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.