Fear/Mass Hysteria

Hysteria is often devalued as a temper-tantrum but the medical term refers to a serious functional disturbance of the entire nervous system, often activated by severe stress or conflicting impulses. Mary Warren describes the classic onset of symptoms that mark her first hysterical episode in court: ‘a misty coldness’ (Act 2), crawling flesh, a choking sensation, dissociation, ‘a screaming voice’ (Act 2) and then the realisation that the voice was her own. Unlike Mary, who can’t even pretend to faint on order, Abigail calculates the most effective moment to stage her hysterical visions of persecution. She manages to hold power over the community and as Elizabeth observes ‘where she [Abigail] walks the crowd will part for her like the sea for Israel’ (Act 2) – the sudden power that the girls have gained from their antics are surely motivation enough for them to continue the ordeal for as long as the township believe them. Mary Warren confirms the notion that the girls are enjoying their newfound power when she speaks of the ‘weighty work’ (Act 2) that the girls do in court as they claim to be hunting the ‘Devil [that is] loose in Salem’ (Act 2). Her impression that ‘four judges and the King’s deputy sat to dinner with us [the girls] but an hour ago’ (Act 2) instills that she feels she has the right to be spoken to civilly from now on by the Proctors, her employers.

Strategically, Abby and the other girls use this power to their advantage, ‘scream[ing] and fall[ing] to the floor’ (Act 2) when the accused are brought before them. In the same way, Abby and the others point with fear into the rafters of the courthouse during the final court scene, screaming with fright in the belief that Mary Warren has conjured herself as a small yellow bird that Abby wails ‘want[s] to tear my [her] face’ (Act 3). Naturally, the use of spectral evidence within the courtroom (evidence that the accused spirit or spectre appeared to the victim and hurt or threatened them, despite the actual accused person being elsewhere and accounted for) condemns Mary Warren in this instance and others are likewise accused by the same means. It is madness that George Jacobs is condemned for attacking the young Ruth Putnam and Martha Corey is questioned why she ‘hurt these children’ (Act 3) without even being in the same room when the victims were afflicted, and in real life the use of spectral evidence was dismissed when officials cited the ridiculous nature of the Salem trials as evidence of the absurdity.

The intense hysteria that plagues the people of Salem gives way to reason and any reliable cross-examination that consistently casts doubt on the accusers is dismissed in favour of rooting out the devil and cleansing the village. The deposition signed by many that the women (Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse and Elizabeth Proctor) are women of good character is not only unheeded by Danforth but he issues warrants for each of the signatures, dismissing the argument that ‘so many of the women have lived with such upright reputations’ (Act 3) in favour of accumulating more suspects. Likewise, when Proctor casts his good name aside and admits to adultery with Abigail, Elizabeth lies to protect his reputation and instead of seeing the logic in this ‘natural lie’ (Act 3), Danforth becomes swept up in the hysteria and believes Proctor and his wife to be ‘combined with Anti-Christ’ (Act 4).

The village’s prodigious fear of the devil and the ‘black allegiance’ (Act 4) that they so readily believed could overrun them is acute. Although Hale’s visitation to the town eased concerns momentarily as he referred to the Devil being ‘stripped of all his brute disguises’ (Act 1) by his skill set in detecting those afflicted, his sensibility is soon cast aside for the more frenzied ‘thundering wrath’ (Act 2) that Hale warns has been drawn down from heaven on the village; Hale becomes irrelevant and becomes akin to the livestock that wander the roads abandoned, sporting a ‘mad look’ (Act 4) as he makes his way from one accused to the next seeking a confession that will save their lives. The hysteria has gripped the town entirely and Hale notes that there are ‘orphans wandering from house to house, abandoned cattle bellow on the highroads, the stink of rotting crops hangs everywhere…’ (Act 4); Salem is in disarray and the last remaining few that possess logic and sense are set to be executed that very morning.

Fear/Mass Hysteria Quotes

‘Abby, we’ve got to tell, Witchery’s a hangin’ error, a hangin’ like they done in Boston two year ago! We must tell the truth, Abby! You’ll only be whipped for dancin’ and the other things!’ (Mary Warren is frightened about keeping the truth from the courts) Act 1

‘Nonsense! Mister, I have myself examined Tituba, Sarah Good and numerous others that have confessed to dealing with the Devil. They have confessed it!’
‘And why not, if they must hang for denying it? There are them that will swear to anything before they’ll hang; have you ever thought of that?’ (Hale and Proctor arguing about the accused) Act 2

