house, he could pray again. Giles seemed to be curious only; he certainly didn't mean to get his wife accused of witchcraft. However, he now realizes his mistake, "openly weeping," and says, "I have broke charity with the woman, I have broke charity with her."

When Reverend Hale appears in town, Giles Corey mentions that his wife has been reading strange books, and he finds it troubling. Reverend Hale assures Giles that he (Hale) will look into it. Reading strange books was frowned upon in Puritan society. Unfortunately, this information gets out and it is this piece of information which causes Martha Corey (Giles' wife) to be accused and eventually convicted of witchcraft. Martha is eventually hanged because of it. Giles then refuses to give more information to the "witch hunters" and is pressed to death because of it.

In act 1, scene 3, Giles Corey asks Reverend John Hale, "What signifies the readin' of strange books?" Corey goes on to explain that he often finds his wife, Martha, reading strange books, and while she is reading these books, he is unable to pray. Corey explains,

I tried and tried and could not say my prayers. And then she close her book and walks out of the house, and suddenly—mark this—I could pray again!

Giles Corey tells Hale that he is not trying to suggest that his wife "touched the Devil"; he says he just wants to know what she is reading and why she hides it from him.

Later in the play, Martha Corey is arrested and accused of being a witch. Once Martha is arrested, Giles regrets having talked about her reading habits and gets kicked out of the courtroom while trying to argue for her innocence. Eventually, Giles is also accused of witchcraft, and upon refusing to confess to it, he is pressed to death.

Arthur Miller gives us some insight into the octogenarian Giles Corey in his author's notes in act one of The Crucible. Giles is a rather comical and stubborn man, but he is also good-hearted and well meaning. He married his wife, Martha, later in life, and he also came to faith later in life. Unlike the Christian concept of prayer which is based on rather informal conversation with God, the Puritans learned their prayers and then had to recite them.

When Giles asks a question, it is because he wants to know the answer. He and Proctor seem quite different, but they think alike about many things. Before the Reverend Hale arrives, John is ready to leave Parris's house and asks Giles to come along. Giles says he wants to stay because he has "some few queer questions of my own to ask this fellow." Reverend Hale is well known for understanding witchcraft and being able to discern the mark of Satan when it is there. Giles respect this man of learning and wants to take advantage of this opportunity to talk to him.

When Giles finally gets the chance to ask his questions, this is what he asks:

Giles: Mr. Hale, I have always wanted to ask a learned man--what signifies the readin’ of strange books?

Hale: What books?

Giles: I cannot tell; she hides them.

Hale: Who does this?

Giles: Martha, my wife. I have waked at night many a time and found her in a corner, readin’ of a book. Now what do you make of that? 

Hale: Why, that’s not necessarily--

Giles: It discomfits me! Last night--mark this--I tried and tried and could not say my prayers. And then she close her book and walks out of the house, and suddenly--mark this--I could pray again!

Hale: Ah! The stoppage of prayer--that is strange. I’ll speak further on that with you.

Giles: I’m not sayin’ she’s touched the Devil, now, but I’d admire to know what books she reads and why she hides them. She’ll not answer me, y’ see.

Giles is genuinely interested in the answers to his questions and in no way is implying anything about Martha and witchcraft. It is just something odd that he wonders about, and Hale is the one he asks. 

What is probably true is that Giles is somewhat intimidated by his younger wife, someone who not only knows her prayers well but also reads regularly. Perhaps she hides her book so her husband will not feel bad because he cannot read. As a new convert, it is natural for him to stumble through his prayers at times--or even be too flustered by Martha's presence to speak at all. These questions are innocent and intended to be nothing more than genuine interest; however, in this environment of suspicion and accusation these questions could be seen as more than that. 

In act 2, scene 3 of The Crucible, Giles Corey comes to the Proctors’ home, where Reverend Hale has been talking with them. He tells Hale and the others that his wife, Martha, has been removed from their home. She is accused of witchcraft. Francis Nurse also arrives, stating that his wife, Rebecca, was also taken. The two men have just come from the jail, where they were not allowed to see their wives.

Hale inquires about the charges against the women. The men tell him that Rebecca Nurse was accused of killing babies, while Martha Corey is charged with killing pigs. Corey explains that he has shared the information that Martha reads books, but he insists that he never associated her habits with witchcraft. Corey is upset with Hale’s apparent unquestioning acceptance of the devil’s presence in their community.

Corey attributes the false accusation to a grudge that Mr. Walcott holds against Martha. He explains that their disagreement goes back four or five years, when Walcott accused Martha of selling him a sick pig. To Walcott, his subsequent difficulties with raising healthy pigs were Martha’s fault. Calling Walcott a “bloody mongrel,” Corey states that Walcott has gone to court with his accusations, claiming that his pigs all die because Martha used her books to bewitch them.

