Cruible Epilogue

Evelyn Wheeler

Mr. Provenzano 1st Hour

October 14, 2011

The Crucible Epilogue

            Reverend Hale once had a great reputation. He was a middle-aged man from Beverly who had a specialty in confronting witchcraft. Everyone was enthralled by his belief in the devil and wanted him to find who was a devil in their town. But Abigail Williams ruined everything for him. She had everyone in the town under her spell. All she had to do was convince them that she was possessed by a witch and they went against anything Hale said. With this loss of power, Hale could no longer pursue this career in Salem.

            Hale decided to leave the town of Salem. He went back to his hometown, Beverly. He was greeted by his wife and three young children. He did not want to tell them of his failure in fear that they might be disappointed. But once he told them about it, they encouraged him to pursue his career in finding witchcraft by returning to Salem and proving Abigail wrong. After thinking about this opportunity, he decided that he would go. Hale left for Salem by himself and found that Abigail had run away with Mary Warren and never returned. Hale ran into his former friend Reverend Parris. Parris explained that he was about to leave for an expedition and asked if Hale would assist him in his expedition around the colonies. On this expedition, they would speak about witches to every house they came across. Hale agreed to this plan, hoping this opportunity would allow him to redeem himself and make up for his failure.

They packed all the items they owned and began their journey on foot. They hiked North of Massachusetts and stopped in New Hampshire. There was no success in New Hampshire; everyone rejected them and believed that their theories were foolish. They went to the other states around the area: Vermont, Maine, New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. But they received the same reaction as they did from those in New Hampshire. It seemed as if no one wanted to learn about witches.

            When they went to the southern states, it was different. People began to listen to their words. After a while, colonists were calling for them rather than them calling for colonists. They became two of the most influential speakers in America. People from all around the colonies would gather regularly to listen to Hale and Parris speak about witches and how to tell if one possesses a family member or friend. They were respected and paid large amounts of money for their actions. Hale and Parris decided to use this money to extend their expedition across the ocean. They first purchased a ship and crew to take them across the Atlantic Ocean. When they left America on a sunny summer day, everything seemed like it was going to go perfectly. People could not wait for them to come back and share all of their experiences. The voyage was to take several months and set to land in London, England. Unfortunately, the men encountered something along the journey that they did not expect.

            It was the twentieth day of the journey, a rainy and windy day. So far, the trip had been very successful. The weather had been nice and there had been no disturbances. Hale and Parris had just woken up from a nap during midday when they heard men yelling frantically up above their quarters. They arose to find that the wind speed had picked up and the rain was now coming down much harder than before. The sky seemed a gray color that they hadn’t seen before. The crew was frantically running around the deck trying to protect each other. Hale and Parris were not very experienced when it came to navigating in a boat, so they thought it would be alright to just wait on the deck until the storm passed. They viewed the storm as a minor obstacle in their journey. But after many minutes passed, the storm had not stopped. In fact, the storm was beginning to worsen. Without warning, one of the men was thrown into the sea by the powerful wind. The other men anxiously tried to pull him back into the ship, but they had no luck. The man was carried away by the massive waves like a hopeless buoy. Hale and Parris then realized that the storm was capable of much destruction. At that moment, they began to summon the other men to their quarters, hoping to save lives.

            During all the commotion, Parris lost sight of Hale. He was so busy helping the others escape from the storm that he didn’t notice Hale as he slipped over the side of the deck and into the ocean. Parris looked around for him and finally noticed Hale flailing around in the deep blue water. He sprinted to him and spread his arm out as far as possible. Hale struggled to reach his arm but eventually did. Just as Parris was using all his strength to pull him in, a large wind came. It was so overpowering that Parris lost his grip of Hale, and he lost his life to the sea.