The Crucible Reverend Hale Character Analysis

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible follows many different characters and their struggle through the life and times of the Salem Witch Trials. There are many conflicts within the storyline of each character, such as character vs. self or character vs. society. Sometimes, these two conflicts can conflict with each other, causing a big decision to be made by the main character. Sometimes, the character makes a good decision, such as John Proctor, the protagonist of the play, and Reverend Hale, a specialist in handling these types of cases; other times, the character makes a bad decision, such as Judge Danforth, the main judge handling the witch accusations. Whether the decision is good or bad, it plays a key role in the plot of the story. John Proctor

Reverend Hale, along with some aid from Parris, is the man who gets the girls to start spouting names of supposed witches. This in turn leads to his final conflict, which is the weight of all of the innocent names on the list that are still on the chopping block. When Hale finds out that people are being sent to their death, he leaves the court, for he believes it to be unjust. Hale’s conflict is a character vs. self conflict, as he feels that these names are on the list because he wrote them and he feels guilty and wants to clear his conscience, but the only way he can do this is to make these people lie. Hale says, “I come to counsel Christians they should belie themselves. There is blood on my head!” (Miller 121). Hale knows that the only way to save these people is to get them to lie, but he must save them because he now knows that the accusations were all a sham. Hale is trying to make the effort to right his wrongs, but if no one will confess then it will hang over his head for the rest of his

He is the deciding factor of whether the accused are convicted or sent free. In the beginning of the story, when the hype of the trials was still very high, it didn’t matter what the accused said, they were almost always sent to their death. Once the story winds down and there are many less accused and so many dead thanks to these accusations, people begin to wonder if these supposed accusations really mean anything. This is when Hale leaves, because he realizes that the accusations truly don’t mean a thing. Danforth doesn’t realize this, and continues on with the trials. It is not until Hale returns and confronts Danforth that he begins having second thoughts. However, Danforth has a very high reputation in the town, and if he were to stop the killings, it would make him look weak. He also says postponing the hangings would be unjust to those already hanged, as their names have been released to the town. Danforth states, “Postponement now speaks a floundering on my part; reprieve or pardon must cast doubt upon the guilt of them that died till now” (Miller 119). Though some of his motives may seem as though he is trying to be fair to the dead, it is obvious that his reputation is more important to him than being unjust to those already