Preview

Static Vs. Dynamic Characters Of The Crucible

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
513 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Static Vs. Dynamic Characters Of The Crucible
Static & dynamic characters of The Crucible Dynamic Character In The Crucible by Arthur Miller the character Reverend John Hale was a dynamic character. In the beginning of the Play Hale was a little cocky and thought that he was at a higher status than all the citizens in Salem. He looked at all of his fancy witchcraft books and used them for evidence more than the witness's testimonies.

He was stuck up and against anyone who doubted that the cause of the mysterious happenings in Salem was anything but witchery. It was, in part, his foolish pride that caused so many innocent people to be charged with witchcraft.

As the play went on, during the trials Reverend Hale began to figure out that the proceedings that were going on in the court were unfair. Hale realized that people in the town and the judges were developing a "hang them all" attitude and that none of them were paying any attention to the evidence that was mounting against the girls.

Hale was the first to speak out about the madness of the court that everyone else was missing. The man who in the beginning did only what he thought would make other people happy was coming out with something with something that the people of Salem were incapable of believing. He stopped trying to please the brainwashed citizens and decided to help the innocently convicted.

Static Character In the Play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Procter played the roll of a farmer and family man in the town of Salem. He was honest, hardworking and a fairly religious person. The only thing that came before church was farming to feed his family, and that was on very few occasions. As the town was getting heated about the witch trials Procter was still trying to renew the love that his wife once had for him. Before he committed adultery with Abigail Williams. John tried his best to win his wife's heart but it would end up taking more than that to make her love him again.

During the trials, John Proctor was one of a few people who

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In The Crucible, a drama by Arthur Miller set in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, Reverend John Hale evolves from a self-confident witchcraft expert to a broken man who attempts to save lives. When Reverend Hale first arrives in Salem, he walks into the Parris’ home with an air of intelligence and great knowledge. As he situates himself in the house, he says to Mr. Parris, “… they [the books] are weighted with authority”, indicating that the books will decide whether a person is a witch or not (1.712-13). In Act I, Hale is the main person that begins the witch trials, because of the fact that he is a witchcraft expert and he gets Tituba to confess. His self-confidence, and lies from Tituba, Abigail, and Betty, leads him to think that there are…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucible is a play about the Salem witch trials. Its main characters are richly developed and varied. They consist of a Reverend and his niece; a married couple with their share of problems, along with their servant; and a minister called to the town because of his experience in the field of witchcraft. Each of these characters mentioned have their own traits that they bring to the plot of the story. When examined closely they can each be classified as either static or dynamic by the way their characteristics develop throughout the tale.…

    • 1381 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He gathers that innocent people die because the townspeople are too afraid to look past the lies of juvenile women to discover the truth. The tragic downfall of Salem is obvious to Hale as he realizes that death prevails instead of justice. He clearly sees this dark cloud as ?There are orphans wandering from house to house; abandoned cattle bellow on the highroads, the stink of rotting crops hangs everywhere...? Hale finally admits to the horrors which had occurred in Salem. He knows that he signifies the spark that started the fatal flame throughout Salem, and he tries to redeem himself. As a ?minister of the light,? he 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!!" The realization of his guilt unfortunately comes too late in the play as many have already died. Although Hale begs John Proctor, the last of the accused, to save his own life by confessing to a false crime, Proctor cannot be saved as he would rather die than to admit to a sin he did not commit. Hale recognizes that as a servant of God, he should be saving people?s lives, not taking them…

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Dynamic Characters in The Crucible There are several dynamic characters in The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller. The definition of a crucible is a place or situation in which concentrated forces interact to cause or influence change or development. A dynamic character is one who undergoes significant changes in the course of the play because of things they have experienced. At the beginning the person acts or feels one way, and at the end acts or feels the total opposite way. In the play, John Proctor and Reverend John Hale are the two primary dynamic characters.…

    • 238 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hale changes-- although he does not lose faith in Puritanism, he does lose faith in the court and the ideals of the society in Salem. Hale arrives as an educated religious scholar who is brought to find the truth behind the witchery. He means well but ends up turning from the court and becomes incapable of stopping the executions. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Reverend Hale was able to use his intelligence to save himself from falling into adopting the perspective of justice of society. By being exposed to the residents of Salem, Hale gained the capability to see the truth, leading to desperate attempts to restore justice in a society full of insensible beliefs. Despite the victims’ innocence they will be seen guilty by society. At the end…

    • 948 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Arthur Millers The Crucible possesses many examples of interesting character development. A character who one initially finds to be worthy of mercy or pity can easily become the last person deserving of sympathy. This relationship is not only formed between the reader and the characters, but between the characters and the scenario of the story itself. The victim may become the accuser, or the scholar may become the humanitarian. This manner of characterization is best shown in the relationship between Reverend John Hale and Deputy Governor Danforth. Each is objectified to the events in Salem as they come into the situation with no attachments to any of the other characters and are unfamiliar with any of their mannerisms or personalities. Hale is a well-read minister who relies upon his books. Danforth is a reputable judge who relies on consistent input and prodding. Both of these men enter the trials with very similar goals. The places they stand at the finish, however, could not be more different. This is due to the personal relationships and opinions Hale develops concerning Salem. Reverend Hale is a dynamic character who learns his role as a minister while Judge Danforth is a constant force who voices others opinions through his authority.…

