Reverend John Hale
...ning Abigail is brought in and questioned. When asked about the dancing and if she called the Devil, Abby claims it was Tituba, Parris’s servant. After her accusation Hale begins to question Tituba profusely and threatens her life if she does not admit to compacting with the 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 work for him, sir. (42) This shows that Hale is the force behind the witch trials; he searches for confessions and encourages people to testify. As a result, Abby and the other girls who were dancing in the forest all claim to be afflicted. They begin accusing people of the community of being witches and wizards. The Salem witch trials have begun. In Act II of the play, Hale comes to visit John and Elizabeth Proctor. He has not yet changed from his past self. As he is speaking with Elizabeth and John he mentions that Rebecca Nurse may have compacted with the Devil. Elizabeth and John cannot believe it: HALE: 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. You will agree, sir? PROCTOR: I—have no knowledge in that line. But it’s hard to think so pious a woman be secretly a Devil’s bitch after seventy years of such good prayer. (62) In this quote, it is revealed that Hale does believe that the Devil is actually attacking Salem. As his visit progresses he asks John and Elizabeth “questions as to the Christian character” of the house(62). From his questions, he becomes more and more suspicions of the Proctors as perhaps compacting with the Devil. Hale’s change comes about when John Proctor and Mary Warren show up at the courts claiming the girls are frauds. Although the judges do not believe their confessions and accusations, Hale believes them. John’s confessions and proof sway Hale into believing they are telling the truth. After John confesses his affair with Abigail and Elizabeth is called in and does not mention that her husband committed adultery, Hale responds: HALE: Excellency, it is a natural lie to tell; I beg you, stop now before another is condemned! I may shut my conscience to it no more—private vengeance is working through this testimony! From the beginning this man has struck me true. By my oath to Heaven, I believe him now, and I pray you call back his wife before we— DANFORTH: She spoke nothing of lechery, and this man has lied! (109) This is where Hale makes his change into believing that the Devil is not present in Salem and the accusations are based on personal vengeance. He has realized his mistake. Even though Hale has come out against the accusations, he no longer has power over the trials. It is all in the hands of the court now. John Proctor is accused of witchcraft after trying to prove the girl’s fraud. He is sentenced to be hanged. The only way to save himself is to confess that he has compacted with the Devil. The morning John is to be hanged Hale talks to Elizabeth: HALE: Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my own. I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I brought,...