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Examples Of Hale's Transformation In The Crucible

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Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, presents a theme that demonstrates how characters change throughout the storyline. The dramatic changes of the characters show how people in late 1600’s managed to get through the accusations of witchcraft and moreover how the accusers and or condemners were able to handle the chaotic event. Miller’s play helps one understand what the Salem Witch Trials did to people’s emotions and mentalities. People demanded one to be hung or burned if the person sinned unless they confessed, turned back around to God, and blamed others for their sin. In The Crucible, with Hale’s transformation Miller is emphasizing that humanity will always seek redemption, the truth will triumph the lies, and people will constantly try …show more content…

Hale becomes a sensible man in act IV as he says, “Life, [Elizabeth], life is God’s most precious gift; no principle, however glorious may justify taking of it. I beg you, woman, prevail upon your husband to confess. Let him give his lie. Quail not before God’s judgement in this, for it may well be God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride” (132). Hale wants Goody Proctor to convince her husband to confess so that he could be redeemed. Furthermore, Hale goes to the point of denouncing the court to be forgiven but it is too late. It is very unusual of him to denounce the court but he does it anyway, “I denounce these proceedings, I quit this court!” (120) because he is a prestigious man who thought of the court as the high regime. Nearing the end of the book, Hale realizes that he has been deceived by the cunning Abigail and all of the people he saw to were going to be hung. Then again, before he realized his mistake and asked for redemption he was confident that he knew these people were victims of witchcraft, “Excellency, I have signed seventy-two death warrants; I am a minister of the Lord, and I dare not take a life without there be a proof so immaculate no slightest qualm of conscience may doubt it” (99). Hale is a very confident minister but he slowly transforms into a sensible man and realizes that he has been signing innocent people off …show more content…

When Hale realizes he signed off innocent people’s names to be hung he feels remorseful because it is in his nature to feel that way, “Life, woman, life is God’s most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify taking it” (132) and if he did not feel remorseful, his character would be completely different. Hale is a wonderful character because he tried to sway Elizabeth to make Proctor confess just so he can live, “I beg you, [Elizabeth], prevail upon your husband to confess…for it may well be God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride” (132). Hale indicates no matter whom the person or what the situation is, a wrongdoing can become right. Finally, Hale endlessly tries to switch Elizabeth’s mind till the last page of the booking showing how much he cares about everything that can become right in his ability such as, “Woman, plead with him! Woman! It is pride, it is vanity. Be his helper! What profit him to bleed? Shall the dust praise him? Shall the worms declare his truth? Go to him, take his shame away!” (145). Hale should inspire his readers to do what is right. It is in the nature of a human being to make things

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Once he realizes that Abigail is a fraud, Hale devotes himself to attempt to persuade the other prisoners to confess so that they may avoid execution. Reverend Hale, a character from the 16th century, has several qualities and experiences that can be associated with the 21st century. " David

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705 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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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

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469 Words | 2 Pages

He said, "I dare not take a life without there be a proof no immaculate no slightest qualm of conscience may doubt it" (Miller 188). He did not want anyone to hang for a crime they did not commit, and he did not want any guilty conscience of it afterward. He started to realize that people are accusing others for their own gain, and when no one would listen, Hale quit the court. In Act 4, Hale tries to save people's lives by convincing them to confess. He doubts his own Puritan faith and pursues the falsely accused on his own.

