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The Crucible by Arthur Miller - Barron's Booknotes
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• REVEREND JOHN HALE
Arthur Miller describes Reverend Hale as "nearing forty,
a tight-skinned, eager-eyed intellectual." An intellectual
is usually thought of as someone with his head in the
clouds, who spends so much time thinking great
thoughts that he's inept in the real world of human
emotions. There is some truth in this image of John
Hale. He knows a lot about witchcraft; but he knows
almost nothing about the people of Salem or the
"contention" that is wracking the town. How pompous
and arrogant he must sound when he says, "Have no fear
now-we shall find [the Devil] out if he has come among
us, and I mean to crush him utterly if he has shown his
face!"
And yet he has every reason to be confident. To Hale,
demonology is an exact science, for he has spent his
whole life in the study of it. But he is not just a
bookworm, he is a minister of God. "His goal is light,
goodness and its preservation," and he is excited by
being "called upon to face what may be a bloody fight
with the Fiend himself." All his years of preparation may
now finally be put to the test.
He fails, and the evil that follows his first appearance
totally overwhelms him. Why? Is the fault in his
character? Is he not as smart as he thinks he is? Is he a
fool, whose meddling lit the fuse to the bomb that blew
up the town? Some say yes, and much of the play
supports this answer. What looks like success at the end
of Act I soon carries Hale out of his depth, and every
time he appears after that he is less sure of himself. At
the end of the play he has been completely crushed: he, a
minister of the light, has "come to do the Devil's work. I
come to counsel Christians they should belie themselves.
There is blood on my head! Can you not see the blood
on my head!!"
It's hard to imagine going through a more horrifying
experience than the disillusionment of the Reverend Mr.
Hale. All those years of dedicated, loving study made
worthless by a band of hysterical and not-at-all innocent
girls. Made worse than worthless-his learning ends up
sending nineteen people to the gallows. And worst of all,
he is helpless to stop it, having started it in the first
place.
Is there evil in this man? Perhaps. According to
Christian doctrine, one of the seven deadly (or
damnable) sins is pride. In a way it's the worst one,
because it was pride that made the devil rebel against
God. And Reverend Hale, when he first appears, feels
"the pride of the specialist whose unique knowledge has
at last been publicly called for."
He certainly gets his comeuppance.
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