The Crucible Hysteria Quotes

MARY WARREN: So many time, Mr. Proctor, she come to this very door, beggin’ bread and a cup of cider – and mark this: whenever I turned her away empty, she mumbled…and I thought my guts would burst for two days after.
ELIZABETH: Mumbled! She may mumble if she’s hungry.
MARY WARREN: But what does she mumble? You must remember, Goody Proctor. Last month – a Monday, I think – she walked away, and I thought my guts would burst for two days after. Do you remember it?
ELIZABETH: Why – I do, I think, but – .
MARY WARREN: And so I told that to Judge Hathorne, and he asks her so. "Goody Good," says he, "what curse do you mumble that this girl must fall sick after turning you away?"…Aye, but then Judge Hathorne say, "Recite for us your commandments!" – and of all the ten she could not say a single one. She never knew no commandments, and they had her in a flat lie!

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. Mary Warren tells the Proctors that the latest woman convicted of witchcraft Goody (or Sarah) Good was condemned after Mary’s evidence. The unfortunate woman "mumbled" something that caused Mary pain and then couldn’t say her commandments. In Salem hysteria and fear of the Devil is so strong that a corrupt justice system has abandoned all reason and fairness. The court makes decisions of life and death without proper evidence or proof. People like homeless woman Goody Good, old and poor and socially marginalized, become easy targets for accusations of witchcraft. In the theocracy that governs in Salem, she is yet another victim of Puritan intolerance.
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