The Crucible - character study of Reverend John Hale.

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When we first meet or are introduced to Reverend John Hale, we are told that he, Hale is a scholar from Beverly and feels pride in the work he does. He comes to Salem on Reverend Parris' request to investigate the possibility that supernatural causes are causing Betty Parris' suspicious illness. Hale approaches the situation precisely and intellectually, believing that he can find the cause to her illness. Despite his early enthusiasm for finding the presence of witchcraft in Salem, Hale soon grows disillusioned with the witchcraft accusations and then starts encouraging people to testify so that they would not be hung.  In Act II, Reverend Hale starts showing sympathy towards the men and women who have been accused of witchery, for it was he who signed their death warrants. He undergoes an internal crisis, feeling guilty that he might be responsible for all of the accusations. Even though this is the case at the end, at the beginning we found that he enjoyed being called to Salem to fix things. It made him proud that his expertise was finally in demand, (obviously in his mind they were not being fully appreciated). However, he was surprised at hearing about Rebecca and Elizabeth’s arrest, which reveals that Hale is no longer in control of the predicament.   Throughout the play there are many accusers and defenders for the witch trials. There is one man, Reverend John Hale, whose attitude to the witch trials immensely changes as he goes through one extreme to the other. Reverend John Hale grows as he moves from accuser, to sympathiser, to defender of the doomed characters of the play. When Hale first comes into the town of Salem, he believes in the witchcraft around the town and starts to accuse people himself. Hale brings Tituba in and questions her, "When the Devil comes to you does he ever come with another person? Perhaps another person in the village? Someone you know." Hale knew that Tituba should confess, should say that she compacted with the devil or she would be hung, but he still accuses her with no proof. Just because one person is accused and confesses, Hale brings in the accusations that other people around town are witches. Another instance is when Reverend Hale says, “If she is truly in the Devil’s grip we may have to rip and tear to get her free.”(39) In the beginning Hale is absolutely positive that witchcraft is spreading throughout Salem. He has come to save Salem and he will not let anything get into his way. " I beg of you, woman, prevail upon your husband to confess. Let him give his lie." (132) As the play progresses he begins to open his eyes and see that the people being sentenced are good, religious people. Hale then tries to convince the people in jail to confess and have the charges dropped. By the end of the book Hale has changed from a religious puritan to someone who values life more than the puritan way of honesty. Hale undergoes a gradual change of character and belief as the play unfolds. Though a gradual change it is, the change drastically changes his views and ideas of what God’s will is and where his priorities lie. The end of Act One shows the audience what a zealous priest he is, looking for evidence of witchcraft, real or make believe. Most convenient for Hale the town of Salem has more than enough evidence for him to become ecstatic about. Although he does express that, “We can not look to superstition in this. The Devil is precise; the marks of his presence are as definite as stone, and I must tell you all that I shall not precede unless you are prepared to believe me if I should find no bruise of hell upon her” (38). It is a merely an empty promise, since before the ending of Act One he already mentally decides Salem is plagued with witchcraft, with or without concrete evidence to support his allegation. Hale uses such thin evidence as Putnam’s death of her first seven children and Giles’ wife reading strange books which keep him from reciting the Lord’s prayer. Ironically, he encounters, Tituba, after hearing that this Barbados slave had been practising voodoo with the afflicted girls. Hale then puts immense pressure on Tituba to proclaim herself a witch. Hale is able to manipulate Tituba to claim that she had used witchcraft on the girls. After declaring herself a witch she accuses the names of four honest and innocent women, thus this started a chain affect of accused witches accusing others of witchcraft, this soon would follow. So Hale, who was manipulated by Abigail’s lies and false fits, started the entire conflict with his aggressive technique to propel Tituba to confess to association with the devil. At the time in Act Two that Hale enters there is a presence of guilt about him, which foretells what his mission in the Proctor’s house is, to question Elizabeth on the suspicion of practising witchcraft on Abigail Williams. So, to begin to further his case in witchcraft he confronts Mr. Proctor about his lack of attendance to church and about one of
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his children not being baptised. Proctor answers both of these questions with his disapproval of greed that Reverend Parris exudes. Hale even demands to hear the Lord’s ten commandments form both Mr. and Mrs. Proctor. Hale scrutinises and probes the Proctors his entire visit, for any form of evidence that he could associate with the traits of a witch. That all changes though, something is told to Hale that blows his mind, something he doesn’t scarcely believe at first, that Abigail Willaims told, to Proctor’s face, that there was no such act of witchcraft in Salem, whatsoever. Proctor defends his ...

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