HALE, continuing to Elizabeth: Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my own. I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I brought, and what I touched with my bright confidence, it died; and where I turned the eye of my great faith, blood flowed up. Beware, Goody Proctor—cleave to no faith when faith brings blood. It is law that leads you to sacrifice. Life, woman, life is God’s most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it. I beg you, woman, prevail upon your husband to confess. Let him give his lie. Quail not before God’s judgment in this, for it may well be God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride. Will you plead with him? I cannot think he will listen to another.
ELIZABETH, quietly: I think that be the Devil’s argument.
I have to admire Elizabeth for this. She loves John, but she will not counsel him to do what is wrong, because she knows that it is wrong, John would know and he would not be able to live with himself if he did the wrong thing. Hale is desperate for Elizabeth to convince John to confess and get his life back because the guilt of condemning innocent lives is hanging over his head. At this point he wants to do anything to save someone, Elizabeth also wants her husbands life to be spared, but also wants him to do the right thing. Both of them are conflicted but they are dealing with the conflict differently. Hale wants to convince John to confess, while Elizabeth will not tell John what to do because she knows that it must be his choice and his choice only.
I agree that Elizabeth shows a strength that few others possess. She wants her husband alive, but she wants him to make the choice that will cause him to see his own goodness, even if that means that he will die.
ReplyDeleteThe part of this quote that sticks out to me most is when Hale says, "...cleave to no faith when faith brings blood." Hale realized that there was something very wrong with the fact that his "ministry" brought about the deaths of so many innocent people. He realized how the court and he himself were so blinded by their zeal and fervor that they wholly discounted human nature and plain evidence.
To me it seems that Miller has a deep distrust of faith. He focuses on man saving himself, and the hypocrisy and blindness of spiritual fervor. I realize that he is giving his take on the phenomenon that were the witch trials, but I also feel as though this is a commentary on religion.