e flesh with someone other than your spouse, this was adultery. And adultery, like witchcraft, was a capital offense. Elizabeth Proctor must love her husband very much to keep his secret. Later we will see how much Proctor loves Elizabeth--he is willing to confess to adultery in order to save her.^^^^^^^^^^THE CRUCIBLE: ACT II, SCENE 4Reverend Hale comes in on a curious errand: "to put some questions as to the Christian character of this house, if you'll permit me." How changed he is from when we saw him last! Then he was bold and confident; now he seems tentative, almost shy. He is obviously troubled by the developments of the last few days. He, too, like Mary Warren, is an official of the court. But she is merely a witness. He is a judge. His signature is on Goody Osburn's death warrant. But he's a stranger to these people, and things are beginning to move too fast for him.Keep your eye on Hale. In a way he's our stand-in or proxy--we, too, are strangers in this town. His reactions will be much the same as ours would be if we were in his shoes.Hale loves the truth more than anything in the world. This love made him a scholar in the first place. It has also sharpened his sense of what's not true. And he's begun to feel uneasy about what's happening in Salem. It's just a feeling, and a vague one at that, but before he signs another death warrant he wants to know whom he's sending to the gallows.We already know Proctor doesn't think much of Salem's minister, Samuel Parris. But church attendance is compulsory by law, and if Proctor's youngest son dies unbaptized, he will go straight to hell. Hale has a right to be worried about this "softness" in John Proctor's record.Worse yet, Proctor cannot recite the Ten Commandments. Remember Mary Warren telling us that Sarah Good couldn't do it either. And Sarah Good's been "proved" a witch, first by sending her spirit out in open court, later by confession. Proctor does a little better--he gets all...
