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Pontius Pilate Indeed The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, is set in Salem, Massachusetts. The hysteria begins with suspicion that a group of teenage girls found dancing in the forest are guilty of witchcraft. The reverend of Salem then calls on Reverend Hale, who hails from Beverly, to come ascertain the truth. Threatened with severe punishment girls tell lies that Satan had possessed them and falsely accuse others of working with the Devil. One of the girls has an infatuation with John Proctor, a married man, and her determination to get rid of his innocent wife, Elizabeth fuels the hysteria. Reverend Hale is a unique character because he is both a catalyst and a preventer of this hysteria. His main character flaw, like many a people, is failure to defend his beliefs. In order to characterize Hale as a …show more content…
Statements from Hale show that he has realized the error of his ways. He decides to “shut [his] conscience no more” (223) and quits the court. Hale can no longer suppress his beliefs about the court and in effect, like Pontius Palter, absolves himself from the court. Next, Hale’s Words are used to show the immense amount of guilt that rests on his shoulder. Hale walks the prisons of Salem and, in knowing that “there is blood on [his] head” (234), “counsels Christians they should belie themselves” (234) even though he is also belying his reputation as reverend by doing this. He cares so much so for the accused that he believes it is a just punishment for him to be counted a “murderer” (234) even though it further deteriorates his reputation. Lastly, as the guilt-ridden self-proclaimed murderer that he is, Hale “weeps in frantic prayer” (240) for any such mercy or redemption that God can bestow upon him as he watches Proctor being taken to be hung. Hale realizes that his activism against the unjust has come along to late into the hysteria to prevail and therefore looks to
The Crucible was set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. It was set in a little country town full of what everyone thought were good people. When we started reading The Crucible we were introduced to many people from this small town of Salem. There are many pros and cons to living in a small town, but this book shows us many of these pros and cons. The three main characters that we were introduced are Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Reverend Hale. In this story these characters contributed some of the most irrational things that caused most of the problems in this small town.
He is no longer enthusiastic and his attitude starts to change when he first came in the Proctor’s home. He was “drawn a little, and there is a quality of deference, even of guilt, about his manner now.” In first act, Hale was very energetic and excited, but at this point he seemed like he’s strained from guilt. He came with the mission to expel witchcraft, and the trails are supposed help with that, but he started to think that the witch trials are not the right way to go anymore. He started to realize that the trials are unfair and can ruin people’s lives and since he is a man of morals he starts to question the trials. When John Proctor came in and presented his case to the court, Hale tried to be rational and urged other to be so as well. He said to Danforth “stop here; send him home and let him come again with a lawyer.” Hale knows that the trials are unfair, so to prevent any more people from being hurt by the court, he wants the people to be represented with lawyers, so the process can be fair. The court wants to get rid of witchcraft, but Hale is the only one who thought about how it will affect the people being accused. As that trial continued, Hale exhibited courage because he left the court since no one wanted to change to things right. As he tries to talk to him, Danforth exclaims “I will have nothing from you Mr. Hale!” Now he was completely unvalued as a member of the court and
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is set in Salem in a Puritan community. John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale, Reverend Paris, and Abigail are the main characters. The book is about witchcraft or what the town thinks is witchcraft. John Proctor is the tragic hero because he is loving, loyal, authoritative, but his tragic flaw is his temper.
The statement,“The Crucible is essentially about courage, weakness, and truth,” is proven true numerous times, throughout the play. The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller, about the true events that happened in Salem, Massachusetts, between the years 1692 and 1693. The Salem witch trials consisted of many hangings, lies, and complete mass hysteria. The citizens of Salem followed the religion of Puritanism, and the ideas of predestination. The root of the mass hysteria comes from their belief in the sense that in something happens then it must have been planned by God. In Miller’s portrayal of the story, Abigail Williams was the ringleader of the witch trials, and she used the idea of predestination to cover up her own sins. Abigail was a very manipulative girl and ruined many lives. John Proctor, Mary Warren, and Elizabeth Proctor were just a few of the victims in Abby’s game. John, Mary, and Elizabeth exhibit the traits courage, weakness, and truth, whether it was in a positive or negative way.
There are many secrets and hidden feuds circulating in the town of Salem that he is unaware of when he first arrives. It takes Hale a long time to come to terms with how wicked the town has become, and how they use witchcraft as an excuse to get even with those they feel have wronged them. He gets caught up in the trials, even acting alongside the court. Once the truth about Abigail Williams and her followers is revealed by John Proctor to be a scam, he vocalizes what he’s really thinking “I believe him! This girl has always struck me as false!” (50), “You cannot believe them!” (51), and finally “I denounce these proceedings, I quit this court!”
Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, is set in Salem village where an atmosphere of enmity and mistrust has been created through the conflicts and disagreements many villagers experience throughout the play. Many of these are caused by or, similar to the conflict between Parris and Proctor, are inflated by the many accusations of witchcraft occurring in the village.
This is a character essay on the “The Crucible”. The character I have chosen to be my subject of this essay is Reverend Hale. This essay is going to be over seven parts of this character’s life. His background, problems and concerns, development through the story, first impressions, what he thinks of himself, what others think of him, and what he thinks of others. Background
The Crucible written by Arthur Miller is about The Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts in the 1600’s. The town was placed in hysteria by some of the town girls such as, Abigail, Tituba, and Mary Warren. Certain events in the story led to the widespread of hysteria amongst the town. First, when Abigail pointed her finger to blame Tituba. Second, names of people were mentioned and other events made the town think that the Devil was taking over.
In The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is about how the small town of Salem descends into a panic when the rumor of witchcraft is spread throughout the town. Many of the town’s population were accused which resulted to many long years in prison rotting away or being hanged publicly while the whole town watches. Many people wanted to find out who the witches were in Salem like the man named John Hale one of the court’s officials, decides to check on the Proctors as Elizabeth’s name was mentioned as being a witch in Salem.
After Hale acknowledges his flaw, his character changes to a minister who wants to save the lives of the false accusations, so he goes against the “flawless” court. After Danforth accused John Proctor of witchcraft and sent him to jail, Hale “denounce[d] these proceedings” (120). Danforth had said that a person is either with the court or against it, and Reverend Hale chose to go against it although he was a faithful minister. Also, he tried to save John proctor’s life by asking Elizabeth to make John confess because Hale had signed seventy two death warrants and regretted it. The reason that Hale gave to Elizabeth to save Proctor’s life was that “life is God’s most precious gift” (132). At this point Reverend Hale wanted to bring justice to the court even if Proctor had to make a false
In the beginning of the story Hale is blinded about the truth of the Salem Witch trials and does not realize the evil occurring within. As Parris and Hale converse, Parris makes a remark about the weight of Hale’s books, Hale defends himself by saying they are “weighted with authority.”(I.36) Hale knows that the townspeople see him as an outsider so by acting experienced during the situation he can project himself as an expert. When Parris asks Hale why the devil pursues someone like himself when there are plenty immoral people for the devil to go after. Hale states that if the devil wants a solid foothold in a town such as Salem, then who “better than the minister.” (I.41) In an attempt to impress Paris and make him feel better about what has happened, Hale calls out to the
In The Crucible, the people of a small, Puritan community are being plagued by a rash of witch accusations. The story takes place in the small Massachusetts town of Salem. In the story, there is a man by the name of John Proctor who makes his living by farming. He and his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, are having difficulties within their marriage. Along with his marriage problems, John is also faced with the startling accusation against his wife. His wife is accused of being a witch.
Another important work Miller wrote, The Crucible, takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, during the 17th century. It is a time when jealousy and suspicion poisoned the thinking of an entire town. Neighbor turned against neighbor when events happened that could not be explained. Accusations turned into a mad hunt for witches who did not exist. One of the main characters of the play is John Proctor, a well-respected man with a good name in the town. As the play develops, John Proctor’s moral dilemma becomes evident: he must decide whether to lie and confess to witchcraft in order to save his life, or to die an honest man, true to his beliefs.
The conversations that Hale has demonstrate the evolution of his mindset. In Act II, Hale is traveling around the town, going house-to-house, searching for accused women to warn them that their names have been mentioned in the court. Soon, Hale finds himself standing at the Proctor home. At this moment, Hale sees a different perspective on the entire situation.
The Crucible is a 1953 play by Arthur Miller. Initially, it was known as The Chronicles of Sarah Good. The Crucible was set in the Puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts. It talks of McCarthyism that happened in the late 1600’s whereby the general public and people like Arthur Miller were tried and persecuted. The Crucible exemplifies persecutions during the Salem Witch Trials. The people were convicted and hung without any tangible proof of committing any crime. Persecutions were the order of the day. When a finger was pointed at any individual as a witch, the Deputy Governor Danforth never looked for evidence against them or evidence that incriminated them; he ordered them to be hanged. This can be seen through his words “Hang them high over the town! Who weeps for those, weeps for corruption!” (1273), the people were persecuted aimlessly. The four main characters in the play, John Proctor, Abigail Adams, Reverend Hale and Reverend Parris, are caught in the middle of the witchcraft panic in the religious Salem, Massachusetts in late 1690’s. Persecution is the most important theme in the Crucible, the leaders and citizens of Salem attacks and persecutes one of their own without any tangible evidence against them.