What Is Wrong In The Crucible

Reverend Hale In The Crucible there’s a fine but distinguishable line between doing the right and wrong thing. Sometimes, decisions are made without entirely knowing what the situation is and how it came about. W. Clement Stone once said, “Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right.” Hale follows these expectations to good integrity. When everybody fell in line with the court he saw they were wrong, and he broke away to try to save who was left. Throughout the story Reverend Hale’s confidence in his own decisions begins to fluctuate and change dramatically. When Hale arrived at the beginning of the story he was confident in his diagnosis of Betty, which was that she was possessed through witchcraft (Miller 1156). He joins the court and signs off on death warrants, killing many innocent people. He finally becomes skeptical when Rebecca Nurse is accused of witchcraft, because Rebecca Nurse
was the most pure person in all of Salem (Miller 1175). At the end of the play when Proctor is about to hang, he pleads to Elizabeth to get John to confess (Miller 1224). He feels guilty that he let John be arrested and accused because he knows that Proctor is innocent. His skepticism deepens when the girls are accused of lying during their “crying out.” Proctor comes forth with a deposition and he shows it to Hale, and he believes it and tries to plead with Danforth to let innocent people go. Danforth refuses and Hale begins to change. Hale’s relationship and confidence in the court begins to change.
Hale comes to Salem because he is called upon by Parris, because Betty is “sick” Hale considers this to be witchcraft. Once people find out about this everything spirals out of control. The girls begin accusing and a court is formed to try the accused. Hale is part of this court, he signs death warrants. He rethinks his decision and he tells Danforth that he can not sign another warrant unless he is convinced beyond a doubt (Miller 1197). After that he storms out of the court and quits (Miller 1213). At the end he tries to help convince Danforth that the girls are lying to save Proctor. In Act 2, Hale goes to the Proctor household because he suspects the Proctor’s of witchcraft, but when people from the court come with a warrant for Elizabeth Hale tells Proctor that the court will not charge her since she is innocent and he will testify to make sure she is set free. In Act 3, Hale blames the court for not thoroughly checking to see if people are
innocent. Hale’s relationship with many of the characters changed. In Act 2, Hale suspects John Proctor and comes to his house to make a decision if he’s guilty or not. He’s working for the court's behalf, against John. But by the end of the play Hale is going against the court, calling them out for putting away innocent people. He does this on John’s behalf, someone he once suspected and was skeptical of is now someone he’s trying to save and protect. Hale just wants to do the right thing. In act 1, when he arrives he meets Rebecca Nurse, and he almost admires her character. In Act 4, even though he thought she was such a prolific person, he tries to get her to confess. He did this to save her because he knows that the girls are frauds and he made mistakes. Instead, Rebecca takes this as an insult to what she stands for and her character. Hale made his fair share of mistakes throughout the play; such as signing the death warrants and suspecting Proctor. Although, he tried to right these wrongs by quitting the court and trying to get Proctor to confess so he could live. Hale always tried to do the right thing, whether it was trying to purify Salem or save people he knew were innocent. He didn’t care about ruining his reputation, he only wanted to make amends.