Judgement and Justice

Judging yourself and judging one another is ubiquitous in Miller’s play. Naturally, in the strict Puritan community, the looming judgment from God sees the citizens of Salem living under constant threat of condemnation. Despite Hale’s keenness to apply theological arguments and collect confessions peaceably, he soon comes to realise that the Salem courtroom is not interested in dispensing justice but instead prides itself on imposing it. In this society, the Bible is the basis for the law and as Danforth subscribes in his soliloquy to the girls, ‘the law, based upon the Bible, and the Bible, writ by Almighty God, forbid the practice of witchcraft, and describe death as the penalty thereof. By likewise, children, the law and the Bible damn all bearers of false witness’ (Act 3). From this, we can see that it is his single motive that he should hunt down all those that are afflicted and not ‘flounder’ (Act 4) in his quest for them. The justice that the supreme government of the province intends for the citizens of Salem is a ‘hot fire [here]…[that] melts down all concealment’ (Act 3) and his solution to the situation in Act 4 is to place pressure on the weakest person and break a confession from them, telling us that he (representative of the judicial system) has lost his way and. in an effort to protect himself. will damn the prisoners regardless – ‘which of these in your [Parris] opinion may be brought to God? I will myself strive with them till dawn’ (Act 4).

Judging one another and oneself is seen as equally as burdensome. Proctor’s aversion to Elizabeth’s suspicion is infuriating and although in his eyes he has earned such suspicion, he believes he has tolerated it for too long and no exception has been made for his behaviour in the last seven months where he has ‘gone tiptoe in this house… since she [Abby] is gone’ (Act 2). Elizabeth acknowledges the truth that John judges himself in his actions more then any other and this can be seen in the little respect he has for himself. When Francis Nurse refuses to believe John’s confession to an affair with Abby, Proctor ‘wish[es] you [Francis] had some evil in you [him] that you [he] might know me [him]’ (Act 3) for the man that he truly is and has kept secret for seven months gone. Similarly, in his final act of redemption Proctor himself is stunned by the ability he has to stand strong under scrutiny and mount the scaffold as a truthful man, in possession of his good name –

Hale: ‘Man, you will hang! You cannot!’
Proctor: ‘I can. And there’s your first marvel that I can. You have made your magic now; for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but white enough to keep it from such dogs.’ (Act 4)

Judgement and Justice Quotes

‘My name is good in the village! I will not have it said my name is soiled! Goody Proctor is a gossiping liar!’ (Abby defending herself to Parris) Act 1

‘Spare me! You forget nothin’ and forgive nothin’. Learn charity, woman. I have gone tiptoe in this house all seven month since she is gone. I have not moved from there to there without I think to please you, and still an everlasting funeral marches round your heart. I cannot speak but I am doubted, every moment judged for lies, as though I come into court when I come into this house!’ (Proctor to Elizabeth) Act 2

‘I see now your spirit twists around the single error of my life, and I will never tear it free!’ (Proctor to Elizabeth) Act 2

‘Now believe me, Proctor, how heavy be the law, all its tonnage I do carry on my back tonight.’ (Cheever is made to arrest many people for questioning, including Elizabeth) Act 2

‘I have confessed myself! Is there not good penitence but it be made public? God does not need my name nailed upon the church! God sees my name; God knows how black my sins are!’ (Proctor when the court decided his false confession should be hung publicly) Act 4

Belonging and Diversity

It is a natural human instinct shared by many other living creatures to belong to a group, herd or tribe of some kind. There is safety in numbers; but belonging to a group has its obligations as well as benefits and depending on the group dynamics, sometimes the drawbacks of belonging to a group outweigh the advantages. The play is set in the tight Christian community network bound by strict moral, legal and religious beliefs and practices in a recently established pioneer settlement. People conform more or less to the agreed rules – they want to feel the security of belonging and they also fear the repercussions of straying from the Puritan way of life. There are however all kinds of personal conflicts between individuals and family simmering beneath the surface that are easily stirred up when a threat to the community is perceived.

Miller himself noted that by virtue of being Puritan, a religion based on maintaining Christian goodness and unity of purpose, it is inevitable that the society must exclude and prohibit anything that appears to undermine that cohesion. An example of this within the text is that of Sarah Osburn, the ‘drunk and half-witted’ (Act 2) citizen who is accused simply because she is different; likewise Sarah Good, an old beggar woman who is called into the court for questioning when Mary Warren believed that she had rendered her unwell when she had come begging at the door of the Proctors and she refused her charity. Notably, Mary makes mention that she ‘say [said] to myself [herself], I [she] must not accuse this woman, for she sleep in ditches, and so very old and poor’ (Act 2), an admittance by proxy that Sarah Good is excluded in the community and therefore a convenient target. That she and Osburn are named by Tituba, signifies that according to the hierarchy of Salem’s peer groups, these three (Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn) are at the bottom. Tituba is the minority in Salem. Miller’s stage notes take heed of the ‘colour of her skin and consequent low standing’ which inevitably lower her in society’s eyes and when she is placed under scrutiny in the bedroom of the afflicted Betty, notably not in a courthouse where all other accusers are given their trial, she is threatened to be ‘whip[ped] to [your] death’ (Act 1) by the village minister Parris. By openly acknowledging the race distinction when she cries out that the devil boasted ‘I [he] have white people belong to me [him] (Act 1), she contributes to the larger debate within the Salem township – one must either belong to the rest of the community or be on the outer and, therefore, in peril.

