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Alessandra Bassani

Mr. Bless

English Foundations II Honors

23 January 2017

The Role that Psychology Played in the Salem Witch Trials

Man is the only critter who feels the need to label things as flowers and weeds

(Anonymous). In The Crucible, Arthur Miller reveals the troubles that occurred from living in a

strict theocratic society, where any suspicious behavior was ruled as unchristian. During the

seventeenth century in Salem, Massachusetts, innocent people were killed if they were thought to

be bewitched. The accused were first brought to court, where they either confessed to seeing the

devil and spared their life, or resisted and were hanged. Abigail Williams, the main antagonist,

and the other girls are the key players in these trials, since they continually accuse people of

inflicting their spirits on them. They cause many people to die for unnecessary reasons, as they

all believe they were experiencing the symptoms of witchcraft. The psychology of the Salem

girls in Millers The Crucible, had a profound impact on the way they respond to situations

during the witch trials, causing innocent people to be falsely accused.

The first signs of mass hysteria are revealed early on in The Crucible, when Betty and

Ruth, two young girls, experience similar symptoms after dancing in the woods. This is due to

the fear they feel when they are discovered engaging in unchristian behavior. Parris, Salems

minister, does not know why his daughter Betty is acting this way, and he questions then why

can she not move herself since midnight? This child is desperate! (10). He does not understand

what is preventing her from waking up. Ruth is also experiencing this, and Mrs. Putnam, Ruths

mother, claims that she ...never waked this morning, but her eyes open and she walks (13).
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Mrs. Putnam does not believe that it is of natural causes, but of witchery, since ...the Devils

touch is heavier than sick (13). Ruth has similar symptoms as Betty, since they both cannot

wake, however, Bettys eyes are open and Ruths are closed. This is due to mass hysteria, since

they both are dancing in the woods, and then have the same symptoms. In the Analysis of Mass

Hysteria, it describes the factors that can cause mass hysteria to occur. In relation to what Betty

and Ruth are experiencing, it could be due to emotional stress which made the girls elaborate

the basic effects of a lesion (Mersky). They fear what would happen to them as a consequence

of dancing, so this stress causes them to experience pain. Betty and Ruth exhibit like symptoms

after participating in unchristian behavior, which is due to the fear and stress from dancing in the

woods.

Abigail, Betty, and Tituba all believe that the devil is afflicting its spirit on them, which

causes them to confess to dealing with the devil. This happens when Reverend Hale comes to

Salem to help wake Betty, since he believes that she might be under the influence of the devil.

His examination does not lead to any results however, and he questions Abigail about exactly

what happened in the woods. She claims I never called him! Tituba, Tituba... (42). Abigail

tells Hale that Tituba, a Barbarian maid, was the one who called the devil, which makes Tituba

look guilty of doing witchcraft while making Abigail innocent. Tituba denies that she wanted to

work for him, and said No, no, dont hang Tituba! I tell him I dont desire to work for him, sir

(44). By confessing this, Hale is going to help Tituba remove the devils spirit which will free

her from being under the influence of the devil. Seeing how easy the confession is, and how it

erases Titubas consequences from dancing in the forest, Abigail declares that she wants to

confess herself. She also feels like she has influence from the devil and wants to become pure in

Gods eyes. This all happens because Tituba and Betty were able to come free of the devil, and
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then Abigail senses she is under his influence as well. Mass hysteria was affecting Abigail,

Tituba, and Betty, because they all want to be saved from the devil after seeing each other

become free.

In Act II, Abigail, Tituba, and Betty confessing to dealing with the devil sparks

accusations, because they notify Hale of other people that they believe they saw with the devil.

When Betty wakes up she claims she saw ...George Jacobs with the devil and ...Goody Howe

with the devil (48). She and Abigail keep accusing people which makes more people guilty of

witchcraft. However, the real reason for making these accusations, are escaping the punishments

they have from dancing in the woods. If they claim that they are inflicted by the devil, they will

not have to deal with the consequences for their behavior. In the History of the Witch Trials, it

states that this induced panic and hysteria had quickly sparked a massive witch hunt and

Titubas confession is the main reason why the Salem Witch Trials happened (Brooks). Once

Tituba confesses to dealing with the devil, her responsibilities were swept away, which causes

the girls to follow her. Betty, Abigail, and Tituba pretend to open themselves up from the devil,

when they actually just falsely accuse people of witchery to escape the consequences of dancing

in the woods.

