Reverend John Hale Quotes

This is a beloved errand for him; on being called here to ascertain witchcraft he felt the pride of the specialist whose unique knowledge has at last been publicly called for. Like almost all men of learning, he spent a good deal of time pondering the invisible world, especially since he had himself encountered a witch in his parish not long before. That woman, however, turned into a mere pest under his searching scrutiny, and the child she had been allegedly afflicting recovered her normal behavior after Hale had given her his kindness and a few days of rest in his own house.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 1. In this explanation by the narrator, we learn that Reverend John Hale is proud of his specialist knowledge in the field of witchcraft. He has been called to Salem by Reverend Parris to investigate his daughter’s illness. In his own parish of Beverly he encountered accusations of witchcraft. But he determined that the "witch" was merely a "pest" and the child allegedly afflicted by witchcraft recovered after a few days rest.

We cannot look to superstition in this. The Devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as stone, and I must tell you all that I shall not proceed unless you are prepared to believe me if I should find no bruise of Hell upon her.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 1. Hale reprimands Thomas Putnam for suggesting that Betty Parris being unable to bear to bear the Lord’s name is a sure sign of witchcraft. Hale uses a simile – "definite as stone" – to explain how precise the marks of the Devil are. This is ironic, because no physical signs of the Devil are found on anybody in Salem, either on the supposedly sick girls or on those accused of being witches.

Here is all the invisible world, caught, defined, and calculated. In these books the Devil stands stripped of all his brute disguises. Here are all your familiar spirits – your incubi and succubi; your witches that go by land, by air, and by sea; your wizards of the night and of the day. 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!

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 1. Reverend John Hale, newly arrived to Salem and armed with his stack of books, vows to win the battle of good and evil with the Devil. He excudes great confidence in his knowledge of Satan and witchcraft and is convinced that he will be able to find any witches hiding among the Salem population. His assurances are all a bit intellectual and based on book knowledge rather than real life experience. As time goes by and he observes the bias and unfairness of a justice system that doesn’t follow due process, that early confidence in finding the truth fades.

You have sent your spirit out upon this child, have you not? Are you gathering souls for the Devil?

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 1. After Abigail names Tituba for forcing her and the other girls to take part in witchcraft practices, Hale unquestioningly takes Abby’s word. He immediately directs his inquisition at the black slave girl. There is no doubt that racism is a factor in the way witch-hunter Hale and the others are so quick to believe Tituba is a witch. Hale is responsible for whipping up local hysteria about witchcraft by blaming Tituba in front of multiple Salem townspeople for making the child Betty ill.

HALE: When did you compact with the Devil?
TITUBA: I don’t compact with no Devil!
PARRIS: You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to your death, Tituba!
PUTNAM: This woman must be hanged! She must be taken and hanged!
TITUBA: No, no, don’t hang Tituba! I tell him I don’t desire to work for him, sir.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 1. The perversion of justice in the Salem witch investigations and trials is perfectly illustrated by this passage. Hale, Parris and Putnam repreatedly press Tituba to confess to communicating with the Devil. At first she declares her innocence to the charge, but then she is given a "confess or die" ultimatum. When they threaten to hang her a terrified Tituba falls down on on her knees and out of fear admits to a crime she did not commit. Salem-style justice means that in the eyes of the officials you are guilty before any trial or hearing of defense evidence. The abusive way the people of authority treat Tituba, a black slave, has a strong element of racism in it.

When the Devil comes to you does he ever come – with another person? Perhaps another person in the village? Someone you know…You are God’s instrument put in our hands to discover the Devil’s agents among us. You are selected, Tituba, you are chosen to help us cleanse our village. So speak utterly, turn your back on him and face God – face God, and he will protect you.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 1. We see the themes of power, good vs evil and hysteria here, as Reverend Hale attempts to get Tituba give up the names of others in league with the Devil. Having herself confessed, the lowly black slave’s status is suddenly raised up when asked to be an instrument of God to help root out Satan’s agents. The word instrument is personified by Hale. He offers Tituba the power to accuse and condemn others to death. The language of Hale’s questioning of Tituba amplifies further the hysteria among the Salem townspeople. There are also strong echoes of McCarthyism here. During the 1950s Red Scare people were pressed to name names of people with communist affiliations before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Playwright Miller himself was convicted of contempt of court when he refused to name suspected communists to the committee. This was later reversed by the Supreme Court.

