HALE - GUILT
I cannot believe it has already been over five years since the witch trials at Salem, the memories of which are still fresh in my mind despite not being involved with witch-hunting or the court since. I had been labeled a traitor to the court since the hearings and subsequently never worked as a witch-hunter since. As I looked through the holy books, with which I had once been so accustomed, my recollections of Salem to came flooding back.
I had been so close-minded towards those heavy books and the beliefs surrounding witchcraft, I know now I am as much to blame for these happenings as Abigail and the additional girls. I feel so much guilt for what I had been involved in and how I had been so blind to it and too caught up in my role. I can never forgive myself for the part I played in this catastrophe.
Persecution of witches
Examination of a Witch by T. H. Matteson, inspired...
Burning at the stake. An illustration from an mid ...I had been so blind when I first arrived at Salem, It was my job, to rid the town of the Devil and I thought my methods for rooting out such evil were real and absolute and the people of the town treated me with such high regard, I must admit that I began to view myself with the same reverence. I was overconfident and unaware of what I was doing in the process. I devoted myself to my faith and my all-important job. As good man Proctor had said, we brought down heaven and rose up a whore. I know now that those books are much further from the truth than I must have thought five long years ago. I once believed I should not question those books, by doing that I also questioned the church and my religion. Now, I must...