Abigail Williams loathes Elizabeth Proctor, and she takes the first chance she gets to

claim witchery upon her. This all starts when John Proctor has an affair with Abigail, which

gives her hope that they can be together. John tells her it will never happen again, and he ...will

cut off [his] hand before [hell] ever reach for [her] again, however Abigail still thinks there

may be a chance (23). If Abigail claims witchery, Elizabeth will be hanged and she will be able

to live with Proctor without any consequences. This causes Cheever to come with a warrant from

the judge, claiming Elizabeth sent her spirit out to hurt Abby. Cheever wants to search the house
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for any poppets that Elizabeth might keep, and when he finds one, a needle is stuck under the

skirt. During dinner, Abigail Williams fell to the floor, and ...stuck two inches in the flesh of her

belly, [Paris] draw a needle out and she said that Proctors wifes familiar spirit pushed it in

(74). Mary Warren makes the poppet for Elizabeth Proctor, while Abigail is sitting next to her in

court. Abigail sees Mary stick the needle into it, and then stabs herself and claims Elizabeths

spirit does it. Abigail knows that the needle was stuck under the poppets skirt, so it is a perfect

way for her to charge Elizabeth for something she did not do. In Analysis of Hysteria, it

describes how past events might be linked to mass hysteria, because an organic illness might

take effect through the repression of a conflict (Mersky). John Proctor is not allowing Abigail

be with him anymore, which causes her to feel something she did not know how to react with.

Abigail William accuses Elizabeth Proctor of sending her spirit out on her, when she is really

just trying to eliminate Elizabeth from interfering in her life with John Proctor.

While Mary Warren is trying to defend Elizabeth Proctor from witchery, the girls claim

that Mary sends her spirit out on them. This happens when John Proctor brings Mary Warren

into court to present her deposition on witchcraft. In it, she claims that she has lied about seeing

spirits, and all the other girls have lied as well. When Judge Danforth tells the other girls about

this, they declare that Mary is lying and that her spirit is upon them. Abigail says, a wind, a cold

wind, has come (108). Mercy Lewis also responds by saying Your Honor, I freeze!, which

causes Susanna Walcott to repeat I freeze, I freeze! as well (108,109). Abigail tries to defend

herself from questioning, by claiming that she felt a cold wind. After the other girls see Abigail

doing this, they also claim the same thing as a distraction. Psychology is playing a role in this,

because they feel like they are experiencing the same symptoms when they really arent. In

Unholy Mess, Brandt reports how mass hysteria affects the girls. He states the ...other girls in
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the village began feeling the same thing. The contortions and choking the Parris girls were

suffering from worsened (Brandt). The cause of this is conversion hysteria--when anxiety is

converted into physical symptoms (Brandt). Judge Danforth is questioning the girls about

what really causes them to cry witchery, and the anxiety they feel about the truth being

uncovered, creates physical symptoms. They use it as a way to cover up what is really going on,

so the girls can continue to live their life through lies. After Abigail feels like Marys spirit is

upon her, the other girls claim they feel this as well, which is done to mask the truth about the

accusations.

Mary Warren goes into the court to help John Proctor free his wife, however she turns on

him after seeing how her friends acted. This occurs when Mary is trying to defend herself from

her friends, who claim that she sends her spirit on them. They declare they see a bird, as a

representation of Marys spirit, and all the girls claim the bird is trying to hurt them. Mary

defends herself for some time, but then goes against Proctor and sides with her friends. She states

that Proctor is working with the devil, and [hes] the Devils man! (118). She decides to agree

with the girls, because she does not wish to go [Proctors] way no more, since [she] love[s]

God, [she] bless[es] God (119). She wants forgiveness from Abigail and says [shell] never

hurt [her] more! (Miller 119). Mary lets the girls convince her that the devil is upon them, and

this causes her to go against Proctor, who she originally went to the court with to help. This

could have been caused by ...the unpleasant psychological implications of a physical illness, the

discomfort and the fear attaching to it, which causes Mary ...to elaborate an existing symptom

or to produce a fresh one (Mersky). She is uneasy about going against her friends, and this fear

leads her to the sense the devil is upon her. Since her friends are also claiming it, it makes it
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more convincing. Mary Warren tells the judges that John Proctor is inflicting his spirit on her,

and she joins her friends once again.