In act 1, Reverend Hale arrives in Salem and is considered an expert in anything involving supernatural forces, demons, spirits, and witchcraft. At Reverend Parris's home, Hale shows off his impressive collection of books regarding the "invisible world" and Giles Corey innocently brings up the fact that his wife, Martha, seems to be reading strange books. Giles Corey goes on to say that he has found his wife several times reading mysterious books at night and cannot identify the books because she hides them once he enters the room. Giles Corey also admits that he feels uncomfortable when he sees his wife reading and has difficulty praying while she reads. He goes on to mention that he does not think that she has "touched the Devil," but he is suspicious about the books that she has been reading. Unfortunately, Giles's minor concerns are exacerbated when Martha is arrested and accused of witchcraft. Following Martha's arrest, Giles Corey feels extremely guilty for even mentioning the fact that she read unfamiliar books and wishes he never said anything about it.

When Reverend Hale arrives in Salem to investigate rumours of witchcraft, Giles Corey, probably thinking that he was doing good, asks the reverend to explain Mrs Corey's fascination with strange books. When the reverend tries to tell him that there is no significance in that, he presses the reverend and states that whenever Martha (his wife) reads these tomes, he cannot pray, but that as soon as she stops and walks out, his ability to pray suddenly returns. He states that this oddity 'discomfits' him.

This statement about the stoppage of prayer piques Reverend Hale's interest and he tells Giles that he will later speak to him about it. Giles then declares that he does not believe that his wife is touched by the devil but that he would like to know what she is reading and why she hides her books since she won't tell him. It is clear that Reverend Hale is not much interested in what he has to say at this point because he has more important matters to attend to. He once again promises Giles that they will speak about it later.

In Act lll, it so happens that, unfortunately for Giles, Martha is later arrested on a charge of witchcraft, an accusation brought against her by a man called Walcott. Giles comes to the Proctor's house where he meets Reverend Hale and he then cries out that he had never said that his wife was a witch, only that she had read books.

It is obvious that Reverend Hale did not have a hand in Martha's arrest for he asks Giles exactly what the complaint was against his wife. Giles proceeds to explain that Walcott had charged Martha because the pig he had bought from her died and he wanted his money back. She refused and told him “Walcott, if you haven’t the wit to feed a pig properly, you’ll not live to own many.” He testified to the court that Martha had cursed him with her books because none of the pigs he had bought since that day could stay alive for more than four weeks.

Giles is distraught because he believes that his earlier question to Reverend Hale is part of the reason that she has been incarcerated. He then decides, with John Proctor, whose wife has also been arrested, to go to court and plead her innocence. When Giles has an opportunity to address deputy governor Danforth, who is in charge of proceedings, he breaks down and reasserts the fact that he did not call his wife a witch. He only wanted to know why she was so interested in books because none of his previous two wives were so into reading. He is overwhelmed and starts weeping, stating that he has betrayed his wife.

The unfortunate Giles' efforts to save his wife amounts to nothing because he is later arrested for contempt of court for refusing to provide the name of a witness in an accusation against Mr Putnam. He shouts that he had already given up his wife's name and will not allow an innocent to be arrested again because of him. The charge later becomes one of witchcraft and Giles is later pressed to death when he refuses to confess.

During this time, it was considered a little dangerous to allow women to read, especially books that were not religious in nature.  Giles Corey is somewhat concerned, first, because his wife reads so much, sometimes in the middle of the night while he sleeps, and then she hides her books and will not answer when he asks what they are. The mystery surrounding what she reads concerns him a bit, and it is unclear why she would keep her reading material secret. 

Further, Giles says, last night he tried to say his prayers and he could not, but then his wife "close[d] her book and walk[ed] out of the house, and suddenly [...] [he] could pray again!" The Puritans certainly linked an inability to pray with the presence of terrible sinfulness. They believed that a witch could not recite The Lord's Prayer ("Our Father, who art in heaven...") perfectly without making a mistake. Therefore it seems plausible that a minister would be concerned to hear that a man could not pray while his wife was present and could pray again once she left. This is why Giles is concerned. 

Giles Corey and Francis Nurse have come to announce that both their wives have been taken. This is a critical moment for both Proctor and Hale. For Proctor, he sees that the conflict he has tried to avoid is approaching ever closer. His isolationist stance will not work. He will have to face Abigail. For Hale, this is his first searing moment of doubt. He has been able to accept the guilt of the others, including Elizabeth, because he does not feel a connection with them. Rebecca Nurse, however, being educated and more, he believes, on his intellectual level, should have been above reproach and suspicion. He can not understand how she could have been accused, and for the first time seriously doubts the validity of the accusations in general.