Hale's statements show that he has realized his mistake. He decides to “no longer close [his] conscience” (223) and leaves the court. Hale can no longer suppress his beliefs about the court and in effect, like Pontius Palter, absolves himself from the court. Subsequently, Hale is used to show the enormous amount of guilt that rests on his shoulders. Hale walks the prisons of Salem and, knowing that "there is blood on [his] head" (234), "advises Christians to believe in themselves" (234) even though in doing so he is also belying his reputation as reverend. He cares so much for the defendant that he believes it is a fair punishment for him to be considered a "murderer" (234), even if it further deteriorates his reputation. Finally, as a guilt-ridden self-proclaimed murderer, Hale "cries in frantic prayer" (240) for any mercy or redemption God may grant him as he watches Proctor being taken to be hanged. Hale realizes that his activism against the unjust has come too late in the hysteria to prevail and so he tries to