    • 1422 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Reverend John Hale of Beverly, is known well as a specialist of witchcraft, and a religious authority figure. When Hale comes to Elizabeth’s house to question them he says this, “I thought, sir, to put some questions as to the Christian character of this house, if you’ll permit me.”. Showing he has religious authority to interrogate them of their religion. This is also shown in act 4, when Hale leaves the court Danforth is devastated, because he was a big religious presence. Reverend Hale shows that he is a powerful religious figure when Herrick says this, “He goes among them that will hang, sir. And he prays with them.”. This proves that even after going to Andover and preaching to the rebellion. He has come back to save his old friends where it all started. Showing them that we can not interpret god’s word and pray for them. He also says this when asking Elizabeth to plead with Proctor, “Quail not before God’s judgement in this, for it may well be God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride.”. Reverend Hale is trying to save innocents lives as trying to interpret God’s word in a different way, proving he’s a powerful religious figure. Reverend Hale is powerful because he is a religious figure, this is shown by when he interrogates the Proctor’s of their religion. This is also shown by him coming back and praying for the ones to be hanged, and trying to interpret God’s word to save…

    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He doesn’t believe Abigail Williams and the other girls. He tries to tell Danforth that John Proctor is innocent but it is too late. Hale becomes so frustrated that he leaves the court. The court has obviously taken the shift towards the girls after Elizabeth Proctor lies about her husband’s affair with Abigail. Once the hangings start to take place and Abigail flees the court realises that they have made the wrong decision. It is too late for the court to go back on their decision, so Hale in a last effort tries to save the remaining. If the victims confess to witchery then they will be let free. Nobody confesses in order to preserve the last thing that they have, their…

    • 514 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hale Dynamic Character

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In the play The Crucible, Arthur Miller applied the word "crucible" as a severe test or trial. Indeed, the characters of the play all lived through an immense ordeal. The trials and the executions were traumatic, and many characters were affected by what had happened. Many Salem citizens were in favor of the courts at first; later, however, began to despise the court. One of these characters was Reverend Hale of Beverly. As Hale came into Salem, his goal was to preserve goodness. He knew that his work was admired and respected by the common people and he was proud of this. He was confident that he would do his duty in Salem. Yet the more time Hale spent there, the more he changed his opinion on the situation. As the story progressed, Hale’s attitude changed from confidence to concern to outrage, and finally, to guilt.…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hale can be seen as prideful when he shows up in Act I of The Crucible, saying that his books were heavy because they were “weighted with authority” (Miller 36). This statement may sound prideful, but when the gravity of the situation and Hale’s importance to the citizens of Salem is factored in, Hale’s comment merely reflected the feelings of the town and the importance he has in it. To the Salem residents and Hale himself, his books could be life or death for some of the people living there. By the end of the play, Hale has undergone major developments and his opinion on the whole situation changed from incriminating people to trying to free them by any means necessary. His guilt is shown through his behavior, and his fate in the story is just the guilt of having sent numerous people to their deaths. Hale’s fate, while tragic, was not any greater than deserved. For these reasons, Reverend Hale might not be considered a tragic hero by the formal Aristotelian definition.…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dynamic, Reverend John Hale needs only this one word to describe him. That is what separates Hale from any other character in the Crucible, while most characters are entirely static, with the exception of Elizabeth. That is why I consider him to be the best, and most flushed out character in the Crucible. In this report I will describe and analyze the character of John Hale and try show why his is the best character in the Crucible.…

    • 886 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A dynamic character is defined as someone who grows and changes. One of the few dynamic characters in the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is John Proctor. This play was written in the 1950s however it is based on the Salem Witch Trials which took place in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. Proctor has a significant role in the play as he knows the truth behind the girls accusations but his morals and love of God is tested when its time to speak up. Proctor goes through a spiritual awakening in an attempt to find his goodness.…

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Entering these trials, Reverend Hale feels as though he is an expert on witchcraft. He is specifically called upon by Reverend Parris to diagnose his daughter and determine whether witchcraft is the cause of her illness (Act I Pg. 33-35). Although ambivalent about the nature of the child’s illness, Hale has a slight feeling of doubt that witchcraft has occurred. He understands that the townspeople are trying to lead him with false pretenses and mass hysteria toward the conclusion that witchcraft has occurred. He begins to see a weakness in the townspeople of Salem and tries not to let hearsay accusations be the support for his verdict.…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Reverend Hale

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages

    For Reverend Hale the witch hunt in Salem is the scene of a moral journey as he eventually makes a complete turn around in thoughts and beliefs as he is forced to see certain realities. At the start of Reverend Hale's metamorphosis he is so sure of himself and of his belief, in witches, that he even inadvertently eases their lying. At this point when he meets Parris and the girls who have been ‘‘ bewitched'' he encourages them to talk about their being bewitched, and puts some words into their mouths, but he only does this because he really believes in witches, and believes the girls' stories. This back fires however, and helps the girls with their lies. Soon after the trials begin Hale begins to have doubts in the girls. Hale has been seeing respectable people being charged, and this has flickered a doubt in his mind. After a few days of court Hale visits several households without the courts authority, and goes to John Proctors house to have a few words with John and his wife . At the end of the talks Proctor states : ‘‘ And why not, if they must hang for denying it? There are them that will swear to anything before they'll hang ; have you never thought of that?'' (69).…

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At the beginning of the play, the story introduces the young, naive John Hale. Parris has called for him to check out his daughter and see if she has been inflicted by some sort of witchcraft. This being something he takes great pride in, he is glad that his talent is finally being recognized. Hale is responsible for fueling the already rampant witch hysteria taking place in Salem by urging for people to testify to their satanic ways so that they can right…

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays