Alex Argabright Mr. Panarella Sophomore Honors: per 6 3 January 2023 Title A whole town is taken over by the devil, and your limited knowledge decides their fate. Rev Hale is a very influential man of the village in Arthur Miller's Crucible as he was the only guy anybody trusted about the devil. He was the most knowledgeable as he could be on a topic that is known to few. Everything Hale said everyone believed leading to false beliefs and many preventable deaths and unfairness through trials. . Rev Hale should be pitied because he actually wants to help people, he wants to fix the blood on his hands, and he is fighting against the wrongful Court. To start, ever since Rev Hale was called into the village he always had the intent to help people. …show more content…
Since the court and everyone believed Rev Hales word many people who were arrested were because of him. Rev Hale stated, “ Excellency, I have signed seventy-two death warrants; I am a minister of the Lord, and I dare not take a life without there be a proof so immaculate no slightest qualm of conscience may doubt it” (Miller 99). This was the starting point of Hale realizing how many lives were taken because of his word. He signed the warrants, making the death in his hand, but he was trying to get them a second chance because he knew they were wrongfully accused. Also, when Rev Hale visits Elizabeth in the Jail he tries to make her confess the truth because he knows her and John were wrongfully thrown in jail. Hale stated, “I come to do the Devil’s work. I come to counsel Christians they should belie themselves. There is blood on my head! Can you not see the blood on my head”(Miller 131 ). Hale also said, “I would save your husbands life, for if he is taken I count myself his murderer” (Miller 131). Hale was trying to reverse the thoughts of the captured because he knows all of the conspiracy is from a pit of lies. Hale wants to convince them that there is another way because he knows all these deaths will haunt his thoughts for the rest of his
As he is busy accusing other people of their superstitions, Hale tried to keep his wits about him, “Have no fear now-we shall find him out if he has come among us”(43). This shows the reader and the other characters that Hale is very confident in his job and that he is not willing to give it up for anything. Hale seems to be very arrogant as he goes about his work in the beginning of the text. “We cannot look to superstition in this. The Devil is precise..”
The Crucible Reverend Hale is one of the crucibles most dynamic characters. He joins the conflict from the very beginning having no idea who anyone is or exactly what's happening. Only that there is the possibility for witchcraft in the town. In the movie, The Crucible, we can see this instantly when he arrives in town. Besides his almost instant trust to John he shows no sign of any other influence.
Instead of accepting the testimony of the accusers at face value, he could have questioned their motives and the validity of their claims. Hale had a reputation as an expert on witchcraft,
He had almost an arrogant way about him in the search for the devil. He also states, “the devil can never overcome a minister.” (Miller 15) This quote shows Hale's arrogance and that he thought the devil could never overcome a minister such as himself. Hale made it clear that he was willing to hang any person that was unwilling to confess to witchcraft, therefore, he was in the middle of all this murder and
I conclude this from the following quotation said by Hale: “... I mean to crush him utterly if he has shown his face” (Miller 1281). Shown in this text is the depths Hale is willing to go to in order to rid witches in Salem. Additionally, it relays the message of how mementus and horrific he sees sorcery. Also said in the text by Hale is, “If she [Tituba] is truly in the Devil's grip we may have to rip and tear to get her free” (Miller 1281). The excerpt ensures his strong feelings about do whatever it takes to annihilate witchcraftery.
When Hale was called into the village, he always had the intention to help people. Hale was just doing his job asking the accused questions by trying to get a helpful answer to the cause. Hale was just trying to do his job and had no intent for anybody to die. He tried to help Tituba by saying, “You are God's instrument put in our hands to discover the Devil's agents among us. You are selected, Tituba, you are chosen to help us cleanse our village" (Miller 46).
When Hale entered the story he believed that he was going to be the savior of the town ridding them of witches. When Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor were arrested Reverend Hale was deeply shaken with his beliefs. Hale near the end of the story he tells Elizabeth that you should not have religion when it brings you harm but you should keep faith in God. Reverend Hale near ending of The Crucible is the complete opposite of the Reverend Hale that first entered the story, because he came in believing he was the authority on how to find witches, then he was shaken by arrest of Rebecca and John, and finally by him telling others to throw away religion when it brings harm to
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).
¨There is blood on my head! Can you not see the blood on my head!! ¨. Reverend and witch hunter Hale has spoken these words because he has realized he has sent many innocent people to their death. Now he feels guilty for the of innocent people.
His admiration of the court goes down as he sees more people being hanged and the stubbornness of the court. In the end, Hale knows that the law is not the entire aspect of creating a perfect society, no one in a society needs to follow the law entirely, and that authority does not always judge over everything. He has no more confidence in the idea of dominance of God over anything in life, and by that mean he loses his faith to the court. Not just those, he doesn’t carry the heavy written laws since the beginning. When Hale loses his faith towards the court and the society, he earns empathy and respect from us the readers and proving how moral obligation plays a bigger role than civic duty when it comes to real difficulties in a
Hale betrayed the court, trying to save John, and prevent more hangings, which was against the court’s request. He betrayed his beliefs of religion because he no longer had faith in a religion that allowed the church to hang innocent people. As a result of fear and betrayal, twenty-four innocent people died in the Salem witch
He said, "I dare not take a life without there be a proof no immaculate no slightest qualm of conscience may doubt it" (Miller 188). He did not want anyone to hang for a crime they did not commit, and he did not want any guilty conscience of it afterward. He started to realize that people are accusing others for their own gain, and when no one would listen, Hale quit the court. In Act 4, Hale tries to save people's lives by convincing them to confess. He doubts his own Puritan faith and pursues the falsely accused on his own.
Hale acknowledges human’s mortality more so than Danforth who believes his word is the final say. Furthermore, Judge Danforth appears to only be concerned with having those who were jailed, confess to being witches whether they were or not. All those who do not confess to conspiring with the devil in his eyes are evil and those “who weep for [them, therefore] weep for corruption” (134). In contrast, Hale is desperate to save the innocent from their inevitable doom because he believes “life is God’s most precious gift” and “no principle [] may justify taking it” (122). He even encourages Elizabeth Proctor to “prevail upon [her] husband to confess” because “God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride” (122).
In act 1 and 2 in the play ,The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the character Reverend Hale was introduced and learned what his role was. Reverend Hale was a man nearing his forties and was a high-status intellectual who was an expert in witchcraft (Miller 155). In this act Hale said that he believes there always will be someone with the devil(Miller 155). Hale was siding with the court in this act and signing death warrants along with believing in these accusations fully as shown in his visit to the Proctors when he said there is too much evidence to deny the Devil is in Salem (Miller 171). Also, Hale almost played as an interrogator when he was giving rapid fire questions to John about his Christian character and if he goes to church in his visit to the Proctor house (Miller 171).
Hale went to the houses of those accused because he was starting to worry that they were actually innocent. He acknowledges, “No man may longer doubt the powers of the dark are gathered in monstrous attack upon this village. There is too much evidence now to deny it” (II.469-473.). Hale tells John and Elizabeth how the accusations are attacking the village, and how there is more evidence making it more difficult to not believe Abigail’s lie. Hale is worried that innocent people are being accused, but he also feels obligated to agree with the court.