What are the internal and external conflicts of Reverend Hale in The Crucible?

Reverend Hale’s external conflicts change throughout the play.
Initially, he is in conflict with the “accused” and the families of the accused, such as when he
has a discussion about the validity of the justice system with Proctor, Corey, and Nurse when
their wives are arrested in Act Two. In Act Three, the external conflict shifts between Hale and
authority figures in the court, mainly Danforth, even though Cheever and Herrick are also on the
opposing side. The conflict in Act Four shifts back to a conflict with the “accused(Hale argues
that they should confess, but they refuse),” but this time, the conflict is different in that he
is trying to help them, instead of condemn them, as he was earlier when he attested to the
validity of the statements made against those accused.

Hale’s internal conflict is seen and implied. We are
told; upon his arrival, that he supposedly found a witch in his hometown, Beverly, and then later
discovered that the girl was not at all a witch. The implication in that foreshadowed bit of
information is that even at the commencement of his arrival, Hale was already struggling with
himself in a fight to be sure that he made no misjudgments. His internal struggle to be exact in
his investigation, in some ways, possibly blinds him to the reality that he is in fact being
fooled. He struggles with himself in Act Two because he learns information that makes him second
guess his previous judgments. In Act Three, Hale vocalized his internal conflict when he exclaims
that he has signed away the soul of Rebecca Nurse when he tries to reiterate the importance of
the testaments of Proctor and Mary Warren, Corey, and Nurse. Hale’s internal struggle continues
into Act Four, where he returns to Salem to beg the condemned to lie about their guilt in order
to save their lives. He tries to convince them that they deserve to live, even if they have to
lie to gain their lives, but the implication is that Hale cannot bear to live with the knowledge
that he could have, at the beginning, prevented this, had he not been so blinded. His internal
struggle is evident even at the end of Act Four as he begs Elizabeth Proctor to go to her husband
and beg him to save himself. Sadly enough, it seems as though Hale is left to bear the burden of
those wrongfully convicted, condemned, and hanged; the last internal conflict we are left with
implies that Hale with most likely struggle with himself for the rest of his life about the loss
of those innocent lives. Hale’s intentions were pure, but his vision was unfortunately very
clouded.