HALE: Goody Proctor, I have gone this three month like our Lord into the wilderness. I have sought a Christian way, for damnation’s doubled on a minister who counsels men to lie.
HATHORNE: It is no lie, you cannot speak of lies.
HALE: It is a lie! They are innocent!
DANFORTH: I’ll hear no more of that!
– Arthur Miller
The Crucible, Act 4. Reverend Hale has undergone a spiritual metamorphosis after spending some time away from the frenzied atmosphere of Salem’s witch hunts. The allusion to Christ’s 40 days and nights in the desert is used by Miller to portray Hale’s period of reflection away from the madness of Salem. Hale tells Elizabeth that he is counseling the accused witches to lie and confess to witchcraft, which is ironic for a clergyman. He wants her to persuade husband John to do just that to escape hanging. Hale is telling the court that he now believes the witchcraft accusations are a complete fraud. Judges Hathorne and Danforth refuse to accept that.