A writer may use many ways of showing the audience what a character's personality is like. These may include the following: giving the character's own words, describing how the character looks, telling what people say or think about the character, and showing how people behave toward the character. Show how these items are used in the development of John Hale. The author of The Crucible, Arthur Miller, uses many methods to show what John Hale's personality is like. The way that Hale speaks gives insight into his personality. The physical description of Hale allows us to be able to know what he looks like. What the people of Salem say and think about Hale lets us know how he is toward other people. The behaviors of the people of Salem toward Hale allow us to see how he acts and reacts. Miller uses all of these methods to present this character to the reader. The way that Hale speaks gives insight into his personality. When Parris first sees Hale, he makes a comment that he is loaded down with several heavy books. Hale responds by saying, "They must be; they are weighted with authority." Hale is an expert on witchcraft, but all of his knowledge comes from books. Without his books, Hale would be an average person stating an opinion. Instead, the books are his power, his authority. He feels there is little or no questioning of the truthfulness of the written word.
             The physical description of Hale allows us to be able to know what he looks like. Miller describes Hale as "nearing forty, a tight-skinned, eager-eyed intellectual." Hale seems to always have his books with him, and he spends so much time with his intellectual thinking and reading these books that he is out of touch with the townspeople. When he says "Have no fear now – we shall find him out if he has come among us, and I mean to crush him utterly if has shown his face!" his personality comes across as being very arrogant. He thinks he cannot fail, but in the end, he ...