Even though Abigail pretends she’s angry at Elizabeth Proctor for damaging her reputation, the more powerful emotion is envy of Elizabeth for her marriage to John Proctor. Here she stoops to childish name-calling in order to cast doubt in John Proctor’s mind. This shows that Abigail believes that Elizabeth Proctor destroyed her reputation.
Third, Reverend Hale, who is the naïve witch-hunting reverend, entered the play in Act I when Parris summons him to examine his daughter, Betty. In a commentary about Hale in Act I, Arthur Miller describes him as “a tight-skinned, eager-eyed intellectual. This is a beloved errand for him; on being called here to ascertain witchcraft he has felt the pride of the specialist whose unique knowledge has at last …show more content…
In the beginning, he is the force behind the Salem Witch Trials, probing for confessions and encouraging them to testify. Over the course of the play, he experiences a transformation, one more remarkable than that of any other character. While listening to John Proctor and Mary Warren, he becomes more and more convinced that they, not Abigail, are telling the truth. In the climactic scene in the court in Act III, he throws his lot in with those opposing the witch trials. In tragic fashion, his about-face comes too late—the trials are no longer in his hands but rather in those of Danforth and the theocracy, which has no interest in seeing its proceedings exposed as a sham. The failure of his attempts to turn the course of the tides soon renders the once-confident Hale to become a very broken man. As his belief in witchcraft falters, so does his faith in the law. In Act IV, it is him who counsels the accused witches to lie and to confess their supposed sins in order to save their own lives. In this change of heart and subsequent despair, Hale gains the sympathy of the audience but not their …show more content…
John Proctor seems to have become more of an arrogant version of his previous self. He has become an inconsiderate man who does not care about anyone but himself. Abigail Williams has become one that caused the saying “give them an inch and they take a mile” to come to life because she began to be viewed as a higher ranking citizen and she took this as a way to become even more powerful. She convicts those who talked down about her, of devil worshipping and
Third, Reverend Hale, who is the naïve witch-hunting reverend, entered the play in Act I when Parris summons him to examine his daughter, Betty. In a commentary about Hale in Act I, Arthur Miller describes him as “a tight-skinned, eager-eyed intellectual. This is a beloved errand for him; on being called here to ascertain witchcraft he has felt the pride of the specialist whose unique knowledge has at last …show more content…
In the beginning, he is the force behind the Salem Witch Trials, probing for confessions and encouraging them to testify. Over the course of the play, he experiences a transformation, one more remarkable than that of any other character. While listening to John Proctor and Mary Warren, he becomes more and more convinced that they, not Abigail, are telling the truth. In the climactic scene in the court in Act III, he throws his lot in with those opposing the witch trials. In tragic fashion, his about-face comes too late—the trials are no longer in his hands but rather in those of Danforth and the theocracy, which has no interest in seeing its proceedings exposed as a sham. The failure of his attempts to turn the course of the tides soon renders the once-confident Hale to become a very broken man. As his belief in witchcraft falters, so does his faith in the law. In Act IV, it is him who counsels the accused witches to lie and to confess their supposed sins in order to save their own lives. In this change of heart and subsequent despair, Hale gains the sympathy of the audience but not their …show more content…
John Proctor seems to have become more of an arrogant version of his previous self. He has become an inconsiderate man who does not care about anyone but himself. Abigail Williams has become one that caused the saying “give them an inch and they take a mile” to come to life because she began to be viewed as a higher ranking citizen and she took this as a way to become even more powerful. She convicts those who talked down about her, of devil worshipping and