Courage isn't when you're not afraid, it's more about deciding that there are much better things here than fear. In the Crucible, the accused must decide whether to lie out of fear or be brave by telling the truth, which would result in hanging. Many characters have followed their own path following what they believe, that is, what the Bible says. When they stepped up and made their way in telling the truth, the community began to look down on the individuals and everything became frenetic. Reverend Parris has many enemies because he is very self-centered. He is always worried about what his reputation is. As the city's reverend, it is his job to encourage people to be religious and to be people of God. “I have struggled here for three long years to bend these stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now that it is rising to me good respect in the parish, you compromise my own character” (Miller 889). In this quote he is talking to Abigail Williams about how he finally gets the people in Salem to listen to him and how she is going to ruin him. He's so focused on his reputation that he doesn't really care if witchcraft is spreading in Salem. He just wants to have a better reputation than everyone else. Those who are accused don't really care about him. For example, his daughter was so called haunted and Parris didn't show much concern because that wasn't his main focus. Most people in Salem believed those who confessed to witchcraft, but there were a select few who did not. The individual known as Reverend Hale was one of the few. “Your Excellency, I have signed seventy-two death sentences; I am a minister of the Lord and I dare not take my own life without there being proof so immaculate that no pang of conscience can doubt it” (942). Reverend Hale was tired of sentencing people to death just because they wanted to safeguard their lives, not