John Hale is the minister of Betty, which has been summoned to Salem to discover and extinguish supposed witchcraft in the town. Hale is a committed Christian and hater of witchcraft. His arrival sets the hysteria in motion, although he later regrets his actions and attempts to save lives of those accused. Though a gradual change it is, he drastically changes his views and ideas of what is Gods will and where his priorities lie.
The ends of Act One shows Hale searching for evidence of witchcraft, real or make believe. Most convenient for Hale the town has more than enough evidence for him to be excited about. Although he expresses, We can not look to superstition in this. The Devil is precise; the marks of his presence are as definite as stone, and I must tell you all that I shall not precede unless you are prepared to believe me if I should find no bruise of hell upon her (page 845), it is a mere empty promise, since before the ending of Act One he already mentally decides Salem is plagued with witchcraft.
Later on he encounters Tituba, after hearing that this Barbados slave had been practicing voodoo with the troubled girls. After Hale puts immense pressure on Tituba to proclaim herself a witch, he is able to manipulate her to claim that she had used witchcraft on the girls. Following her declaring herself a witch she accuses the names of four honest and innocent women, thus beginning the chain affect of accused witches. Abigails lies and false fits manipulating to Hale has begun the entire conflict with his aggressive technique to force Tituba to confess to association with the devil, which in truth has never occurred.
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