The Crucible?

Question

If anyone has read The Crucible by Arthur Miller, I need some help. I need some characteristics for Reverend John Hale. I have to write about how he is a dynamic character. Right now all I have is he is gulible and determined. and mayby I could use confused?

I have read spark notes and cliff notes, but I think I need personal opinions.

This is my first paragraph:
Reverend Hale is the most dynamic character in the Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible. He has many different characteristics. He is religious, but he also has faith is the people who are accused. He is intelligent but also credulous. Hale is very determined once he sets his mind to something. In the play Hale questions both his personal beliefs and his belief in the law system.

Answer 1

Well, you have a great summary to go off of, but do you have to explain how these characteristics make him dynamic? Remember, dynamic is a character that changes, while static does not.

Now, as a teacher that teaches this particular play almost three times a year, consider this; how does Hale's opinion of witchcraft change? Does he still think the girls are affected by witchcraft? Or does he begin to doubt it's presence?

Also, remember, character is not just physical. It's emotional, mental, other's thoughts/opinions about them, and their motivations behind what they do. Think about that.

I know this may not help you, but keep this in mind as you begin to classify him.

Answer 2

Reverend Hale
John Hale, the intellectual, naïve witch-hunter, enters the play in Act I when Parris summons him to examine his daughter, Betty. In an extended commentary on Hale in Act I, 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 been publicly called for.” Hale enters in a flurry of activity, carrying large books and projecting an air of great knowledge. In the early going, he is the force behind the witch trials, probing for confessions and encouraging people to testify. Over the course of the play, however, he experiences a transformation, one more remarkable than that of any other character. Listening to John Proctor and Mary Warren, he becomes 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 tide renders the once-confident Hale a broken man. As his belief in witchcraft falters, so does his faith in the law. In Act IV, it is he who counsels the accused witches to lie, to confess their supposed sins in order to save their own lives. In his change of heart and subsequent despair, Hale gains the audience’s sympathy but not its respect, since he lacks the moral fiber of Rebecca Nurse or, as it turns out, John Proctor. Although Hale recognizes the evil of the witch trials, his response is not defiance but surrender. He insists that survival is the highest good, even if it means accommodating oneself to injustice—something that the truly heroic characters can never accept.

Answer 3

he kind of believes that god will get anyone and everyone through crisis if they have faith, hes kindof a christian junkie