Proctor’s reticence to attend Church, although a bone of contention for Hale as he visits the accused to ascertain the ‘Christian character of this [the Proctors] house’ (Act 2), sets him up as an outsider. His reluctance to attend court is remarked upon by Hale, as though his aversion speaks of a more sinister issue –

Proctor: ‘I had not reckoned with goin’ into court. But if I must, I will.’
Hale: ‘Do you falter here?’
Proctor: ‘I falter nothing…’ (Act 2)

Belonging and Diversity Quotes

‘Now, look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that is all.’ (Abby threatening the girls) Act 1

‘I think you best send Reverend Hale back as soon as he come. This will set us all to arguin’ again in the society, and we thought to have peace this year.’ (Rebecca Nurse is concerned that Hale’s appearance in the town will cause mischief) Act 1

‘Your soul alone is the issue here, Mister, and you will prove its whiteness or you cannot live in a Christian country.’ (Danforth to Proctor) Act 4

Truth and Lies

The seventeenth-century Puritan worldview saw the battle between God and the Devil for Christian souls as a titanic reality, made apparent as an ever-present spiritual conflict between good and evil. Danforth is a constant reminder throughout the text of the vast quest Puritans undertook in order to expose the lies within their community when he observes the witch-trials have unearthed a ‘precise time’ (Act 3) where the townsfolk are no longer ‘in the dusky afternoon when evil mixed itself with good and befuddled the world’ (Act 3); Salem has moved under the eye of the Puritan men that would see it cleansed.

In an effort to assuage humanity, Miller condones some of the lies told within the play if they are for the betterment of others. This notion connects well with the historical context of when Miller wrote the play when much like Salem, accusers were pressed to name others and the temptation to alleviate some of the focus by mentioning another name was great. Like the HUAC trials, citizens were placed in situations where lies were the only viable option and as Proctor notes, the truth is not as appealing when it is only a lie that will save someone from the rope. Ironically, the only lie Elizabeth has ever told condemned the man she was trying to protect. Her reputation as a woman who ‘cannot lie’ (Act 3) sees her and her husband arrested and Abby set free in a monstrous display of the inefficacy of the justice system. Likewise, Proctor’s inclination to ‘sign myself [himself] to lies’ (Act 4) and sign his name to a document stating that he trafficked with the devil is done in an effort to save his neck. He, like Mary Warren in the earlier court scene, wrestles with inner conflict – a moral conundrum that sees their truths condemning them to hang but their lies saving them.

In contrast to this, holding onto the truth is seen through the character of Giles Corey, who was pressed to death in an effort to force him to name an informant. The ‘great stones’ (Act 4) that were placed upon his chest are metaphoric of the weight of ‘stand[ing] mute’ (Act 4) and lying in order to save others. In this way, Miller not only excuses lies but often celebrates them as a noble way to conduct oneself if the truth will prove to be more damaging.

Furthermore, ‘pleading the belly’ is a term used to describe the practice of women who were condemned to be executed but informed their captors that they were pregnant in an attempt to stall the sentence. The claim that Goody Good requested a delay on her execution because she was pregnant foreshadows Elizabeth’s later claim that she is with child as well, and despite being examined and there being ‘no sign of it’ (Act 3), Danforth observes that it is ‘too convenient to be credited’ (Act 3). Without solid proof, he informs Proctor that Elizabeth will be spared another year until she is delivered and audiences are left guessing whether this is a lie Elizabeth has devised to stall or if Proctor’s summation of her being unable to lie is correct and she is with child.

Truth and Lies Quotes

‘You are not wintry man. I know you, John… I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart! I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men! And now you bid me tear the light out of my eyes?’ (Abby pleads with Proctor) Act 1

‘Aye, sir. She [Mary Warren] swears now that she never saw Satan; nor any spirit, vague or clear, that Satan may have sent to hurt her. And she declares her friends are lying now.’ (Proctor to Danforth) Act 3

‘It does not escape me that this deposition may be devised to blind us… but if she speaks true, I bid you now drop your guile and confess your pretense, for a quick confession will go easier with you. Abigail Williams… is there any truth in this?’ (Danforth questions Abby one final time) Act 3

‘Let him [Proctor] give his lie. Quail not before God’s judgement in this, for it may well be that God damns a liar less that he that throws his life away for pride.’ (Hale to Elizabeth) Act 4

‘Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang!’ (Proctor as he is signing his false confession) Act 4