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Reverend Hale Character Analysis

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Many have said that honesty is the best policy but distractions such as attention and power can quickly make someone forget about that important life motto. Fortunately, there are honest people in our lives such as priests, parents, teachers etc. that help keep the world running smoothly; but even those people can make lousy choices. Passion can lead people to do a number of things, good or bad, and these seemingly perfect people are no exception. However, remission is possible through time and effort taken to make a change. Changing is not impossible but it is not easy. Reverend John Hale is passionate about fighting the devil but becomes greatly overwhelmed by the recognition and power bestowed upon him by the people of Salem. Most people have good intentions for their actions but even then they can have unintended consequences. Reverend Hale is a man who has dedicated his life to researching and fighting all forces of witchcraft but has never gotten an opportunity to put his skills to work. Finally, after years of waiting and improving his skills, Hale is called to Salem to provide an expert opinion on their witch situation. Although “Hale conceives himself …show more content…

Reverend Parris is the first person to request Hale’s knowledge, asking him to investigate his daughter Betty. Hale is delighted to help but clearly states “I shall not proceed unless you are prepared to believe me if I should find no bruise of hell upon her” (Miller 1146), strengthening his true purpose, finding the truth. In addition, Hale states “The Devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as stone”(Miller 1146) ensuring he does not want to assume witchcraft where it is not present. He is thorough in his work; careful not to make any harmful mistakes. As the play progresses, Hale becomes more of a hero to the townspeople and his ego only grows with

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Reverend Hale does not exhibit corresponding behavior throughout the play. Hale starts out with an attitude against witches, and ends up a broken, cynical man. He starts off with really good intentions—even if it seems to be ridiculous. In Act I, Miller describes Hale as: "His goal is light, goodness, and its preservation."

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442 Words | 2 Pages

Reverend Hale is motivated by the possibility of witchcraft. Hale said, “Have no fear now- we shall find him out if he has come among us and I mean to crush him utterly if has has shown his face” (39). This shows that

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981 Words | 4 Pages

Hale is elated to help and sees curing those who have been possessed as “a beloved errand” (36). Hale feels immense pride in himself for being the specialist with a unique knowledge that has at last been required by the people and even feels allied with the best minds of Europe. Therefor, when Hale arrives, he comes with “an armory of symptoms, catchwords and diagnostic procedures” (36) to heroically save the day. At first Hale maintains a professional stance on what is happening in the town rather than succumbing to the popular belief of witchcraft, cautioning the townspeople that “ [they] cannot look directly to superstition in this” (38). However, when Abigail mentions Tituba’s name he is quickly convinced that Tituba is a witch and compels her to provide the names of others that have bound themselves to the evil.

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273 Words | 2 Pages

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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1045 Words | 5 Pages

Hale has finished his change in attitude, actions, and views of the court. In the final act, Rev. Hale is back in Salem to ease his guilt from the trials. His plan is to get those who will hang to “confess,” (IV, 167) as dying due to hubris is a worse sin than lying. Due to his complete change, Rev. Hale also sees the errors of his ways, and wishes to correct them. When Danforth finds out that Rev. Hale is visiting, he is angry, but Rev. Parris says that his actions are “a providence,” (IV, 163) or an act of God.

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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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387 Words | 2 Pages

In Act I of the Crucible, by Arthur Miller, we are introduced to Reverend Hale, a “spiritual doctor” who comes to Salem as an authoritative figure on the science of demonology to try and assess whether the presence of witchcraft in Salem is true or false. However, as the play proceeds, we see Hale deviating from his original purpose and ideas. His intentions shift from figuring out whether or not witchcraft is afoot in Salem to the desire of making the accused confess to save themselves from being hanged. In Act II, after Hale has seen all of the girls confessing to seeing others with the Devil, such as Elizabeth Proctor, he goes to John Proctor’s house to find out more.

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865 Words | 4 Pages

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

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1097 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the play The Crucible, there are several transformations among characters. One strong transformation is that of Reverend Hale. Hale epitomizes a very dynamic character. Throughout all of the drama in Salem, Hale changes drastically from a man with intentions to free the world from the clutches of satan to a person who realizes the Salem witch trials were all based on lies and tomfoolery.

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491 Words | 2 Pages

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, Act 1.). He becomes aware of his responsibility to put an end and not to spread the hysteria due to his own wife being accused of witchcraft and his increasing need to restore order in the community. In order to do this, Reverend Hale must use the resources available to him to stop the spread of fear and misinformation. One of the resources Reverend Hale has at his disposal is the trust of the village “...

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970 Words | 4 Pages

Hale, defeated, weeps in prayer as Proctor is sent to hung. Reverend Hale's downfall in the novel was his quick assumption that there was witchcraft in Salem. Everyone's fear of the unknown and the chance of witches being present in Salem caused many deaths due to jumping to conclusions. Although he had the best intentions to bring justice to Salem, he made an improper call. He realizes his error and tries with all he has to make it right, but fails.

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550 Words | 3 Pages

Reverend Hale is a character who changes his thoughts about witchcraft after seeing the horror that he had caused. He comes into Salem as someone who wants to prove that witchcraft exists after previous failed attempts (Miller 1146). Despite his animus, his reason for coming to Salem changed after he realizes that the people accused are innocent (1224). However, Hale only wanted to prove his theory but instead, he ended up destroying a town in return. Witchcraft seemed like a logical matter in Salem.

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609 Words | 3 Pages

The witches are on the hunt for the innocent souls of Salem with Hale stating, “The Devil is alive in Salem, and we dare not quail to follow wherever the accusing finger points” (Miller 1251). Hale is determined to use God’s mighty hand against the “evil witches”. This shows that Hale is faithful to Abigail’s accusations against the common people of Salem. At first, Reverend Hale is eager to prosecute, but as more innocent people are condemned, his compliance turns into distaste. His dissatisfaction eventually turns into rage when Hale shouts, “I denounce these proceedings!”

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2382 Words | 10 Pages

There are three stages when Reverend Hale changes in the play. The first stage is that is that in the beginning of the play, Reverend Hale is so confidence of himself and he believes that his job is to find out all the witches or people who do witchcraft with his knowledge, books or power. Second stage is that when some of the incidents happened and he started to frustrate on the whole witchcraft trial and do not know who should he trust or find for help. The last stage is about he finally lost his faith to everyone and what he belief because he found out that all these things are not caused by witches but by everyone’s greediness and he is the one who made the whole thing became worse so that he leaves Salem and also all his beliefs. There are

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525 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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