“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). During the Salem witch trials of 1692, the Bible was the main focus of everyday life. Each line in this holy book was followed down to the word. In that time, people only believed the truth when it agreed with the bible. Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, takes places during the Salem witch trials of 1692. Miller creates the character Reverend John Hale, a minister from the neighboring town Beverly, to exemplify what happens when one realizes the truth too late. In The Crucible, Reverend Hale discovers how realizing the truth at the proper time can literally set a person free. In Salem, superstition is spread throughout the population by word of mouth. The interpretation …show more content…
His original approach to dealing with the superstition of witchcraft is to follow the bible exactly. Hale instructs, “We cannot look to superstition in this. The devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as stone, and I must tell you all that I shall not proceed unless you are prepared to believe me if I should find no bruise of hell upon her” (Miller 38). From the beginning, Hale understands the danger of superstition, even though he is a victim of it himself. Hale comes from a different town, so he does not know the people of Salem well, and he begins to realize that only following the words of the bible will not help him as much as he thought it would: “I am a stranger here as you know. I find it hard to draw a clear opinion of them that come accused before the court” (Miller 63). Hale knows that his current role in Salem is to fathom the mystery of who is an accomplice to the devil. At first Hale listened to every tip the people of Salem gave him regardless of who it was coming from, but looking back at his decisions, he is regretful. Hale enlightens Thomas Danforth, the judge, about his new way of thinking about the pressing superstition. Hale explains he is “a minister of the Lord” and will not “take a life without there be a proof so immaculate no slightest qualm of conscience may doubt it” (Miller 99). At this point in the play, Hale comprehends the destruction he …show more content…
He loves it so profoundly that he eats, sleeps, and breathes it. Arthur Miller describes Hale’s job in Salem as “a beloved errand for him”, and he says that Hale “felt the pride of a specialist whose unique knowledge has at last been publicly called for” (Miller 32). Miller is trying to portray Hale as a character who is obsessed with his job. Every decision Hale makes is involved in the court or his ministry in some way. When talking with Elizabeth Proctor, Hale tells her he will not judge her because his duty is “to [do what] 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. Beware, Goody Proctor -- cleave to no faith