Take courage, you must give us all their names. How can you bear to see this child suffering? Look at her, Tituba. Look at her God-given innocence; her soul is so tender; we must protect her, Tituba; the Devil is out and preying on her like a beast upon the flesh of the pure lamb. God will bless you for your help.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 1. Hale, pointing to Betty on the bed, uses emotional and intimidatory tactics to pressurize Tituba into giving up the names of other "witches." For good measure he uses a vivid animal simile to compare the Devil’s possession of Betty to a beast preying on an innocent lamb. He bribes Tituba with the promise of God’s blessing and forgiveness if she gives up names. Characterizing this as a battle between good and evil, Hale appears to throw objectivity to the wind. As he buys into the idea of the Devil running loose in Salem, he only adds to the panic and hysteria. Those who fell foul of the McCarthy witch hunt for communists in 1950s America had similar pressures applied to them to name names of others.

This is a strange time, Mister. No man may longer doubt the powers of the dark are gathered in monstrous attack upon this village. There is too much evidence now to deny it.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. Reverend Hale feeds into the hysteria in Salem, saying that demonic powers are mounting a monstrous assault on the town. His response to the Proctors’ shock at the idea of the upstanding Rebecca Nurse being mentioned in the witchcraft investigations is his unconvincing comment, "this is a strange time." The irony is that Salem is under assault, not from the "powers of the dark" as Hale thinks, but from people’s fears, suspicions and paranoia.

Aye. But the Devil is a wily one, you cannot deny it. However, she is far from accused, and I know she will not be. I thought, sir, to put some questions as to the Christian character of this house, if you’ll permit me.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. Hale, on a visit to the Proctors’ home, reveals that Rebecca Nurse has been mentioned in the witch trials court but says he doesn’t believe she will be accused. He then gets round to the purpose of his visit, to question them about their Christianity, having told Elizabeth that she was mentioned in the court.

#HALE: I have myself examined Tituba, Sarah Good, and numerous others that have confessed to dealing with the Devil. They have confessed it.
PROCTOR: And why not, if they must hang for denyin’ it? There are them that will swear to anything before they’ll hang; have you never thought of that?

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. Hale argues with Proctor that Tituba, Sarah Good and numerous others have confessed to dealing with the Devil. He finds it hard to believe that people who are innocent would confess. But Proctor counters saying that if people are hanged for denying witchcraft, the innocent will confess to avoid hanging. Here he highlights the injustice of the guilty until proven innocent Salem justice system.

There is a misty plot afoot so subtle we should be criminal to cling to old respects and ancient friendships. I have seen too many frightful proofs in court – the Devil is alive in Salem, and we dare not quail to follow wherever the accusing finger points!

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. There had been an expectation that Hale was a reasonable man who would not try to find witchcraft where it doesn’t exist. In his own parish of Beverly he determined that an accused woman was not a witch, but merely a "pest," and the child allegedly afflicted was back to normal after a few days rest and care. However, that now seems a forlorn hope as Hale now succumbs to Salem and the court’s witchcraft hysteria. He claims that there have been "frightful proofs" seen in court of the Devil alive in the town. The rising hysteria is personified in "the accusing finger points." The irrational mob mentality and climate of fear created is frightingly conveyed here by Miller, calling on his own experience of the Red Scare trials of the McCarthy era.

Get y’gone with them! You are a broken minister.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. After Elizabeth is accused of witchcraft in her own home, John Proctor lashes out at the people who have come to arrest her. He orders clerk of the court Cheever out of his house and also Reverend Hale when he tries to calm John down. Proctor calls Hale a "broken minister," believing that he lacks moral fibre and courage to speak out against the witchcraft hysteria and injustices being perpetrated by the court.

And yet silent, minister? It is fraud, you know it is fraud! What keeps you, man?

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. After Giles Corey’s wife Martha and now Elizabeth are accused of witchcraft, Giles attacks Hale over his silence. He brands the women’s accusers – the group of young girls led by Abigail – as frauds. Hale, according to the stage directions, is said to be "in a fever of guilt and uncertainty" when the marshal arrives to arrest Elizabeth, Martha having been taken away a little earlier.

