proctor decides to confess, Hale is relieved, he is happy that a life can be saved. However, when Proctor then decides that he cannot give up his principles, Hale is shocked and tries to change John’s mind. “Man, you will hang! You cannot!”
Hale’s last speech in the play is one of pleading. He begs on his knees Elizabeth to try and make Proctor change his mind. “Go to him, take his shame away!” The last few lines of the play tell of Hale “weeping in frantic prayer.” He has been broken, his books mean nothing now and he has been unable to stop the false proceedings, which have gone on right in front of his eyes.
It could be seen that Hale influences Abigail and the girls, and gives them the knowledge they need to twist things to their advantage. Hale mentions an invisible bird earlier in the play, “Perhaps some bird invisible to others comes to you – perhaps a pig, a mouse, or any beast at all.” Abigail uses the invisible bird to her advantage in Act Three in the courtroom where she says that Mary Warren has sent her spirit out upon her.
Hale is used in all the dramatically effective scenes and is a key character. He is called upon by the village of Salem to help and by the end he has abandoned all his principles and tries to save people’s lives as most people would do out of human nature. He is very much the audience’s representative on stage, but sometimes, as in the courtroom scene, his voice and ideas are drowned out by a voice of authority, in this case Danforth.
In closing, Hale is a key character, changing his emotions and views according to the different events in the play. He cannot hold on to his principles in the face of innocent people dying. I think this shows how he is just a normal human, he can be very confident but when it becomes clear that you have done something wrong, you will surrender your principles to make it right.