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1033 Words | 5 Pages

(35) This shows that Hale is so involved in his work that he could possibly end up accusing someone who was not guilty of witchcraft. Hale seems overly conscious about his own life and his duty to serve the people to find the devil in Salem; he doesn’t seem to like the idea that he himself could be wicked. This shows that Hale too, did not show himself to be truthful and courteous when it came to the

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His admiration of the court goes down as he sees more people being hanged and the stubbornness of the court. In the end, Hale knows that the law is not the entire aspect of creating a perfect society, no one in a society needs to follow the law entirely, and that authority does not always judge over everything. He has no more confidence in the idea of dominance of God over anything in life, and by that mean he loses his faith to the court. Not just those, he doesn’t carry the heavy written laws since the beginning. When Hale loses his faith towards the court and the society, he earns empathy and respect from us the readers and proving how moral obligation plays a bigger role than civic duty when it comes to real difficulties in a

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533 Words | 3 Pages

Hale acknowledges human’s mortality more so than Danforth who believes his word is the final say. Furthermore, Judge Danforth appears to only be concerned with having those who were jailed, confess to being witches whether they were or not. All those who do not confess to conspiring with the devil in his eyes are evil and those “who weep for [them, therefore] weep for corruption” (134). In contrast, Hale is desperate to save the innocent from their inevitable doom because he believes “life is God’s most precious gift” and “no principle [] may justify taking it” (122). He even encourages Elizabeth Proctor to “prevail upon [her] husband to confess” because “God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride” (122).

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I may to [help] the godly wisdom of the court” (Miller 67). Hale describes the court as “godly”, which shows his feelings and true connection to it. At the end of the play, Hale has grown up from his naive ways and realizes he messed up: 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.

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1354 Words | 6 Pages

In a battle between faith and understanding, Reverend Hale changes

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The definition of morality is the principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad (Webster 1). In stories, characters have varied moralities like; John Proctor and Judge Danforth, Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams, and Reverend Hale and Reverend Parris. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the characters to show how one's morality can be skewed because of the pressure and influence of society. John Proctor and Judge Danforth exemplify the difference of innocence in morality. Proctor is a well-liked man who has a distinct personality for himself (C. Lacovetti 1).

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1095 Words | 5 Pages

In the beginning, he believes the girls and the accusations they are making, but then he becomes doubtful. He first questions himself when he delivers the news to John Proctor about his wife being mentioned in court. He says, ““God forbid such a one be charged” (64) because Elizabeth was a very honest and uptight woman. He had also just been to Rebecca Nurse’s house to warn her she was accused of witchcraft, which was appalling to some people because of her caring, generous persona. Many innocent seeming people were being accused, and Hale didn’t know whom to trust; he couldn’t trust that he was making the right decisions for these people in

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609 Words | 3 Pages

(Miller 1323). Hale shows to be a hero because he is trying to raise awareness of the unfair hangings of the townspeople. Additionally, Hale is exposing the idiocy of the court to the unaccused citizens of Salem. Reverend Hale shows heroism through his actions, but Elizabeth Proctor also shows heroism through her supreme

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2382 Words | 10 Pages

In the most of the play, every character has his own belief and traits, these traits represent that character and it will not change till to the end of the play or story. However, in the play The Crucible, most of the characters stay the same till to the end of the play, but there are some of them changed in the end. In the play, one of the characters that changed is the witch hunter that called by Reverend Parris, Reverend Hale. In the beginning of the play, he is the man or key that lead to witchcraft trials because his job was to find all the witches out and made them confess or dead. But when the play goes on, Reverend Hale starts to change what he belief and does not know who he should trust and became a dynamic character.

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125 Words | 1 Pages

Reverend John Hale of Beverly was an expert of witchcraft. He was known for revealing the Devil in his many forms and was called in to Salem to to investigate the possibility of witches as well as first and foremost to examine Betty, Parris’s daughter. Hale is introduced into the play in Act 1 after being reluctantly called upon by Parris. Betty is in a trance and Parris is unaware of how to remove her from it and realizes that he needs outside help. When Hale arrives it is with an almost boastful aura and he jumps right into action.

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525 Words | 3 Pages

As the play progress and people confess he starts to notice that what people are saying and accusing people of is not true but just getting to people they do not like. Lastly, At the end of act 3, Hale quits the court. Hale quit the court because he knew that a lot of innocent people were getting killed for not confessing to a crime they did not

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