Question

Read the excerpt below and answer the question. Hale: Proctor, I cannot think God be provoked so grandly by such a petty cause. The jails are packed – our greatest judges sit in Salem now – and hangin’s promised. Man, we must look to cause proportionate. Were there murder done, perhaps, and never brought to light? Abomination? Some secret blasphemy that stinks to Heaven? Think on cause, man, and let you help me to discover it. Describe in your own words what is meant by the statement taken from Act II.

Answer 1

"The Crucible" is a play that was written by Arthur Miller and it was published in 1953. Although the play narrates a partly historical, partly fictionalized, version of the Salem Witch Trials which took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony between 1692 and 1693, it is also depicts, subtly, the events that happened during the McCarthy era, especially regarding the persecutions and constant scare of people towards Communism and the many violations that took place at this time because of that fear.

When we read this particular excerpt, we must understand that at this point, in Act II, the accusations of witchcraft from Abigail and the other Puritan girls have reached a peak and many people have been placed in jail, and are awaiting to be hanged, because of the witchcraft pandemonium. Hale, is a Puritan reverend who has been called by character Reverend Parris, to investigate the situation in the colony, as an expert demonologist. When Hale makes this statement to John Proctor, a farmer who had an affair with Abigail and who is aware that Abigail and the others are lying about the witchcraft issue, he is asking Proctor to understand the situation, the gravity of it, to see that nothing of what is happening would be if God himself had not intervened to make the matters of corruption and witchcraft inside the colony known to the proper authorities. As such, proceedings must continue because they are the correct thing to do and Proctor, as a good Christian, must put himself at the service of righteousness and help Hale continue in his efforts to get rid of the evil.