Nathaniel Cary wrote an account on his wife Elizabeth Cary who was charged for

witchcraft, similarly to how Abigail and the girls accused people in The Crucible, which is

recorded in the official Salem witchcraft papers. In this he describes how Elizabeth was said to

have bewitched girls of relative close ages, which include ages similar to Abigail Williams and

the other girls. The girls also claim that Elizabeth inflicted an Indian. Nathaniel states ...I

observed, that the afflicted were two Girls of about Ten Years old, and about two or three other,

of about eighteen (SWP 29.2). The girls who claim that Elizabeth is bewitching them, are close

in age, which is where mass hysteria occurs. Not only did the girls claim that they were inflicted

by Elizabeths spirit, but when The Justices asked the Girls, who afflicted the Indian? they

answered she (meaning my Wife) (SWP 29.2). Since they all claim this, they are experiencing

similar symptoms which is due to a psychogenic illness. The girls believe they were dealing with

spirits, when they really were not. In the Witch Scares Begin, it states that the girls probably

were aware that there was plenty to be afraid of in Massachusetts at the time, which causes

them to have fear (Roach). The best way to deal with this fear was to blame it on some else, so

the girls would not have to deal with it. In The Analysis of Hysteria, it explains how having

knowledge can cause more symptoms, because psychological stress would more easily produce

a form of illness of which patients had some knowledge rather than one of which they had no

knowledge (Mersky). If the girls knew what was going on at the time, this could have caused

more stress to build up which would lead them to exhibit symptoms of an illness. In the official

court case, Nathaniel Cary talks about his wife who was charged with bewitching the girls and an

Indian, which occurred with girls of close ages.

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Students from schools in Massachusetts experienced similar behaviors as one other, like

the girls in Salem, and at first the cause was unknown. The schools were Essex Agricultural and

Technical High School and North Shore Technical High School, and the students began to

become affected by a mysterious illness. This was also the case at a school in LeRoy, where

students had the same symptoms of vocal tics and hiccups. This was solved when ...the

Department was finally forced to admit their diagnosis of mass hysteria publicly

(Bartholomew). Mass hysteria was believed to be the cause of making the students exhibit

similar symptoms. Bartholomew also explains that outbreaks of mass psychogenic illness

typically occur in closed social settings and the symptoms spread when others see or hear

those affected (Bartholomew). This is the same thing that occurred in Salem during the witch

trials, since it ...represent[s] the same malady that affected students in LeRoy and modern-day

Danvers however it spread in a different way (Bartholomew). The research at LeRoy said that

social media helped to spread the symptoms among children, but in Salem ...they appear in a

different social and cultural guise (Bartholomew). There was a progression of how mass

hysteria spread since 1692, from superstition to social media, however it still affected people and

is prevalent many years later. The outbreaks of mass hysteria that occurred in Danvers and

LeRoy, suggest the same thing that happened in Salem, Massachusetts, however the way they

spread differed.

In Millers The Crucible, the witch trials are spreading throughout the town due to the

girls who are accusing people of witchery. They do this because they believe that people are

inflicting their spirit on them, which causes them to experience similar symptoms. The real

reason for these symptoms is because of a psychogenic illness that is spreading throughout their

friend group. It starts with one girl, Abigail, who believes that a spirit was upon her, and in a
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short time the whole group of girls feel the same symptoms. Because of this, more people are

accused of bewitching the girls, and more people are hanged for false accusations. This was

created because any unordinary behavior in Salem, Massachusetts during 1692 was ruled as

witchery. This did not allow people to express themselves, since they would be considered a

witch. The anonymous quote makes perfect sense in Salem during the seventeenth century,

where there was a strict theocratic society. People were ready to claim witchery if anything

happened that was unlike what they were used to, which disrupted the peace in the town. The

psychology of the girls impacted the way they acted during the witch trials, and the lives of many

innocent people.
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Works Cited

Bartholomew, Robert E. "Mass Hysteria At Old Salem Village." Skeptic 19.2 (2014): 12.

MainFile,

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mfi&AN=96430233&authtype=

cookie,cpid&custid=s5405384&site=eds-live. Web. 23 Dec. 2016.

Brandt, Anthony. "An Unholy Mess." American History 49.5 (2014): 34. MasterFILE Premier,

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=98928484&authtype=

cookie,cpid&custid=s5405384&site=eds-live. Web. 23 Dec. 2016.

Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice. "History of the Salem Witch Trials." History of Massachusetts.

History of Massachusetts Blog, 18 Aug. 2011,

http://historyofmassachusetts.org/the-salem-witch-trials/. Web. 23 Dec. 2016.

Elizabeth Cary (SWP/No. 29.2). The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcriptions of the

Court Records in Three Volumes Ed. Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum. U Virginia,

2010, salem.lib.virginia.edu/texts/transcripts.html/. Accessed 7 Dec.

Merskey, Harold. The Analysis Of Hysteria : Understanding Conversion And Dissociation.

London: Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1995. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 9

Dec. 2016.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1976. Print.

Roach, Marilynne K. "The Witch Scare Begins." Cobblestone 37.7 (2016): 11. MAS Ultra -

School Edition,

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ulh&AN=117957325&authtype

=cookie,cpid&custid=s5405384&site=eds-live. Web. 23 Dec. 2016.

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