Transformation of Reverend Hale

In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Reverend Hale’s attitude and beliefs are changed completely as the play progresses. After Reverend Parris is a witness to girls dancing in the woods and also when his daughter becomes very ill, he calls Rev. Hale to Salem. Hale’s job is to find any form of witchcraft and to get rid of it. Over the course of the play, Rev. Hale experiences a transformation in his beliefs from the beginning of the play to the end. Reverend Hale has three different emotions throughout the play. When Hale is introduced in the the beginning of the play, he is passionate and very confident about finding witchcraft and getting rid of it. In the middle of the play, Hale is frustrated and he does not know who to trust nor believe and feels confused about whether there is witchcraft in Salem or not. Lastly, by the end of the play Hale has lost faith in the court system and believes that witchcraft does not exist in Salem. Reverend Hale is called to handle the the town’s situation with witchcraft. Hale is portrayed as a hard working character who is self-assured and takes his job very seriously. He is an educated man from Beverly that devotes himself to his faith and his work. In Act one, Hale enters and puts down his books that “are weighted with authority” (Miller, 1105). Hale enters the play with many books which show that he is a very educated man. Reverend Hale believes he is an expert on witchcraft and he is convinced the the truth resides within his books. While examining Betty, Hale tells Rev. Parris, “let me instruct you. We cannot look to superstition...the Devil is precise...and I shall not proceed unless you are prepared to believe me” (1106). Hale is very arrogant in the beginning of the play and believes that he has the ability to find the Devil’s influence in the community. He is also determined to destroy any spirit of the Devil no matter who it is. Hale lets Rebecca Nurse know the if he “shall find him among us, and I mean to crush him