How Is Hale Presented In The Crucible

Reverend Hale first appears in The Crucible at the end of the first act. He was sent to Salem to find who the witches were and make sure they got a trial. He has good intentions and will not confirm that anyone is a witch until he has hard evidence that they are one. But he starts to get cocky and he realizes that he is needed and it goes to his head. “Here is all the invisible world, caught, defined, and calculated. In these books the devil stands stripped of all his brute disguises … Have no fear now - we shall find him out if he has come among us, and I mean to crush him utterly if he has shown his face!” (Miller, 185). This statement shows that the power has gone to his head. He is promising that he will make everything right again and that he will obliterate the devil from Salem. He thinks he is the only one who can do this because he has read the books and obtained the knowledge needed to get rid of the devil. Once he gets to Salem there is so much evidence that it overwhelms him.

“Why can she not wake? Are you silencing this child? … You have sent your spirit out upon this child, have you not? Are you gathering souls for the devil? Abigail. She send her spirit on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayer!” (Miller, 187). He ends up believing them and makes the wrong choices. He believes crooked Abigail when she says that Tituba is a witch. After Tituba confesses he believes that all the people Abigail, Betty, and Tituba name are witches as well. Reverend Hale comes to Salem with good intentions but by the end of the Act he believes the wrong people and thinks that there are witches in