‘A sickly wife…’
He does not accept her criticism so he calls her a ‘child’ which upsets her. He defends his wife and makes it clear to Abigail that he does not want her, this shows that he has become more loyal.
After this he returned to his wife and tried to make conversation, but when he realised that his wife still does not trust him, even after he told Abigail he did not want anything from her he became angry and hurt:
‘’spare me! You forget nothin’ and forgive nothin’ ‘’
‘’no more I should of roared you down when first you told me your suspicion. But I wilted, and, like a Christian, I confessed.’’
Proctor and his wife were never good with words; they did not talk a lot as the conversation in the beginning of act two is very cold and distant with short replies. This is something that changes as the play continues: when Hale brings news that Elizabeth is accused of witchcraft, the two become closer and Proctor begins to prove his loyalty to her.
‘’I will bring you home. I will bring you soon’’
‘’I will fall like an ocean on that court! Fear nothing, Elizabeth.’’
Proctor loves his wife and begins to show it after this point; he gives up his reputation and confesses to the affair to save his wife from being hanged.
‘’I have known her sir’’ This shows that even though Proctor is a man who is respected he risked it all by admitting his sins so he could save his wife.
Proctors confidence increases through out the play in many ways:
He shows his confidence by calling Abigail a ‘’whore’’ which is surprising considering he risked his marriage to be with her. Proctor also gains self confidence because when he was at the point of confessing to witchcraft he had to sign his name, which he refused to do. He says:
‘’I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor’’
This shows that he believes he is a good person and he feels confident knowing that he can be a good person. He had enough courage to give Hale a speech that questions the trials and questions how Hale does his job.
‘’Vengeance is walking Salem…why do you never wonder if Parris or Abigail is innocent. Is the accuser always holy now, where they born this morning, as clean as god’s fingers? I will not give my wife to vengeance.’’
This is Proctor’s way of standing up to Hale and supporting his wife. Proctor uses the word ‘vengeance’ to describe the revenge people were using to blame each other of witchcraft. Abigail accused his wife of being a witch because of ‘’vengeance’’. He thinks that this is a main factor of why the trials are being held and stays away from it.
Proctor became more involved in the trials because his wife Elizabeth had become a main suspect and him attending court for this reason shows that he actually does care about what happens to his wife and what happens to her in the trials, this is proven by the fact that he attended court. Mary Warren was called to the courts to help with the trials, Proctor did not allow her to attend, he himself tried to avoid the court but when his wife was involved his love for her (as part of his change) made him attend to protect Elizabeth. In the beginning he had no intention to be involved in the trials but he was then a prime suspect.
Overall Proctor changed from being inconsiderate to loyal, from secretive to confident. I think that his wife and the way he acted towards her mainly caused his development. The biggest change for Proctor was how confident he became, this lead to him being more involved in the court and being loyal, the main cause for the change of Proctor was Elizabeth. Her character is constant and hardly ever changes throughout the play. The only change is when she lied for Proctor. The couple became closer and affectionate to each other at the end of the play. This is unfortunate since Proctor dies for his faith, which definatly is a new side to him.
On the other hand, Hale’s character is the opposite of Proctor’s character. Hale is around 40 years old and is extremely intellectual. He is proud that he has been called as a specialist to investigate witchcraft. Hale enters in a flurry of activity, carrying large books and projecting an air of great knowledge. The audience can tell that Hale is eager to make a difference and that his intention is good. He agrees with the system at the beginning of the play and feels that his hand will help people become more faithful. He is supposedly a true Christian but this changes towards the end as he tells Proctor to lie to save his life. He is certain that there is a devil and Christianity is the way to even out the imbalance of evilness in the world.
‘’We cannot look to superstition in this. The devil is precise.’’
Hale starts to change his character at the end of Act 3 when he sees Proctor and Mary Warren arguing with Danforth. This is when he realises they are telling the truth.
’’Excellency this Childs gone wild”
After Proctor’s speech to Hale about the trails being corrupt, Hale reconsiders the system. He starts to believe that Proctor is right and decides to tell Proctor to lie in order to save his life. In a way this is good as we see he is still trying to save people. However he has lost the concept and the origin of him being here, he was called to help with the trials as he was a respected Reverend. However he thinks one should lie against their faith to save their name. This is not something Hale would not have done in the beginning of the play as in the beginning he agreed with the system and also it is a sin to lie.
Another change Hale goes through as the play commences is in the beginning he questions people and their behaviour a lot. For instance when he came to Proctors house he asked irrelevant questions that aroused his suspicions
‘’ Tell me – you have three children… how comes it that only two are baptized?’’
‘’ I note that you are rarely in the church on Sabbath day’’
However at the end of the play he tries to stick-up for Proctor as he sympathizes him and is starting to see how corrupt the system is.
‘’Excellency, it is a natural lie to tell: I beg you, stop now before another is condemned! I may shut my conscience to it no more- private vengeance is working through this testimony! From the beginning this man has struck me but true. By my oath to heaven, I believe him now’’
This proves that in the beginning Hale had no doubts about the system but now he does and so he ends up quitting the court.
’’ I denounce the proceedings, I quit this court!
Hale changes from faithful and gullible to a rebel against his faith as he realises how corrupt the system is. This is mainly because of the effect that Proctor had on him. He was the opposite of Proctor: Proctor felt that he must be hanged to save his friends and children however Hale thinks that one must save themselves even if they have to lie.
In the end I feel that Miller wanted us to sympathise with Proctor and see that he is one like many others, someone that is good but has done bad, this explains human society today. If there is an imbalance of either good or evil, things start to topple and these two must be balanced.
In the Crucible there was an imbalance of state and religion. These two cannot be occupied in the same space and has to be balanced.
He wanted us to realise that even now people are much like the people in the period of the witch trials and some things never change. He wants to educate us and tell us that, that is what us humans do, accuse others to save ourselves.
This is related to the McCarthy era as Miller wanted us to realise that just as in the Salem witch trials, people were accusing each other of communism to save themselves so Miller wanted people to realise how they where acting. He showed us that accusing each other was just a reason to express long held hatreds that was never ending. He showed this through Proctors and Hales character as these were the two people who realised what was going on. Miller chose to do it in Hales character because it would make more of an impact to the audience as he believed in the system in the beginning and it made the audience think that the system must have been corrupt if Hale turned against it. In Proctors character however he is always against the system from the start. He puts a stop to it by dying because he does not the system to succeed. This makes the audience feel that sympathetic towards him showing them that all the accusing had to be ending. These two characters make it clear that this play is an allegory as each character represents everyone in society.
