Arthur Miller's view towards the Devil and evil spirits

In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller presents Reverend John Hale as a man who regards himself as an expert in demonology. He is not a narrow-minded fanatic, lacking compassion, and he does say that he is prepared to accept the fact that there may not be witchcraft in Salem. However, Miller does suggest that Hale is restricted in his thinking by his extreme polarization of virtue and vice. For Hale, at this point in the play, humanity is sharply divided: there are beliefs and actions that are morally right and those that are seen as diabolically evil. Hale does change as the play progresses, but, at this stage of the play, his vision is obscured, because it does not allow for human complexity: a mixture of good and evil in all of us. Miller argues that, although the traditional trappings of good and evil (the Devil with his cloven hoofs; a grey-bearded God) may have changed, we still divide the world too rigidly into what is sinful and what is virtuous. Miller writes, 'the world is still gripped between two diametrically opposed absolute.' (p.37). We do not look sufficiently at psychological complexity. Hale is criticized for his Manichean vision of the world that strictly divides into good and evil.

However, Miller still believes that people were, in fact, worshipping the Devil in Salem, and if one was to investigate further, this behavior may have been a regular occurrence. As Miller writes, 'sex, sin and the Devil were early linked.....in Salem,' our polarities are therefore always 'robed in sexual sin' and the fact that our perception of evil is always associated with sex, is what makes the devil both terrifying and alluring.