Charity, Proctor, charity. What I have heard in her favor, I will not fear to testify in court. God help me, I cannot judge her guilty or innocent – I know not. Only this consider: the world goes mad, and it profits nothing you should lay the cause to the vengeance of a little girl.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. Reverend Hale attempts to calm John Proctor down, after Cheever arrives to his home to arrest Elizabeth for witchcraft. He cautions John that blaming the witch trials on Abigail’s thirst for vengeance won’t help his case. Hale doesn’t believe that Abigail and the other girls are faking and takes the accusations of witchcraft seriously. At this stage he still has confidence in the court and that justice will be done. He shows himself to be naive here.

Proctor, I cannot think God be provoked so grandly by such a petty cause. The jails are packed – our greatest judges sit in Salem now – and hangin’ promised. Man, we must look to cause proportionate. Were there murder done, perhaps, and never brought to light? Abomination? Some secret blasphemy that stinks to Heaven? Think on cause, man, and let you help me to discover it. For there’s your way, believe it, there is your only way, when such confusion strikes upon the world. Let you counsel among yourselves; think on your village and what may have drawn from heaven such thundering wrath upon you all. I shall pray God open up our eyes.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. Hale is in the Proctor home when he delivers this speech to John just after his wife Elizabeth is taken to jail. Displaying blind faith in Salem’s corrupt court system, he naively describes those in charge of the trials as "our greatest judges." But far from being great upholders of justice, they have shown themselves as biased, unfair and unquestioningly believing the wild tales of a group of attention-seeking girls. There is further irony when Hale suggests that some secret sin must have brought on Salem’s troubles, such as murder or blasphemy, and they need to discover it. Hale is not aware, but the audience is, that Proctor is himself hiding a secret sin, that of adultery.

PROCTOR: I – I have once or twice plowed on Sunday. I have three children, sir, and until last year my land give little.
GILES: You’ll find other Christians that do plow on Sunday if the truth be known.
HALE: Your Honor, I cannot think you may judge the man on such evidence.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. When Cheever attacks John Proctor for failing to observe the Bible teaching by working on the sabbath day, Proctor admits that he has "once or twice" plowed on Sunday because he had children to feed. Giles Corey and Reverend Hale come to John’s defense, suggesting that this doesn’t prove he isn’t a true Christian. This passage is an allusion to God’s teaching about the sabbath in the Book of Exodus: "Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work."

PARRIS: This is a clear attack upon the court!
HALE: Is every defense an attack upon the court? Can no one – ?
PARRIS: All innocent and Christian people are happy for the courts in Salem!

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 3. Puritan intolerance is on full view in the witch trials courtroom, where any defense or appeal to reason on behalf of the accused is labeled an "attack upon the court." Ninety-one people have signed a petition that the accused Rebecca Nurse, Elizabeth Proctor and Martha Corey are not witches. But Parris insists that all 91 should be hauled into court and questioned. When Hale speaks up as the voice of reason, Parris make the highly ironic comment that all innocent people are happy with the courts in Salem. The audience knows that the women charged with witchcraft are innocent and have been accused as the result of the wicked and personal motives of other people. Parris’s attempt to stop evidence for the defense being presented has echoes in the way Senator Joe McCarthy saw resistance to his crusade against left-wing individuals as being un-American.

HALE: There is a prodigious fear of this court in the country.
DANFORTH: Reproach me not with the fear in the country; there is fear in the country because there is a moving plot to topple Christ in the country!
HALE: But it does not follow that everyone accused is part of it.
DANFORTH: No uncorrupted man may fear this court, Mr. Hale! None! (To Giles): You are under arrest in contempt of this court.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 3. There are echoes of McCarthyism in this exchange between the top judge in the Salem witch trials court Danforth and Reverend John Hale. Hale speaks of the climate of fear create by a court that has imprisoned and hanged so many innocent people for the crime of witchcraft. But Danforth, with great irony, insists that no innocent person may fear the court. The truth is that many innocents have been condemned by his court of so-called justice. Just as Danforth fears a "plot to topple Christ in the country," Senator Joe McCarthy believed that communists wanted to topple democracy in the United States.

I am a minister of the Lord, and I dare not take a life without there be a proof so immaculate no slightest qualm of conscience may doubt it.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 3. Having signed seventy-two death warrants in the Salem witch trials, Reverend Hale makes this comment to Danforth. The irony is that the "proof so immaculate" relied on by the court to decide guilt is the unsubstantiated word of one person against another. Hale, in agonizing over the "qualm of conscience" he feels with each case, is expressing his first real moments of doubt about what is happening in Salem. This foreshadows how the witchcraft expert will soon be full of concerns about Salem justice, believing eventually that he has "blood on my head."
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