The Change in Belief In the dark story of The Crucible created by Arthur Miller, the author portrays Reverend Hale as a confident minister to end the hysteria surrounding witches. This changes to a character that begins to question himself about the situation to exhibit the necessity at looking at all sides and being fully informed of the problem. Miller displays the dedication Hale has for finding witches when he states “They must be; they are weighted with authority” (36), in regards to his books carrying knowledge of witchcraft. This quote describes the good intentions that Hale has in catching the witches, and his drive to show he’s going to use his knowledge from the books he has to get rid of the witches from Salem and cleanse the town. …show more content…
Hale’s realization of this is shown in the court where he shouts, “I believe him! Pointing at Abigail: This girl has always struck me false! She has -” (117). This clearly shows he has begun to realize now that Abigail has always been lying about these accusations, and that it may be too late to take everything back. As the story progresses, Hale is shown to have guilt associated with his actions and this is clearly displayed in his cry of gult towards Danforth, “There is blood on my head! Can you not see the blood on my head!!” (133) . This is the climax of Hale’s realization that many of the accusations were fabricated, and the whole problem in Salem was never true in any sense. This leads to Hale feeling extremely guilty for pushing trials in Salem against people who were innocent, even though he did not know it at that time. Miller portrays the serious issue of having good intentions in a situation that you are not fully informed of. It also shows that knowing every detail about a situation can lead you to changing into a completely new person, and clearly expressing the problems of not being informed of the hidden intentions of certain people inside the society. Overall, this clearly shows a change in Hale’s character, with his confidence slowly decreasing with every single conversation he has with the residents of Salem, which eventually leads to