A person’s character can have a lot of influences in weather or not they can maintain their morals. In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the town of Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony is taken over by witch trials. They are started by young girls who accuse people of being witches in order to avoid getting into trouble for having been caught dancing naked in the woods. Reverend Hale, who is considered an expert in witches, is called in to assist the courts with the trials and give his opinion on the severity of the situation. At first he believes these cases are true, however he changes his opinion when the credibility of the accusers come into question, and he also denounces the courts proceedings. Various townspeople believe that the girls are lying, and some people try to stand up to them but end up being accused of being a witch and dying. The internal struggles of the character play a large part in determining whether or not they will be successful or not in standing up to the girls, and if they will be able to maintain their morals. Two of the people who stood up to the girls are Mary Warren and Reverend John Hale; Reverend Hale was able to maintain his morals by looking at the situation for a neutral prospective and going by the facts, whereas Mary Warren, a girl who was one of the accusers, was unable to successfully maintain her morals and stop the unjust trials because she was fearful of the other girls, she is self-centered, and she had no confidence. Reverend Hale’s Character traits aided him in maintain his morals because they gave him the strength that he needed to do the right thing. In the beginning he saw signs that he interpreted as actual work of the devil and honestly thought that Salem was infested with... ... middle of paper ... ...outcries, and they would each have different things happen to each of their morals; Reverend Hale was successful at maintaining his ethics throughout the play because of his insightfulness, and neutrality, however his orals did encounter a speed bump due to his trusting nature, whereas Mary Warren Was horrible at maintain her morals because she was self-centered, fearful, and unconfident. John Hale maintained his morals thru thick and thin as the play went on, he even switched sided as soon as he knew for sure that the side that he saw then currently supporting was wrong. Mary Warren was unsuccessful in maintain her morals from the begging because she knew that the trials were wrong from the begging yet she did nothing. This play highlights the fact that people make choices based off of their personality and current state, and these choices may or may not be just.
At times that are difficult for people, people can change. For example, such as conflicts with people that they know has changed people, on the inside and on the outside. Such possibility is probable, such as the Salem Witch Trials, which was a serious time. When the trails came, they acted differently, some resulted to be more justified and some that was immoral. Throughout the book, we see the overall actions of Rev. Hale, a man who remains neutral; Rev. Parris, a man that wants to keep his reputation; and John Proctor, a man that tries to keep his honor, was resulted from the results of the witch trials.
His respect for authority disintegrates as he learns that everything in life that he once placed emphasis on, like the power of the written law and the authority of the court, is corrupt in the town of Salem. Hale comes to the end that the law is not absolute, one does not need to strictly adhere to the law, and that authority does not always preside over everything. He recognizes the evil in the town of Salem, yet in response, he does not choose defiance, but surrender. When he stops believing in witchcraft, he stops believing in everything that he once believed to be true. Not only does he no longer believe in the prevalence of law, he no longer believes in the ascendancy of religion over all aspects of life. As Reverend Hale loses his conviction for authority, he correspondingly loses his identity, yet, in our eyes of the reader, he gains respect and sympathy in its
The division of good is decided upon by reader and character according to their perspective. For the reader, the sympathy is usually pointed towards the victim of the situation, but this play twists the power balance between victim and attacker. It makes the characters believe the victim is the prosecutor, and the prosecutor is the victim. The consequences of this role reversal involve the incrimination of a character with profoundly good morals, Rebecca Nurse. In the beginning, Rebecca was recognized by Hale when he says to her, “It’s strange how I knew you, but I suppose you look as such a good soul should.” (Miller 34) Rebecca Nurse is condemned in a time of great hysteria. Even she, a character who seems good and does nothing but good, is caught in the blasphemous whirlwind that shakes Salem.
he has spent his whole life in the study of it. “We cannot look to
The Crucible, a container that resists hear or the hollow at the bottom of an ore furnace. However its connotations include melting pot, in the symbolic sense, and the bearing of a cross. Elizabeth, John Proctor’s wife; a cold, childless woman who is an upright character who cannot forgive her husband’s adultery until just before he died: she is accused of being a witch. Reverend Hale, a self-proclaimed expert on witchcraft; at the play’s end tries to save the accused. John Proctor, a good man with human failures and a hidden secret, a affair with Abigail, he is often the voice of reason in the play; accused of witchcraft.“I do not judge you.
When pressure is pushed onto somebody they can be forced further from there morals and this can lead them from their truths. One character that is a victim of pressure is Mary Warren. Mary Warren has many pressures from her peers and her peers are a big influence to her because she is a teenager. Mary Warren wouldn't have been in the trails as a huge problem but she was drag when Abigail framed her with a "voodoo" doll for Elizabeth Proctor. Mary Warren really gets dragged in the controversy, when the girls were in the courtroom and were acting as if an evil spirit cast out by Mary warren posed them, by repeating every thing she had said (Miller 115).
Hale has taken it to himself to help to remove the world heretics. Which led him to
Prior to the beginning of the trials, Reverend Hale arrives in Salem with an unquestionable devotion to authority and the law. He has come to Salem in order to scrutinize the situation at hand and to employ his expertise in witchcraft to assist the citizens of Salem in a time of turmoil and disorder. Reverend Hale is not only known for his extensive knowledge on the subject of witchery, but he also believes himself to be more than well-versed on the subject. Unmistakably prideful, Hale holds himself to high standards, working
As Reverend John Hale is not a resident of Salem, he approaches the accusations and rumors without any prior opinion. Hale is introduced as extremely arrogant and proud with his goal being “light, goodness and its preservation”(Miller 34). This phrasing strengthens his role as a man of God, but this is not actually displayed in his personality until later. He is very book smart and this leads to some signs of immaturity. This is shown in Act I when Parris questions why the devil would come to Salem. “Why would he [the devil] choose this house to strike?”(39) In response Hale says, “It is the best the Devil wants, and who is better than the minister?”(39) This shows he enjoys the position better than he does its purpose. He is also very eager.
When Hale came to Salem, his heavy books gave him confidence.”They must be; they are weighted with authority” (Miller, 1279). By Act II, he begins to change in his belief, that what he has brought to
The person who is summoned to the town is Rev Hale, who’s a considered expert in witchcraft and one of the most noticeably dynamic characters in the movie. He first comes to the town believing there is a witch and goes to all lengths trying to find who it is. He given the information that the girls were secretly dancing in the woods with Tituba singing a strange song and boiling a pot over the fire. He truly believes that Tituba was corrupted with the devil and makes her say praises to the lord. Abigail tells him that she is also a victim of the devil and begins to weep, the other girls who had been said to be dancing start to weep too and all of the girls start to say names of people around the town they claim they saw with the devil. After many trials and deaths John Proctor eventually opens his eyes to reality when he goes to visit the Proctor household. John tells him that the girls
Parris and Danforth prioritize their reputations over John Proctor’s actual life. Hale does not care about his good name, but about the lives of the people in Salem and his guilt for partaking in the trials. Like Proctor, Parris, Hale, and Danforth are extremely flawed men. They all make unrighteous decisions that can be selfish. Unlike Proctor, though, these men place their own needs above the needs of the community. John Proctor has lived in Salem all his life and cares for the town and its citizens, whereas Reverend Hale, Reverend Parris, and Danforth are all outsiders to the town. They place themselves above the well-beings of the townspeople for the reason that they do not care if Salem is to be destroyed. Reverend Parris, Reverend Hale, and Deputy Governor Danforth’s yearn of John Proctor’s confession represents they only care for their own self-interests and not about what his confession could do for the town of
Reverend Hale is a dynamic character in Miller's The Crucible as he is challenged by John Proctor's courage. He starts out very convincing and seems to know exactly what he wants. John Proctor is a very strong and courageous character. He influences Reverend Hale so much that Hale completely changes his mind about Salem, the court, and witches. Reverend Hale enters Salem as a very strong character that knows what he wants to do.
Reverend Hale arrives in Salem thinking that he will become a hero and rid Salem of the devil. Hale is speaking to the townspeople when he says, "Have no fear now--we shall find him out if he has come among us, and I mean to crush him utterly if he has shown his face!" Hale thinks that there is an actual devil in the town, and they must defeat it. He is trying to show the people of Salem that he is their savior, and that he knows exactly what to do.
three of the main characters, Reverend Hale, John Proctor and Mary Warren, who have some of