The Crucible - Development of Reverend Hale

            Reverend John Hale is a respected religious scholar who arrives in Salem to give advice on the witchcraft problem. He means well, but is proved to be weak. He turns against the court but is unable to halt the executions. The lengthy stage directions before Hale's first entry, is one way that Miller tells us about him. He seems to believe completely in what he is doing, and he thinks he is trying to eradicate witchcraft for all the right reasons. "His goal.goodness and its preservation". Hale sees the study of witchcraft like a science, and Miller uses medical words to back this up: "painfully", "symptoms", " diagnostic" and "procedures". Hale believes that he is curing people of this illness. This starts to make Hale feel almost comic, as we see how really seriously he takes his witchcraft, which today in the modern world we would see as false. Hale states he is going to "crush" the devil. The idea of crushing the devil seems to foreshadow the death of Giles Corey who was crushed to death later in the play. It depicts the idea of crushing lies toget to the truth. This shows that Hale is certain that he is right and that he will find the devil and that he has the ability to destroy it.
             At the beginning of The Crucible, Hale appears a strong, proud authoritative figure in touch with the latest religious theories. "He feels himself allied with the best minds in Europe". Hale's intelligence is portrayed through his books~ " loaded down with half a dozen heavy books . weighted with authority". These books appear to carry all the answers to Salem's problem. The reference to Hale being like a book; almost a cliche (like an open book).
             Towards the middle of the play we begin to see signs in Hale's appearance that shows that the trials are clearly having a wearing effect on him. "He is different now – drawn a little, and there is a quality of guilt, about his manner now".