The Crucible Reverend Hale Analysis

The Crucible by Arthur Miller was written at a time of great strife in America. Fear of communism spread like wildfire as the cold war raged on, and people were suspicious of everyone. Evidence against accused communists was sorely lacking in hard proof, and there was no real way out once you were accused. In The Crucible a character, Reverend Hale, is introduced early on, who is considered an expert on witchcraft. However, Reverend Hale’s confidence soon fades as the witch trials begin to spiral out of control. You can see this change in Reverend Hale in him first arriving in Salem, Mary Warren’s deposition, and the day John Proctor is to be hung. The first look the reader is given into Reverend Hale’s psyche is when he first arrives in

He then realizes that perhaps everything he has done up to that point has been based off lies. When Marry and Proctor first come forth with her deposition, Hale is the one that urges judge Danforth to allow them to get a lawyer. He wishes that such weighty evidence would be presented before the court in the proper manner. (pg. 103. The Crucible) This is the moment when the confident Reverend Hale begins to crumble. Reverend Hale maintains his level-head and a degree of self-confidence, wishing for a more proper evaluation of the evidence. He remains much the way he came, level headed and confident, but now the people have broken into hysteria, and even judges of the court will not carry out his wishes. (pg. 103. The Crucible) Reverend Hale is accustomed to people listening to him, but this begins to change as fear, hysteria, and vengeance grips the town, and his good conscience forces him to

His eagerness to find the truth, yet not get caught in the mob set him apart from the other judges. He is the first in the court to question their justice, and inevitably loses all former weight he held in the court, mainly due to his own exodus. With this the voice of reason in the novel is also crushed, leaving only false accusations and hysteria. The day John Proctor is scheduled to hang, Mary Warrens deposition, and his first arrival in Salem all shaped him into the desperate character the reader witnesses and sympathizes with at the end of The Crucible by Arthur