Reverend Hale's Hysteria In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Reverend Hale holds the most blame for the outburst of hysteria because he is seen as an expert in what he does and he takes pride in that. Reverend Hale is seen as a very intellectual man who has studied witchcraft extensively and because of this, people tend to take his word seriously even if it may be false. When Reverend Hale questions Abigail about what happened in the forest, she tries to stay calm but begins to get scared when Hale states that “it may be your cousin is dying. Did you call the Devil last night?” (Miller 42). Abigail gets nervous because she feels trapped in this situation and due to this, she mentions Tituba's name to decrease the tension on her. Throughout the conversation between Hale and Abigail, Hale assumes that Abigail did witchcraft in the forest and asks questions such as “Why are you concealing? Have you sold yourself to Lucifer?” (Miller 43). Without even knowing the full story, Reverend Hale asks such questions and because Abigail is young and is frightened of what may come to her, she blames Tituba. Once Tituba walks in, Abigail immediately points to her and says “She made me do it! She made Betty do it! She makes me drink blood!” (Miller 43). This is when hysteria begins; when Reverend Hale triggers a reaction from Abigail and causing her to falsely accuse Tituba of forcing her to do the things that might show signs of witchcraft.

Since Abigail knows that everyone will believe Reverend Hale, she gets nervous when he starts to question her of doing witchcraft so in order to save herself, she blames Tituba and it shows that Reverend Hale is most responsible for the outburst of