I agree. It seems to me Hale would
want to believe this statement, even used to
believe it. Now, after his experience in Salem, he can no longer believe this is true.
He tried it and he failed. It's just that simple. He has become disillusioned enough
to beg fellow believers to lie in order to save their lives, knowing both that they do
not deserve to die and that lying is a certain condemnation to hell (according to their
faith).
Your speech, I think, should reflect the facts but
also convey this emotion of bitterness and hopelessness for this loss of faith. The
speech should be a tragic reworking of the earnest hope Hale once had that it was the
Devil who was at work in Salem:
"Have no fear now--we shall
find him out if he has come among us, and I mean to crush him utterly if he has shown
his face!" (Act I p. 39)
Sadly, he now knows it was the
work of humans who created this mess. That sadness, I think, is Hale's overwhelming
response to the events in Salem.
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