-
Essay / An analysis of the characters of Abigail Williams and Reverend Hale in The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller
In the minds of the charactersIn The Crucible by Arthur Miller, we discover two completely different characters. The first character we meet is Abigail Williams, an orphaned child who has caused trouble in their small town. Because Abigail is a delinquent, Reverend Hale, the second character, is called to town to make amends and rid them of the "devil". Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In The Crucible, Abigail Williams is a one-dimensional character, one who remains the same throughout the plot. Throughout the play, you begin to see Abigail's mental illnesses take shape. Although Miller doesn't state that she suffers from mental illness, you use context clues to slowly piece together her life. Miller led us to believe that Abigail suffers from schizophrenia, “a mental disorder that makes it difficult to: know the difference between what is real and what is not; think clearly; have normal emotional reactions; act normally in social situations” (National Library of Medicine). Many scenes, including those where she shows no remorse when she accuses innocent people and they are sentenced to death, indicate that she suffers from schizophrenia. Abigail also appears to suffer from psychosis, "a loss of contact with reality that usually includes: false beliefs about what is happening or who one is (delusions), seeing or hearing things that are not there (hallucinations)" (National Library of Medicine). We see this in almost every moment of the play. At first you think she's really seeing these things and that the devil is real, but then John Proctor helps us realize she's pretending. Either she's a really good actress or she was really suffering from psychosis. Reverend Hale, a kind-hearted man, begins to understand all this nonsense. He first claims it's witchcraft and all the girls started saying they saw other townspeople with the devil. Hale felt glorious. he opened the eyes of this young girl to the Lord! They admitted to having done wrong and were therefore spared by abandoning who was accompanied by the devil. Hale thought he was doing well. To do God's work here on earth for Him. Rid the world of witches. As the play progresses, Hale begins to see things as they really are. In Act II, he goes to the Proctors and warns them that John Proctor's wife has been raised in court by none other than Abigail Williams. After Proctor told Hale that Abigail admitted to him that they were just playing sports and weren't really summoning spirits, Hale quickly realized the truth. Anyone who claimed to see the devil or spirits was lying. As he pieced together the puzzle, he saw that everyone who accused someone of witchcraft was actually going to gain something when that person was hanged. No one could get off this trail without losing something. If you denied being a witch you were hanged, if you confessed you were punished, but remained alive. Hale noticed this, but didn't know how to fix it. He couldn't tell the court about it because he had no proof and they would think he was doing the devil's work by sheltering all the accused. His hands were tied. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a personalized essay. Reverend Hale grew throughout the play. He learned. Hale was blinded the entire time.