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Character study of the crucible
Character analysis in the crucible
How did hales view change in the crucible
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Gandhi once said, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” In The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, when characters are faced with differences between one another, they tend to show what they want the world to see instead of their true beliefs. Reverend Hale fights a battle between what he has been studying his whole life against what he feels is truly right. In the end he completely undergoes an important inner change, he sees the false accusations in the witch trials and changes from believing completely in witchcraft, to protecting the innocent and doing anything in his power to save their
To begin with, Reverend Hale thought that he has authority due to his incredible power of finding and curing spiritual problems. In the story, people of Salem think that Betty has witchcraft. In order to figure out, the community calls, Reverend Hale, “spiritual doctor”, so he can examine Betty, Parris’s daughter, for witchcraft symptoms or a cure to a spiritual problem. When Hale enters the Parris’ house, Parris, minister of Salem, insisted to carrying the books. After Parris carries the book he mentioned that the books were heavy.
When Reverend Hale first enters the story he is depicted as someone with great knowledge and authority. Proctor tells Hale on page 185, “I’ve heard you were a sensible man, Mister Hale - I hope you’ll leave some of it in Salem.” Hale is well known to people around Salem and he is known for possessing great knowledge. The people will listen to what Hale has to say, but know that his presence means that there is suspicion of witchcraft.
Reverend Hale is the character that changes the most in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible because his feelings on witchcraft turns from full belief to unbelievable doubt, his thoughts on Proctor changes from thinking that he is evil to thinking that he is a good and honest man, and he switches from doing God’s work to doing the Devil’s. Reverend Hale makes a huge change on his claim of witchcraft. In the beginning of the play when Reverend is called to the town of Salem to see if the reason why Betty and Ruth are unconscious is due to witchcraft he brings with him many books. When Reverend Parris sees this he makes a comment that Hale responds to him explaining his expectations. This shows that Reverend Hale is focused on one thing, finding
Thus, devotion and loyalty to the theocracy resulted in a heightened influence over the proceedings in Salem. In Miller’s The Crucible, Reverend Hale experiences a shift from blind obedience, to conscious disobedience against the corrupt system ruling Salem; however, Hale’s authority continually diminishes, until he eventually loses all of his influence. Due to his vast knowledge in the topic of witchcraft, Hale shows blind obedience when he gets called upon to act as the
Just arriving in Salem, Rev. Hale is already the center of everyone’s attention; he was going to be the hero who finds the witch and brings back the holiness of the town. Hale was determined to find the truth and felt that he had to know everything about a person before they were convicted. When talking to John and Elizabeth Proctor, he mentions,” … I find it hard to draw a clear opinion of them that come accused before the court.” (Miller 63).
Throughout The Crucible, during the Salem Witch Trials, Reverend Hale slowly changes from a ‘confident man with a plan’, to a haggard preacher who seems to be losing himself amongst the chaos of these colonial trials based off of lies. After a life-altering experience, Hale is never again the same person he started out as. In the beginning of
The moment Hale enters the town of Salem, he brings about him an aura of sophistication and intelligence. He was called to the town to investigate the murmurs of witchery having previously encountered witches in his own town of Beverly. When the townspeople of Salem first see him “he appears loaded down with a dozen heavy books” (478). The presence of Hale and his books puts many town members at ease because of the implied intelligence that he must have.
As the trials start to progress more and more, there are changes in Hale. These changes are visible to those who know what he was like in the beginning of the play. Witchcraft was a huge ordeal in these days and anyone who was accused of it was sentenced to be hanged. Hale was not accused of witchcraft however he did start to have his disbeliefs in it. Hale’s confidence in dealing with witchcraft begins to dissipate immensely from when he first arrived in Salem.
Reverend John Hale was among some of the most powerful people in his day and age. Because of his education from Harvard and his relationship with God, he was armed with all he would need to get people on his side. However, throughout The Crucible a dramatic change is seen in his character and it throws everything that he believes into question. Once a man who believed in the fact that Satan was taking control of his town of Salem, turned into a man who believed that there's no way that can happen and realized that everyone who had said that was lying.
He is most worried that he will be destroyed because witchcraft is in his family. Luke 6:27-28 says, "But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you," (Barker 1550). This is a perfect example of how Hale treated the people of Salem, and the exact opposite of how Parris treated the. Knowing this, it is obvious that Hale for the people in knowing the truth of morality; where as, Parris does not care about the truth but just wants what is best for
Reverend Hale, from the play The Crucible, is a dynamic character who was involved in determining the guilt of convicted witches in the Salem Witch Trials. The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller is based on the true events that occurred in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1953. Reverend Hale enters Salem with the assumption that there is witchcraft in the colony due to many unexplained events. Hale's character change can be traced in events that occurred throughout the story. He seeks to convict and condemn the witches in the beginning of the play, but by the end, he realizes the corruption of Salem in the convectors, judges, and witnesses and seeks to change the fate of the accused.
In act 1 and 2 in the play ,The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the character Reverend Hale was introduced and learned what his role was. Reverend Hale was a man nearing his forties and was a high-status intellectual who was an expert in witchcraft (Miller 155). In this act Hale said that he believes there always will be someone with the devil(Miller 155). Hale was siding with the court in this act and signing death warrants along with believing in these accusations fully as shown in his visit to the Proctors when he said there is too much evidence to deny the Devil is in Salem (Miller 171). Also, Hale almost played as an interrogator when he was giving rapid fire questions to John about his Christian character and if he goes to church in his visit to the Proctor house (Miller 171).
¨Hale, continuing to Elizabeth: Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my own. I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I brought, and what I touched with my bright confidence, it died; and where I turned the eye of my great faith, blood flowed up.¨. Hale recognizes the way he had first acted when he was introduced in the play he had false confidence, was falsely assertive, a title of the best witch hunter in that region meant nothing and being a reverend, he had failed miserably to bring justice to the town of Salem. Along with being a failure he has realized that those that he had convicted were innocent and the girls that had played the system were the actual ones guilty and had escaped their well deserved punishment. The whole point of Hale being the tragic hero was that Hale would have been able to prevent all of these things onto the town but having a title does not mean you are qualified for the
To begin, When reverend hale went to salem he was very confident. Reverend Hale, knew a lot about witches and spirits. Hale took witchcraft very seriously, he believed there was actually something going on in salem. Next, Hale is determined to get to the bottom of what is going on. When hale gets to salem, he is very tired and has very little motivation.
