Compare And Contrast The Foils In The Crucible

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Reverend Hale and Abigail Williams are the respective foils of John and Elizabeth Proctor. PUT REST OF INTRODUCTION HERE John Proctor starts the story in a state of uncertainty and extreme self-doubt. As stated by Karen Bovard, “his consummated desire for Abigail costs him deeply both in his wife’s trust and in self-loathing,” (60). He had committed adultery, his marriage was failing, and his past sins haunted him interminably. Throughout the story, he develops a greater sense of self, as he scorns Abigail’s further advances in favor of faithfulness to both his wife and himself. He tells Abigail, upon being propositioned, “I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I’ll …show more content…
In the words of Paul Streufert, “Proctor chooses to follow his personal ethics, symbolized in his name, rather than the corrupt and misguided instruction of the state.” In the moments preceding his demise, he is at his most blissful, having reached his highest in sentience. On the other side, John Proctor’s foil is Reverend John Hale. He begins the story at his height of self-awareness, having been called to assess the town’s problems with witchcraft. Miller states, “Mr. Hale is...a tight-skinned, eager-eyed intellectual. This is a beloved errand for him; on being called here to ascertain witchcraft.” (155) Hale is called upon from Beverly, excited to flex all of his antecedent learning in order to bring peace to the town. He sees himself as what the town needs to get through its dilemma, …show more content…
While Proctor begins uncertain and disillusioned, he ends the story in a state of clarity, even in death. Hale changes in the opposite way, his sure faith crumbling into equivocative disquiet. Although, even as his faith is dimmed, he witnesses all of the people he’s signed away to death, Proctor among them, reciting the Lord’s Prayer in their final moments, and he sees the glimpses of real, true faith in