Crucible Essay

The Crucible

“Crucible”: A place or occasion of severe test or trial. This definition adequately describes what this story is about because it is based on a crucible that dealt with witchcraft, deceit, and revenge. In literature, there are 2 main types of characters, dynamic and static characters or ones who change and ones who stay the same. In “The Crucible” the biggest dynamic character is John Proctor. Another dynamic character was Reverend Hale. To me, Abigail Williams was a static character; she remained the same throughout the entire story. For instance, in the beginning of the play, John Proctor is not an honest man. It is implied in the beginning that he is having an affair with Abigail Williams when he says “I may have thought softly of her but I will cut off my hand before I ever reach for her again”. He also states how he wants nothing to do with the witch-hunts until he hears that his wife has been mentioned. Proctor then begins to fight not only for his wife’s innocence, but everyone wrongly accused. In the last scene of the play Proctor, along with a couple other wrongly accused townspeople, were hanged. He died not only a martyr, but also an honest man. Another dynamic, or changing, character was Reverend Hale. Hale was brought into Salem to “preserve goodness”. He initially agreed with the court and was really doing things that the people wanted. A shift occurred when Proctor was being arrested and his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, shouted at Hale “Pontius Pilate! God will not let you wash your hands of this”. This got to Hale because it implied that he was only doing what they people wanted and not was good, he then began to fight the court and dealt with a battle within himself of guilt and what was right or wrong. Finally, the static character in this play was Abigail Williams. She stayed the same throughout the story, always being a bad person in the sense that she committed adultery, sin, and in that time crime. In one of the first scenes in the play, Abby is already committing a crime, which was dancing. She also was involved in an affair with John Proctor. All through the play, Abigail is trying to get revenge for Proctor not wanting to be with her anymore. She makes up lies that gets innocent people killed and not once does she feel remorse for all the trouble she has caused with the victims and the people conflicted by the ordeal. In the end, I believe that Reverend Hale underwent the most profound change. As a reverend, he was brought in to settle all the conflict caused by the group of girls who were lying, yet had the whole town fooled. In the beginning, Hale was on their side, but as the play progresses he begins to have conflict within himself and starts to doubt what everyone believes to be true.